Dylan Byers • November 11, 2022

Licht’s Debate Prep

A tune up for a companywide town hall suggests what’s on the mind of the newish C.E.O.’s anxious charges.

Dylan Byers • November 9, 2022

The Cable Election Upset of the Age

Sans Wolf Blitzer and his “key race alerts,” CNN lost the overall ratings battle to MSNBC on election night. It’s a sign that an era keeps ending, of course, but also that the executives in charge haven’t yet figured out how to create the next one.

Dylan Byers • November 4, 2022

Can Licht Make the Cuts?

A brutal $100 million financial engineering effort begins at CNN.

Dylan Byers • November 2, 2022

A Licht in the Attic

In the last 72 hours, at least twenty CNN employees (on-air talent, rank-and-file staff, and more) have called or texted me, many of them unsolicited, to convey that things have never been worse.

Dylan Byers • October 28, 2022

The Chris Licht Gut Punch

CNN staffers are in a panic over forthcoming layoffs, pining for Zucker, and waiting for the next shoe to drop. The party line is “right-sizing,” but Licht and Zaslav’s new approach—a smaller digital footprint, fewer original series and films, cross-functional consolidation—appears to reflect a growing delta between the CNN they inherited and what they want it to be.

Dylan Byers • October 21, 2022

Tapper Troubles & Semafornication

News and notes on the industry’s inside conversation: a check-in on the Tapper experiment, Murdoch curiosities, and Semafor’s launch.

Dylan Byers • October 20, 2022

The Murdoch Succession Moment Arrives

New reporting on Lachlan’s ascension, Rupert’s merger rationale and ‘Journal’-Fox rollup fears.

Dylan Byers • October 14, 2022

A Wrinkle at ‘The Times’

Friday news and notes on the inside conversation coursing through the media business, from Times grumblings to Tapper’s primetime performance.

Dylan Byers • October 13, 2022

Timesism & Its Discontents

The New York Times is stronger than ever—lightyears ahead of the Post in subscription, acquisitive, by far the most influential beacon of journalism on Earth. And yet a string of amicable high-profile journalistic departures has led some Media Cassandras to shriek. Big deal? No deal? Well, it’s the Times, after all, so it’s a thing.

Matthew Belloni • October 10, 2022

The Dark Legacy of Nikki Finke

Finke presented herself as a no-bullshit reporter who kept Hollywood moguls honest, and we all found her copy completely irresistible. But she perverted the profession by blackmailing sources, often targeting the weak, and weaponizing the internet to push her bile—and her own agenda.

Dylan Byers • October 7, 2022

More MSNBC Murmurs & CNN Fantasy Football

News and notes emanating from the media industry on a fall Friday: the Semafor pre-launch buzz, Punchbowl rumors, the Licht vision, and the MSNBC pickle.

Dylan Byers • October 5, 2022

MSNBC’s Wagnerian Opera

Alex Wagner’s early ratings suggest that the MSNBC audience may be actively tuning her out. It’s an invitation for Tapper and Licht to quit the apparent mutual disarmament pact around 9 p.m. and take back the hour.

Dylan Byers • September 28, 2022

The Treaty of Paris

What to do when a living legend wants to keep working while her true natural heir is a future legend sowing his oats, and eager to expand his footprint? And when there is some history between the two, and the future of a historic brand hangs in the balance? Only at Condé Nast…

Tina Nguyen • September 28, 2022

The Ghost of William F. Buckley

Jonah Goldberg, the National Review Online alum and Fox News apostate, discusses how the G.O.P. got snowed, DeSantis vs. Trump, the Mar-a-Lago fallacy, and his own post-NRO afterlife as a burgeoning media mogul.

Dylan Byers • September 23, 2022

Leave It to Tapper

The temporary nature of Tapper’s move to 9 p.m. masks the careful machinations behind the announcement: Licht wants Tapper to be the permanent host of the 9 p.m. hour, and the face of his CNN.