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SPORTS
&
MEDIA

Tucker’s New Mediaco

Life inside the Fox News bunker, the Watters-Hannity-Gutfeld Cerberus, and news on Tucker Carlson’s new media ambitions.
Dylan Byers • June 29, 2023
Dylan Byers & William D. Cohan • June 23, 2023
Is Zaz Ready to Enter CNN Deal Mode?
A CNN sale could be a bonanza for Zaz and for WBD, his publicly traded leveraged buyout, which has some $45 billion of net debt.
As the Allen & Co. conference beckons, and CNN remains leaderless, bankers and executives are wondering if Zaz is ready to seriously consider selling the network in order to service WBD’s debt and excite the equity market (and probably avoid a headache or two). And, if not now, when?
Dylan Byers • June 21, 2023
Bret Hot American Summer
Following the Dominion suit and Tucker’s exit from Fox, Baier’s journalistic bona fides now seem more valuable than ever.
Baier’s surprisingly punchy Trump interview has briefly elevated his stature at the precise moment when Fox News is more insecure than ever. Now it looks like he’s in for a tidy little raise.
Rashida Jones, President of MSNBC.
Dylan Byers • June 16, 2023
Raiders of the Lost Art
News and notes from the cable news industry in the wake of indictments, defenestration, deplatforming, anxiety, and linear decline agita.
Dylan Byers • June 14, 2023
A Tale of Two Fred Ryans
Fred Ryan’s tenure atop The Washington Post Company can be split into two: the Bezos-fueled resurrection years and then the post-Baron, post-Trump malaise. So what comes next?
Chris Licht was deposed on Wednesday, during an early morning walk with Zaslav in the smoke-saturated air of Central Park.
Dylan Byers • June 9, 2023
In the Afterlicht
CNN staffers are cautiously optimistic about the potential for a leadership reset, even if they are also clear-eyed about the reality that Zaz & Co. haven’t lost any of their conviction in the mission to re-center the network, or that the cable TV business is getting smaller every day.
Chris Licht
Dylan Byers • June 7, 2023
Licht’s Out
The embattled CNN C.E.O. will be leaving the company, and longtime beloved top executive Amy Entelis will steady the ship until Zaz picks a new leader. It’s been a hell of a week since The Atlantic story dropped, and yet here goes another reinvention.
David Leavy, the newly implemented C.O.O. at CNN and a longtime member of the Zaslav braintrust.
Dylan Byers • June 2, 2023
Zaz Brings in the Pain Sponge
It’s been a nightmarish 48 hours at CNN: first, Zaslav’s lieutenant Dave Leavy was brought in as C.O.O., marginalizing Chris Licht’s authority; then came that brutal Tim Alberta dissertation in The Atlantic. Hudson Yards is alight with fresh agony. But is the worst over?
Graydon Carter, Bob Iger, and Jeff Zucker.
Dylan Byers • June 1, 2023
The Old Men and the C-List
An elegy for media’s old guard in an age of generational change.
To level-set, Jeff Bezos spent twice as much on this new 417-foot, Sanchez-adorned yacht as he did on the Post.
Dylan Byers • May 24, 2023
Bezos at Sea, The Kaitlan Experiment & Murdoch Succession Fantasies
Insights and observations on what the chattering classes are chatting about in advance of the holiday weekend.
jimmy pitaro
Dylan Byers • May 19, 2023
ESPN’s Brave New World
Disney’s announcement that it will send ESPN off on its own D.T.C. journey introduces a host of provocations for the industry: namely, is this the true beginning of the end of cable, and perhaps of ESPN as we once knew it, too?
“We know Trump and his tendencies, everyone does,” Christiane Amanpour said. “He just seizes the stage and dominates, no matter how much flack the moderator tries to aim at the incoming.”
Dylan Byers • May 18, 2023
When It Rains, It Amanpours
Notes on the ongoing fallout from a cable news makeover.
CNN C.E.O. Chris Licht had advised Collins not to be combative with Trump, sources familiar said.
Dylan Byers • May 12, 2023
Licht’s Dispassion Punch
Inside CNN, the reverberations from Wednesday’s town hall are still being profoundly felt, further testing the long-strained relationship between the network’s anchors and journalists on one side and their newly dispassionate boss on the other. As one insider put it: “It’s Chris Licht’s fucking CNN now.”
Tara Palmeri • May 11, 2023
Inside the Trump-CNN Thunderdome
On CNN, it sure looked like Trump won over the crowd during his town hall interview with Kaitlan Collins. But the reality was different in the room—and in the state of New Hampshire.
For Tucker Carlson and ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight‘ refugees, Twitter was the best option immediately available.
Tina Nguyen • May 10, 2023
Tucker & Elon: A Shotgun Media Marriage for Our Times
Carlson’s pivot to social video may be a paradigm-shifting blow to cable news and YouTube, alike. Or maybe he was simply out of better options.
Kaitlan Collins is now the primary talent on which Chris Licht is staking his pivot to the middle.
Dylan Byers • May 10, 2023
The Kaitlan Era Begins Tonight
Kaitlan is Licht’s answer at 9 p.m.—the great conservative hope upon which his legacy will likely hang.
Undoubtedly, everything in the Times report is true enough, but it nevertheless still felt like window dressing on the real motivation for Tucker’s termination.
Dylan Byers • May 3, 2023
Tucker Theories & CNN’s Trump Revival
News and notes on the latest comings and goings in the land of cable news: suspicions regarding the trending explanations for Tucker Carlson’s ouster, and all the internal feels about CNN’s Trump town hall.
Kristina O’Neill served as WSJ. magazine’s editor-in-chief for a decade.
Lauren Sherman • May 1, 2023
Inside the WSJ. Succession Scandal
The somewhat surprising torpedoing of Kristina O’Neill sets into motion a cavalcade of questions about what’s next for the once-trailblazing fashion magazine, starting with: Is this the beginning of the end?