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MEDIA

wendy mcmahon

McMahon Overboard

With the high-wire tensions between Paramount and the tormentor-in-chief at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it’s easy to view the exit of CBS News C.E.O. Wendy McMahon as fourth-estate martyrdom. But maybe she just wasn’t very good at her job.
Dylan Byers • May 21, 2025
Julia Alexander • May 16, 2025
Laz and Zaz Ponder Life After Cable
mark lazarus
To survive as solo companies, Versant and the seemingly inevitable WBD spinco will need to transform their news media brands—MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, etcetera—into something more than mere cable channels. Is the New York Times playbook already obsolete?
Dylan Byers • May 14, 2025
The Hunter Biden-Tapper Face-Off
Jake Tapper
Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, Bidenworld’s cover-up, and the dire consequences for the Democratic Party, as reported in ‘Original Sin,’ have stirred up the Beltway blame game and dragged the former president out for a sad redemption tour, while raising the question of what exactly went down between Jake Tapper and Hunter Biden at Super Bowl LII.
David Zaslav
Dylan Byers • May 9, 2025
The CNN Endgame
The latest news regarding Zaz’s desire to spin out his cable assets, including CNN, raises all kinds of existential questions for the iconic news network as it prepares to walk the plank. Plus, news and notes on Tapper’s battle with the Bidens.
Jimmy Pitaro
Dylan Byers • May 7, 2025
A New ESPN Chapter & Versant Notes
At next week’s upfronts, NBCU’s Mark Lazarus will be selling the synergistic post-linear potential of Versant, formerly known as SpinCo, while ESPN prepares Flagship for its maiden voyage.
shari redstone
Dylan Byers • May 2, 2025
Passing Redstones
Facing a Trump lawsuit, massive debts, and a $400 million kill fee if the Skydance sale falls through, Redstone has privately discussed settling with the president for as much as $20 million. In fact, according to sources close to the company, she’ll likely have to pay much more. “Shari has to make this deal,” said one source close to the principals. “There is no plan B.”
Shari Redstone
Dylan Byers • April 30, 2025
The Righteous Redstone
Amid Trump’s legal torture of CBS, Shari Redstone has played the role of a spineless placater—a desperate seller eager to settle and liquidate her position in the family heirloom. But her annoyance over CBS News’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict seems to be real—and so are her attempts to meddle with the newsroom’s independence.
Bill Owens
Dylan Byers • April 25, 2025
Scott Pelley’s Cri de Coeur & Owens Exit Theories
News and notes on the aftermath of the ‘60 Minutes’ saga.
Olivia Nuzzi, Ryan Lizza
Dylan Byers • April 23, 2025
Life of Ryan
In the dun-colored afterglow of Nuzzi-gate, Ryan Lizza is trash-talking his former employer and striking out on his own with a Substack and a notable disregard for nondisparagement clauses—while Nuzzi knuckles down on a book of her own.
Brendan Carr
Dylan Byers • April 18, 2025
Dude, Where’s My Carr?
News and notes on F.C.C. chairman Brendan Carr’s legacy media blitzkrieg and the many meanings of “public interest.”
Wendy McMahon
Dylan Byers • April 16, 2025
Wendy’s Double Jeopardy
CBS News C.E.O. Wendy McMahon’s tenure was already beset by controversies that have antagonized both the network’s current owner, Shari Redstone, and its future owner, David Ellison. Now, she’s taking heat for a ‘Wheel of Fortune’/‘Jeopardy!’ miscalculation that could cost Paramount eight-figure annual profits.
John Malone
Dylan Byers • April 11, 2025
Home Malone
Master of the cable universe John Malone is giving up his seat on the board of Warner Bros. Discovery, where he’s been an unwaveringly patient, big-picture strategist. What does his departure mean, if anything, to the future of WBD or his mentee, David Zaslav?
Jim Cramer
Dylan Byers • April 9, 2025
CNBC’s Reign of Tariff
NBCU’s soon-to-be-spun-off business news channel loves a financial crisis, and this week its ratings rose as markets tanked. But that doesn’t lessen the challenges it faces as it gets spun off from its parentco.
radhika Jones
Dylan Byers • April 4, 2025
Jonestown
News and notes on Radhika Jones’s departure from Vanity Fair.
Dylan Byers • April 3, 2025
An MSNBC-NBC Custody Battle
Among the knock-on effects of Comcast spinning out its lesser cable darlings are a series of impending beefs, conflicts, and tough choices for MSNBC and NBC News. Some talent and executives will move up, while others will realize there’s not room for everyone at the cool kids’ table.
kathy baird
Dylan Byers • March 28, 2025
Flack Attack
Ironically, what’s plaguing media organizations right now—apart from the diminished revenue and the daily beatings from the White House, of course—is a lack of storytelling. No wonder everyone from the Post to Politico is looking for a few good comms.
Amanda Wills
Dylan Byers • March 27, 2025
CNN+ Ça Change
America’s hair is on fire, but the country’s former go-to around-the-clock news source is crawling around in the ratings basement. In the network’s latest, late-day attempt to come up with digital strategy, C.E.O. Mark Thompson is getting the old gang back together.
Jessica Lessin
Dylan Byers • March 21, 2025
Lessin’s Learned
Jessica Lessin, the digital media pioneer and Information C.E.O., offers her candid assessment of the market, shares her investment thesis, and discusses her endgame.