MEDIA
Dylan Byers
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October 28, 2022
The Chris Licht Gut Punch
CNN staffers are in a panic over forthcoming layoffs, pining for Zucker, and waiting for the next shoe to drop. The party line is “right-sizing,” but Licht and Zaslav’s new approach—a smaller digital footprint, fewer original series and films, cross-functional consolidation—appears to reflect a growing delta between the CNN they inherited and what they want it to be.
Dylan Byers
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October 21, 2022
Tapper Troubles & Semafornication
News and notes on the industry’s inside conversation: a check-in on the Tapper experiment, Murdoch curiosities, and Semafor’s launch.
Dylan Byers
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October 20, 2022
The Murdoch Succession Moment Arrives
New reporting on Lachlan’s ascension, Rupert’s merger rationale and ‘Journal’-Fox rollup fears.
Dylan Byers
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October 14, 2022
A Wrinkle at ‘The Times’
Friday news and notes on the inside conversation coursing through the media business, from Times grumblings to Tapper’s primetime performance.
Dylan Byers
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October 13, 2022
Timesism & Its Discontents
The New York Times is stronger than ever—lightyears ahead of the Post in subscription, acquisitive, by far the most influential beacon of journalism on Earth. And yet a string of amicable high-profile journalistic departures has led some Media Cassandras to shriek. Big deal? No deal? Well, it’s the Times, after all, so it’s a thing.
Matthew Belloni
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October 10, 2022
The Dark Legacy of Nikki Finke
Finke presented herself as a no-bullshit reporter who kept Hollywood moguls honest, and we all found her copy completely irresistible. But she perverted the profession by blackmailing sources, often targeting the weak, and weaponizing the internet to push her bile—and her own agenda.
Dylan Byers
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October 7, 2022
More MSNBC Murmurs & CNN Fantasy Football
News and notes emanating from the media industry on a fall Friday: the Semafor pre-launch buzz, Punchbowl rumors, the Licht vision, and the MSNBC pickle.
Dylan Byers
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October 5, 2022
MSNBC’s Wagnerian Opera
Alex Wagner’s early ratings suggest that the MSNBC audience may be actively tuning her out. It’s an invitation for Tapper and Licht to quit the apparent mutual disarmament pact around 9 p.m. and take back the hour.
Dylan Byers
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September 28, 2022
The Treaty of Paris
What to do when a living legend wants to keep working while her true natural heir is a future legend sowing his oats, and eager to expand his footprint? And when there is some history between the two, and the future of a historic brand hangs in the balance? Only at Condé Nast…
Tina Nguyen
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September 28, 2022
The Ghost of William F. Buckley
Jonah Goldberg, the National Review Online alum and Fox News apostate, discusses how the G.O.P. got snowed, DeSantis vs. Trump, the Mar-a-Lago fallacy, and his own post-NRO afterlife as a burgeoning media mogul.
Dylan Byers
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September 23, 2022
Leave It to Tapper
The temporary nature of Tapper’s move to 9 p.m. masks the careful machinations behind the announcement: Licht wants Tapper to be the permanent host of the 9 p.m. hour, and the face of his CNN.
Dylan Byers
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September 21, 2022
The WaPo’s Post-Trump Blues Continue
During the Trump years, the fantastic owner-editor Bezos-Baron package stripped the Post of its Politico-purge complacency and vied to make it the true national paper of record. So what happens now?
Julia Alexander & Dylan Byers
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September 20, 2022
CNN+ Reveries & Zaz’s I.P. Strategy
A frank conversation on the hottest topics in streaming: Warner Bros. Discovery’s war chest, CNN’s future, Wall Street’s demands, and the future of ESPN.
Eriq Gardner
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September 19, 2022
A Washington Legal Scandal for the MAGA Media Era
A lawsuit targeting James O’Keefe’s undercover sting-video tactics aims to resolve once and for all whether Project Veritas is practicing journalism or just political dirty tricks.
Dylan Byers
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September 16, 2022
When Life Gives You Lemon…
CNN’s new morning show concept, led by Don Lemon with Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, is a “mass appeal play” aligned with Chris Licht’s less-partisan strategy (while conveniently nudging Brianna Keilar off center stage). It also evidences the hard new reality for linear media: In a post-Maddow, post-Cuomo world, it’s no longer all about primetime.
Tina Nguyen
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September 14, 2022
Doug Mastriano’s Snowflake Strategy
After crashing through a G.O.P. primary, Mastriano’s fringey brand of Q-inflected, hyper-MAGA politics has been a harder sell with general election voters. The Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate hasn’t made things easier by insulating himself from the very media outlets he needs to win.
Dylan Byers
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September 14, 2022
VandeHei in the Arena
Weeks after Axios’s $525 million sale, Washington’s most influential media C.E.O. recalls some lessons from the Politico era and Axios’s ascent. And then offers some advice for the next generation of D.C. disruptors, like Punchbowl and Semafor.