John Ourand • March 21, 2024

Ken Griffin and the $7.5 Billion Dolphins Deal That Wasn’t

Griffin’s bid for a minority stake in the team, which was foiled by a thwarted path to control, nevertheless creates a new high-water mark for the NFL and its “membership” of billionaires.

Dylan Byers • March 20, 2024

As One World Trade Turns

News and notes on the upstairs-downstairs squabbles at Condé Nast.

William D. Cohan • March 20, 2024

Lord Zucker’s M&A Do-Over & Trump Bankruptcy Options

News and notes on two intoxicating bankruptcy restructurings: Jeff Zucker’s latest gambit to claw the Telegraph and Spectator away from the Barclays, despite the punctilious British regulators; and Trump’s high-stakes lawn sale.

John Ourand • March 19, 2024

The Season of Pitaro Magical Thinking

News and notes on the topics percolating around arena corporate suites as March Madness beckons: the groundswell of support, no matter how fantastical, for Pitaro as the Iger succession process begins, and Pete Distad steps into Spulu.

Dylan Byers • March 15, 2024

Still Life With Lemon

Don Lemon made his name and millions by being a live wire during the firecracker broadcast era. Now, his second employer in less than a year has passed on his gestalt. Where to go from here?

John Ourand • March 15, 2024

College Football’s Final Fantasy

A group of 20-odd executives have banded together to unofficially explore the further migration of college football into a more professionalized and exploitable realm. It’s the latest micro-escalation in what increasingly seems like a foregone conclusion.

Dylan Byers • March 14, 2024

The Kassan Imbroglio & The Lemon-Musk Fiasco

News and notes on the two biggest stories roiling Beverly Hills and Hudson Yards: the UTA-Kassan lawsuit and Don Lemon’s unceremonious defenestration.

Julia Alexander • March 12, 2024

Netflix’s Live Sports Vulcan Chess

Rival executives have characterized the streamer’s recent live events as a sign of desperation—or simply P.R. stunts to jumpstart its ad revenue efforts. But this critique underestimates the Sarandos strategy and its ultimate ambition.

John Ourand • March 12, 2024

Goodell Vibrations

Is the NFL commissioner angling to add an 18th game to the schedule? And will the league’s media partners, which aren’t exactly sitting on mountains of cash, put up a fight?

Eriq Gardner • March 11, 2024

Zero to OneTaste

Notes on one of the most bizarre criminal cases in recent memory: Was OneTaste another NXIVM, or the victim of prosecutorial overreach?

Dylan Byers • March 9, 2024

Remembrance of CNN Past

A mere six months into Mark Thompson’s tenure as the new C.E.O., the CNN panic rooms are already filling up with agitated and paranoid talent and executives who are second-guessing his new plan. So, well, are they right?

John Ourand • March 8, 2024

The Spulu Threesome Prepares for Its Cold-Shower Phase

Yes, everyone already hates Spulu—the streaming consortium between Disney, WBD, and Fox that we still know basically nothing about and promises to make a genuine problem worse. Now, the bundle has a new nemesis grousing around, and they’re ready for a fight.

Dylan Byers • March 7, 2024

Eighth Avenue Freeze-Out

The Times’ latest micro-scandal is, in many ways, as much about reporting challenges as it is a representation of its own evolving position in the economic landscape.

John Ourand • March 4, 2024

Amazon’s $115M Local Sports Rescue Mission

Sure, Amazon’s lifeline investment in Diamond Sports left plenty of the industry’s top executives scratching their heads. But did Prime just gain an unassailable first-mover advantage in local sports streaming?

Dylan Byers • March 1, 2024

The Thompson Manifesto: A Sequel

As a follow-up to his original dissertation on the challenges facing CNN, Mark Thompson recently outlined a vague, pablum-filled vision of the network-cum-news-organization’s future. But is it so opaque because Thompson’s vision remains hazy, or because he doesn’t want to say the hard part out loud?