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MEDIA

Former CNN president Jeff Zucker, who was unceremoniously removed from his position some 18 months ago.

Notes on CNN (& That Zucker Story)

I didn’t want to write about ‘that Variety story,’ largely because it mentions me. But it’s all everyone is talking about, so here goes… Plus some news on CNN’s prime time strategy and an update on a former Zucker deputy.
Dylan Byers • July 27, 2023
Dylan Byers • July 23, 2023
Life After Licht Isn’t a Picnic
CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins in 2018. The network’s primetime strategy remains tethered to Chris Licht’s decision to install Collins—an impressive political correspondent, but an inexperienced anchor—as the 9 p.m. host.
Yes, yes: CNN’s troublesome leader is gone, but a low-lying anxiety about the future nevertheless remains quite intact.
Dylan Byers • July 19, 2023
The Politico Animal
John Harris is return to Politico as the outlet’s first-ever global editor-in-chief.
The return of John Harris to the top of Politico signals that the scrappiness and the ambitions of the old days may be back again—and now turbo-charged by Axel Springer’s war chest, and their own deep desire for influence.
No one anticipated that Bob Iger was going to go on national television and effectively hang a “For Sale” sign on ABC’s door.
Dylan Byers • July 14, 2023
Iger’s Fire Sale Stream of Consciousness
Scenes from Sun Valley as Disney wades further into its “everything’s on the table” era.
Dylan Byers • July 12, 2023
Notes from Sun Valley
Andreessen’s weird screed, the Iger news ricochet, and all the intrigue and high school cliques.
ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro.
Dylan Byers • July 5, 2023
Panic Inside Bristol
Yes, everyone knows that ESPN has been quietly downsizing for years, but the recent talent purge highlights the growing anxiety around the business’s transformation. And yet many in the industry fear the worst is yet to come.
Dylan Byers • June 29, 2023
Tucker’s New Mediaco
Life inside the Fox News bunker, the Watters-Hannity-Gutfeld Cerberus, and news on Tucker Carlson’s new media ambitions.
A CNN sale could be a bonanza for Zaz and for WBD, his publicly traded leveraged buyout, which has some $45 billion of net debt.
Dylan Byers & William D. Cohan • June 23, 2023
Is Zaz Ready to Enter CNN Deal Mode?
As the Allen & Co. conference beckons, and CNN remains leaderless, bankers and executives are wondering if Zaz is ready to seriously consider selling the network in order to service WBD’s debt and excite the equity market (and probably avoid a headache or two). And, if not now, when?
Following the Dominion suit and Tucker’s exit from Fox, Baier’s journalistic bona fides now seem more valuable than ever.
Dylan Byers • June 21, 2023
Bret Hot American Summer
Baier’s surprisingly punchy Trump interview has briefly elevated his stature at the precise moment when Fox News is more insecure than ever. Now it looks like he’s in for a tidy little raise.
Rashida Jones, President of MSNBC.
Dylan Byers • June 16, 2023
Raiders of the Lost Art
News and notes from the cable news industry in the wake of indictments, defenestration, deplatforming, anxiety, and linear decline agita.
Dylan Byers • June 14, 2023
A Tale of Two Fred Ryans
Fred Ryan’s tenure atop The Washington Post Company can be split into two: the Bezos-fueled resurrection years and then the post-Baron, post-Trump malaise. So what comes next?
Chris Licht was deposed on Wednesday, during an early morning walk with Zaslav in the smoke-saturated air of Central Park.
Dylan Byers • June 9, 2023
In the Afterlicht
CNN staffers are cautiously optimistic about the potential for a leadership reset, even if they are also clear-eyed about the reality that Zaz & Co. haven’t lost any of their conviction in the mission to re-center the network, or that the cable TV business is getting smaller every day.
Chris Licht
Dylan Byers • June 7, 2023
Licht’s Out
The embattled CNN C.E.O. will be leaving the company, and longtime beloved top executive Amy Entelis will steady the ship until Zaz picks a new leader. It’s been a hell of a week since The Atlantic story dropped, and yet here goes another reinvention.
David Leavy, the newly implemented C.O.O. at CNN and a longtime member of the Zaslav braintrust.
Dylan Byers • June 2, 2023
Zaz Brings in the Pain Sponge
It’s been a nightmarish 48 hours at CNN: first, Zaslav’s lieutenant Dave Leavy was brought in as C.O.O., marginalizing Chris Licht’s authority; then came that brutal Tim Alberta dissertation in The Atlantic. Hudson Yards is alight with fresh agony. But is the worst over?
Graydon Carter, Bob Iger, and Jeff Zucker.
Dylan Byers • June 1, 2023
The Old Men and the C-List
An elegy for media’s old guard in an age of generational change.
To level-set, Jeff Bezos spent twice as much on this new 417-foot, Sanchez-adorned yacht as he did on the Post.
Dylan Byers • May 24, 2023
Bezos at Sea, The Kaitlan Experiment & Murdoch Succession Fantasies
Insights and observations on what the chattering classes are chatting about in advance of the holiday weekend.
jimmy pitaro
Dylan Byers • May 19, 2023
ESPN’s Brave New World
Disney’s announcement that it will send ESPN off on its own D.T.C. journey introduces a host of provocations for the industry: namely, is this the true beginning of the end of cable, and perhaps of ESPN as we once knew it, too?
“We know Trump and his tendencies, everyone does,” Christiane Amanpour said. “He just seizes the stage and dominates, no matter how much flack the moderator tries to aim at the incoming.”
Dylan Byers • May 18, 2023
When It Rains, It Amanpours
Notes on the ongoing fallout from a cable news makeover.