MEDIA
Dylan Byers
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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?
Dylan Byers
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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.
Dylan Byers
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April 4, 2025
Jonestown
News and notes on Radhika Jones’s departure from Vanity Fair.
Dylan Byers
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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.
Dylan Byers
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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.
Dylan Byers
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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.
Dylan Byers
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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.
Dylan Byers
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March 19, 2025
ChatNYT
Yes, it’s very early and everyone is saying all the right things, but it’s also clear that The New York Times Co. has learned its lesson from highly disruptive technologies during the past couple decades and is not about to miss out on A.I. Does the industry, or its newsroom, fully understand the implications?
Dylan Byers
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March 14, 2025
Tucker’s Last Stand
Emma Tucker arrived at The Wall Street Journal a couple years ago to replace the complacency of the Matt Murray era, with a mandate to make a product that was feistier, less academic, totally data-driven, and, sure, maybe even a little British. Naturally, her newsroom covered her office in Post-it notes and gave her plenty of grief, but it kinda worked.
Dylan Byers
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March 13, 2025
Til Jeff Do Us Part
Bezos’s subscriber-alienating decision to take greater control of the Washington Post opinion section, and to impose his free-markets ideological mandate, is not unlike the journalistic tradition at The Economist and The Wall Street Journal… neither of which are exactly pro-Trump mouthpieces.
Dylan Byers
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March 8, 2025
How Shipley Hit the Fan
Jeff Bezos had been losing patience with The Washington Post’s liberal predilection long before he mandated a purely pro-markets Opinion section, and even before endorsement-gate. In fact, the tensions that culminated in Opinion editor David Shipley’s resignation had been building for years.
Dylan Byers
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March 6, 2025
The Kiss of Jeff
The latest news and notes from the Post in-crowd and D.C. haut monde about Bezos’s intentions and opportunities.
Dylan Byers
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February 28, 2025
Oppenheim’s Split Atoms
A candid discussion with Noah Oppenheim, the former NBC News president, about the headaches at his old haunt (and other industry pickles) as the television news business wades through a series of not-great options.
Dylan Byers
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February 27, 2025
Maddow as Hell
MSNBC’s $25 million-a-year anchor isn’t going to take it anymore, calling out the network—and by implication her new boss, Rebecca Kutler—for firing host Joy Reid and a slate of producers. But her colleagues are privately pointing out the irony of her latest crusade.
Dylan Byers
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February 21, 2025
No Joy in Manfred’s Mudville
MLB and ESPN announced they will part ways at the end of the 2025 season, after the sports network refused to re-up their current, diluted deal. Now, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is trying to save face while scrambling to find a new home for America’s pastime.
Dylan Byers
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February 20, 2025
McMahon on Fire & Politico’s Prince Valiant
News and notes on the latest defenestration at CBS News (and the next one, too), plus a coronation at Politico.
Eriq Gardner
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February 19, 2025
Steve Wynn’s Revenge & Defamation Nation
Trump allies sense a more favorable environment for waging lawfare against media companies, raising the question of whether the Supreme Court might reconsider Times v. Sullivan—and what the media might do to fight back.