MEDIA
Dylan Byers
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October 29, 2025
The Great Weiss Whale
Bari’s takeover of CBS News, and her direct line to David Ellison, is sending a clear message: This is Bari’s CBS now, layoffs and all. The big question is what talent she’ll get to join her. Anderson Cooper will be her first test.
Dylan Byers
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October 24, 2025
The Longwell Game
Since the early days of Trump 1.0, The Bulwark has evolved into a hysteria-free, self-sustaining home planet for conservatives-in-exile, where the ethos, according to publisher Sarah Longwell, holds that democracy cannot be saved “from behind a paywall.” Now, she’s contemplating a Free Press-level exit, too.
Dylan Byers
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October 22, 2025
Makan America Great Again
Now that David Zaslav has finally admitted Warner Bros. Discovery is for sale, the Ellisons will lean on Paramount’s newly recruited chief legal officer, Makan Delrahim, to potentially articulate their antitrust talking points.
Dylan Byers
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October 17, 2025
CNN’s Sequelitis
The imminent launch of Mark Thompson’s “All Access” streaming service recalls all the familiar questions that plagued CNN+: Can subscriptions save CNN from its post-linear malaise? Does anyone really want this? And is it all too little, too late?
Dylan Byers
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October 15, 2025
Where the RedBird Grows
Besides chipping in $2 billion for Skydance’s Paramount takeover, RedBird Capital’s Gerry Cardinale is preparing to take over The Telegraph and shuffling deck chairs among London’s newspaper ranks.
Dylan Byers
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October 10, 2025
Bari Poppins
With the week’s short-order wrangling of two former secretaries of State, Bari Weiss is already proving she can get things done at CBS News. But her management of layoffs and resurrecting the ‘Evening News’ will be the next tests in her very new assignment.
Dylan Byers
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October 8, 2025
Bari, Bari, Quite Contrary
The overwrought media reaction to Weiss’s first days at CBS News would seem to validate the Ellison thesis for putting her in charge. But there’s plenty of cautious optimism inside the newsroom, too. “Having a new force come in isn’t the worst thing,” said one source. “Anyone who is acting like CBS News internally is aghast is not capturing the actual mood.”
Dylan Byers
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October 3, 2025
You Only Live Weiss
After David Ellison’s yearlong courtship, Free Press founder Bari Weiss will finally begin leading CBS News on Monday. But can an editor who rose on her center-right-ish criticism of the mainstream media find her way now that she’s once again a part of it?
Dylan Byers
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October 1, 2025
Paramount’s Tech Makeover & Kushner’s Saudi Game
David Ellison is evangelizing superior tech—Oracle-powered, naturally—as a way to transform his newly acquired Paramount into a 21st century world-beater with a better product and next-gen algorithms. Easier said than done…
Dylan Byers
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September 26, 2025
Walden, Revisited
The Kimmel maelstrom touched all corners of the known media universe. But for the Toscana crowd, one question rose above the rest: Did it shake up the Iger succession race?
Dylan Byers
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September 24, 2025
Baribucks
Bari Weiss, the Times defector turned Free Press founder, is now poised to cash a giant check from David Ellison and seize the reins at CBS News, sending staffers running for the smelling salts.
Dylan Byers & Julia Alexander
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September 19, 2025
There’s Something About Meredith
A defiantly optimistic conversation with Meredith Kopit Levien, C.E.O. of The New York Times Company, on buying The Athletic, the possibility of a Times-powered A.I., and why it’s still all about the news.
Dylan Byers
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September 12, 2025
The Book of David
As he prepares a potential all-cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, David Ellison is aiming to reshape Hollywood and the news business on a Murdochian scale.
Dylan Byers
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September 10, 2025
All My Children
The Murdoch family’s long-running power struggle ended with Lachlan establishing control of Fox and News Corp, underscoring Rupert’s enduring leverage—and leaving James estranged, still defined by opposition to his father’s empire.
Dylan Byers
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September 5, 2025
The Times Enters Its Post-Text Era
The paper of record is quickly evolving from a lifestyle product into a walled-garden multimedia platform, turning its biggest stars—Ezra, Swan, Maggie—into talking heads, and transforming itself into CNN faster than CNN can become the Times.
Dylan Byers
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September 3, 2025
The Bari Market
With Paramount securely in his pocket, David Ellison is on the verge of acquiring Bari Weiss’s The Free Press and tossing her the keys to CBS News. The deal is on the 1-yard line, I’m told.
Dylan Byers
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August 29, 2025
ESPN, NYT & The Future of D.T.C.
A surprising conversation with Andrew Rosen, the digital media savant, on how the Times and ESPN’s digital paths diverged, and who’s getting in right in the long run.