Dylan Byers • April 4, 2025

Jonestown

News and notes on Radhika Jones’s departure from Vanity Fair.

Julia Alexander • April 4, 2025

The NFL’s War on Christmas

This Christmas, the NFL will host three games, further encroaching on the NBA’s own five-game holiday tradition. Is this the latest tactic in a cold war against the NBA, or is a monster day of sports-streaming and couch-surfing big enough for both leagues?

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.

John Ourand • April 1, 2025

An N.Y.-Philly Grudge Match for the Ages

The battle between the Yankees’ YES Network and Comcast is about to go nuclear, and it might even feature a Trump angle that no one saw coming.

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.

John Ourand • March 28, 2025

The Oracle of Omaha

Now that he’s finally liberated from the Ari-verse, Patrick Whitesell and his new Silver Lake–backed $250 million investment platform are making moves, starting with an investment in a certain telegenic former QB’s production company.

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.

Julia Alexander • March 24, 2025

Peacock’s R.S.N. Vulcan Chess

Peacock executives, like their counterparts at ESPN, seemingly want to find out if streaming can be television again by investing in local sports fandoms. If the early streaming wars were a race to see who could disrupt TV fastest, this next phase is a marathon to see who can reinvent it first.

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.

John Ourand • March 21, 2025

DraftKings’ Content Bet Goes Bust

It’s a familiar story, old as time: A platform company decides it wants to take a whirl in the media business, hires up, brings in a big executive… and then decides it doesn’t want to be in the media business after all.

Dylan Byers • 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?

John Ourand • March 17, 2025

Are You Ready for Some Fox Reunion?

Two years out from broadcasting the Super Bowl, ESPN is yet again shaking up its truck—this time bringing in Fox hired gun Artie Kempner in a happy reunion with Troy and Buck. Coincidence?

Dylan Byers • 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.

John Ourand • March 14, 2025

Norby After McAfee

When veteran ESPN producer Norby Williamson took over production at Main Street Sports early this year, he had no intention of maintaining the R.S.N.s’ status quo. Today, he rolled out his plan for sports-specific production silos while recruiting four execs from Bristol. But can it all possibly work?

Dylan Byers • 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.