SPORTS & MEDIA
4 Nations & A Funeral
As audience attention continues to crater and traditional all-star formats wane, leagues and their broadcast partners are doubling down on new, gimmicky midseason spectacles. Is any of it working?
John Ourand
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December 1, 2025
Hell or High Walter
As the Lakers’ regional sports network hits the market, Charter is getting to work separating serious bidders from rubberneckers. Which category does new team majority owner Mark Walter fall into?
Julia Alexander
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November 28, 2025
Substack Entrapment Theory
Google Zero killed the open web, ChatGPT isn’t replacing lost traffic, and superstar talent is a phenomenally difficult business. Digital media companies trying to stay upright are belatedly turning to creator-first subscription platforms in search of sustainable, niche audiences—without realizing that they’ve seen this movie before.
Dylan Byers
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November 26, 2025
Roman Holiday
The internet’s favorite food author finds herself at a familiar crossroads for writers who have become brands unto themselves: trying to balance scale, new ventures, and authenticity while keeping a loyal audience fed… in this case literally.
John Ourand
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November 24, 2025
The NFL’s Perfect Storm
With two marquee matchups on Thursday—and some favorable new accounting practices lifting its sails—the league could set regular season ratings records. Plus: notes on the EverWonder-LIV deal and a new college basketball tournament play.
Dylan Byers
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November 21, 2025
Zaz’s Hollywood Endings
With the final bids for Warner Bros. Discovery under careful consideration, David Zaslav’s tenure as an ersatz Hollywood mogul may be coming to an end. Now, it’s all about the numbers, and which suitors have a glide path to regulatory approval. Just which sunset Zaz will ride into is anyone’s guess.
John Ourand
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November 20, 2025
The Petitti Offensive
It’s been a rocky season for the Big Ten. Now comes word that media partner NBC is taking a long, hard look at its options for next year’s conference championship game.
Dylan Byers
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November 19, 2025
A Brave Nuzzi World
Between the Bravo-ready mess of the Nuzzi-Lizza imbroglio and Michael Wolff’s Epstein deference, it was a monumentally bad week for media ethics. As journalists, even principled ones, become increasingly central characters in the stories themselves, is this kind of spectacle an unavoidable component of a new media world order?
Apple’s Red Card
It’s obvious why Apple decided to pay a premium to walk away from its 10-year, multibillion-dollar MLS deal several years ahead of schedule. But with a different dance partner, the league could see its footprint expand significantly in the U.S.
John Ourand
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November 17, 2025
With or Without YouTube TV
As the dust settles following the denouement of the Disney–YouTube TV deal, it’s increasingly clear that the next-gen distributor got a lot of what it wanted during its rash of negotiations this fall. And it’s only a matter of time until it fully eats up the sports business.
Dylan Byers
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November 14, 2025
The RedBird Balloon
After a second bid to take over The Telegraph met a particularly British brand of resistance, RedBird Capital walked away from the whole ordeal. Now the 170-year-old paper is back to waiting for a Goldilocks buyer.
John Ourand
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November 13, 2025
YouTube TV’s Four Corners Offense
With the informal deadline of Thursday’s earnings in the rearview, YouTube TV and Disney are still negotiating to find a deal. But the open items—ingestion (quelle horreur!), the ESPN app, and obviously pricing—suggest the divergence in their endgames.
Dylan Byers
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November 12, 2025
The Bankoff Job
Jim Bankoff is considering a spinoff of Vox’s faster-growing podcast network from its legacy publishing business. While it makes economic sense-ish, what does it mean for the future of brands like SB Nation, The Verge, and… ‘New York?’
ESPN’s Bad Bet
The company’s splashy move into the app-based gambling market faced stiff headwinds from the start. In fact, it likely never stood a chance.
John Ourand
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November 10, 2025
Monday Night Stalemate
As the YouTube TV–ESPN standoff stretches into another week, it’s increasingly clear that the old rule of carriage dispute leverage is shifting. The question is no longer how long YouTube TV can hold out, but how long Disney can sit on its hands.
Dylan Byers
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November 7, 2025
Stan By Me
A handful of disgruntled employees confronted Stan Duncan, Condé Nast’s H.R. chief, about the company’s decision to shutter Teen Vogue. There was a video, of course, which captures either a noble moment of employee solidarity or a bunch of entitled staffers willfully unaware of Condé’s dwindling fortunes and the realities of the legacy media business. Either way, how far they’ve fallen.
John Ourand & Julia Alexander
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November 6, 2025
The YouTube TV Offensive
As the YouTube TV–Disney rights feud stretches into its second weekend, a talmudic reading of the legacy behemoth’s leverage, the challenges posed by Google’s dry powder, and the various ways this battle could influence the next skirmish.