Dylan Byers • May 11, 2022

Chris Licht’s Master Plan Comes Into View

Sure, an adult-table bastion of centrist upscale cable news sounds fantastic, especially since Fox News and MSNBC have totally abdicated the middle. But can it still be done, and will it rate?

Dylan Byers • May 6, 2022

Licht Battles the Zucker Ghosts

One week into his new job, CNN’s new boss is already having his manage-from-above strategy questioned and second-guessed. How long till he climbs down from the 22nd floor?

Dylan Byers • May 5, 2022

Licht’s Non-Zucker Playbook Emerges

Three days into the job, at least technically-speaking, new CNN C.E.O. Chris Licht is trying to establish himself as an anti-Zucker: hands off the creative, not messing with the chyrons, a delegator-in-chief. Which may explain why he’s sitting in Ann Sarnoff’s old office.

Dylan Byers • April 29, 2022

Ben and Justin Prepare to Announce Their Next Announcement

Media’s most anticipated start-up is gunning for a launch in Q4, and the money bag is in sight. Semafor’s plans, at least the initial ones, are coming into view. And they’ll start not globally, but in Washington.

Brian Morrissey • April 28, 2022

The New Media Arbitrage Moment

The fall of CNN+ demonstrates, among other things, that the definition of “quality” media has changed irrevocably.

Dylan Byers • April 26, 2022

Cesar’s Ukraine Tour

30 Rock is aflutter with frustration and eye-rolling over the NBC News chairman’s recent trip to Lviv. Is it typical TV news backbiting, or is a larger frustration afoot?

Dylan Byers • April 22, 2022

CNN+’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Months before the deal closed, Discovery executives made it clear to both AT&T chief John Stankey and WarnerMedia chief Jason Kilar that they had questions and doubts about CNN+'s strategy, its cost, and the product itself.

Dylan Byers • April 15, 2022

The Maddow Iceberg

Maddow’s non-surprise surprise announcement has been foreshadowed for months. So why doesn’t the network have a viable solution? Is 20 percent Maddow at 1.25x or so the price really better than nothing? And at what cost?

Julia Alexander • April 14, 2022

Dear Zaz, Read This Before the “Synergies” Start…

The streaming wars are, simply put, a race to own the best content and have the strongest pipes to distribute it (along with all the financial engineering and tax avoidance befitting a media behemoth, naturally). Here are my four predictions for how David Zaslav can take Warner Bros. Discovery from No. 3 to No. 2—or even higher.

Dylan Byers • April 8, 2022

Norah O’Donnell Makes Her Next Career Move

After plenty of rumors to the contrary, Norah O’Donnell is staying home, and set up to finally become the Peter Jennings of CBS—the star that the news division is built around, which in 2022, naturally, means some streaming stuff, too. So is it all water under the bridge with Neeraj?

Dylan Byers • April 1, 2022

D.C.’s Post-Trump Media Reality-Check Rumbles On

Is there life after the 45th president? Some companies are articulating a new path; others, not so much.

Dylan Byers • March 30, 2022

Notes on Zaz Rule and CNN+’s Debut

David Zaslav’s date with destiny—the endlessly anticipated consummation of Discovery and the WarnerMedia assets—is finally (finally) less than two weeks away. And yet the first major artifact of his tenure—the emergence of CNN+—is already in the market. Herewith, some notes from Hudson Yards.

Dylan Byers • March 25, 2022

The Panic in Zazworld

Discovery and AT&T’s year-long dance will finally be consummated on April 11, replete with a trip to the stock exchange. What happens next is anyone’s guess as tight-lipped C.E.O. David Zaslav has kept his cards close to all those vests of his.

Dylan Byers • March 23, 2022

Politico’s New Administration Is Taking Office

Fifteen years after it broke onto the scene in an unmistakably disruptive manner, re-defining the stodgy news business with its metabolic frisky style and scoop-bazooka, Politico seems intent on entering its own Washington sinecure of sorts—as the pendulum swings, in the words of one founder, towards institutionalism in D.C. Will its new newsroom leader commensurately facilitate the anti-disruption disruption?

Dylan Byers • March 19, 2022

The Times’ Latest Woke Kerfuffle

How an unsigned editorial upended Twitter, presaged a new Times agenda, and revealed the media company's challenges in the post-Trump era.