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MEDIA

Ben Smith

Semafor Is Almost Ready for Prime Time

Some Friday notes on the hottest topics in our media industry: Semafor, The Washington Post, and the Today show.
Dylan Byers • September 9, 2022
Dylan Byers • September 8, 2022
Licht’s Teacher’s Pet Syndrome
Brianna Keilar
After Stelter’s ouster and the Harwood sunset, many in CNN wonder if Brianna Keilar is modulating her tone to satisfy the boss.
Eriq Gardner • September 6, 2022
Anderson Cooper’s Secret Deposition & CNN’s “Triad” Misfire
anderson cooper
The media remains obsessed with Dominion’s $1.6 billion libel lawsuit against Fox News. But that suit obscures even more complex litigation involving CNN, Zucker, and Anderson Cooper’s sealed testimony about the network’s “Triad.”
Chuck Todd
Dylan Byers • September 2, 2022
The September of Stelteritis
Various and numerous personnel changes across the network landscape, from Reliable Sources to Meet the Press, all point toward a single cruel reality: the industry can’t program its ways out of the apparent and very real Linear Big Bang. It’s here.
"Candace" Hosted By Candace Owens
Tina Nguyen • August 24, 2022
The Chip & Joanna of MAGA America?
Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing have gone from millennial alt-right content jockeys to full-blown influencers to, truly, mini-kingpins of a billion-dollar MAGA D.T.C. media business. Is the only thing that can stop them their own ambition?
Dan Loeb
William D. Cohan • August 24, 2022
Dan Loeb’s Chapek Punch List
When you cut through it, all Dan Loeb really really wants Bob Chapek to do is slash Disney’s bloated costs and pay down the company’s $50 billion of debt. And maybe shake up the board. And maybe spin ESPN. And, oh wait…
Dylan Byers • August 18, 2022
The Brian Stelter Show Is Over
Brian Stelter, the CNN host and inveterate newsletter O.G. and perceived Jeff Zucker mini-me, is the latest casualty of the Licht era. His undeniably successful tenure is a powerful metaphor for the media industry’s past, present, and future.
Dylan Byers & Julia Alexander • August 17, 2022
Chapek Second-Guessing & Zaz Whispers
The inside conversation in Hollywood and on Wall Street, about Warners’ synergies, HBO layoffs, and the activist investor putting Disney on notice.
A.G. Sulzberger
William D. Cohan • August 14, 2022
Barbarians at the Times
More notes on ValueAct’s Sulzberger love tap, plus Rivian’s latest correction, and Elon’s Twitter liquidity headfake.
Kopit Levien
Dylan Byers • August 12, 2022
The ‘Times’ & Its Times
A little tickle from an activist investor throws into stark relief the Times Company’s subscriber journey and portfolio growth—especially when juxtaposed with its peer set.
VandeHei
Dylan Byers • August 10, 2022
Axios in Wonderland
How VandeHei, Allen, Schwartz & Co. remade media in a town that doesn’t like to remake anything. Plus the latest media schadenfreude enveloping Semafor.
WBD C.E.O. David Zaslav, at the end of the 9 a.m. call, described CNN as an “unmoored boat.” But, he said, “this is our company, our boat. We all have an oar.”
Dylan Byers • August 5, 2022
Zaz & The Art of Investor Maintenance
In the earnings call heard round the world, David Zaslav punctured a wound in the entertainment industry’s top-line subscriber-growth fetish. Now he needs to perform the ultimate superhero task: make huge hits while cutting huge costs.
Chris Licht
Dylan Byers • August 3, 2022
Licht’s Hearts and Minds Campaign
A few months into his tenure, Licht is trying to convince Republicans not to boycott CNN, just as Walter Isaacson did two decades ago. Some things never change. But can CNN?
Dylan Byers & Theodore Schleifer • July 29, 2022
An Alleged Affair to Remember
A close reading of the media melee over what did and didn’t happen between Sergey Brin, Elon Musk, and Nicole Shanahan reveals the second order consequences, near and far term.
Chris Cuomo
Dylan Byers • July 28, 2022
Cuomo’s Revenge & Condé’s Numbers
“It’s not a good look,” one of Cuomo’s former colleagues told me. Plus, notes on Remnick’s remarkable run.
greek abs
Dylan Byers • July 22, 2022
The Tao of Ari’s Abs & Licht’s Deck Chairs
Notes on the yacht-hosing photo of our age, the latest dish on Apple’s battle with Amazon over N.F.L. rights, and the Chris Licht narrative shift.
Chris Licht
Dylan Byers • July 20, 2022
Chris Licht’s New No. 2
Three months after taking the reins of a Zucker-less CNN, Licht is appointing a “head of editorial” to effectively function as the newsroom’s new Zucker, or the closest thing to him, and allowing himself to focus on the bigger-picture questions. Such as: Who will helm CNN’s new morning show?
Joe Biden and MBS
Dylan Byers • July 15, 2022
Biden’s WaPo Headache
The president, whose polling has hit a Trump-like nadir, has his fair share of nemeses: the far left, Joe Manchin, Trump and DeSantis, and now perhaps the hometown paper, The Washington Post.