It’s been a rollicking month, and head-spinning few days, in the media business. Herewith, on Thanksgiving eve, my conversation with Puck co-founder and editor-in-chief Jon Kelly about the Iger-Chapek aftershocks, the Disney succession question, the future of ESPN, Zaslav’s CNN shakeout, and updates on the Buzbee–Ryan melodrama at The Washington Post.
Jon Kelly: Alright, Dylan, let’s start in the place that every conversation must begin: Bob Iger’s return. What’s the latest inside conversation? And also, a friend just told me he saw him having lunch the other day with Kevin Mayer? Is that a friendly rapprochement, or maybe the start of an olive branch? The gossip mill is in overdrive these days.
Dylan Byers: The Iger-Chapek shakeup really is one of those rare Shakespearean plot twists that deserves its own chapter in the histories of corporate America, and it’s a history still being written. But it’s been fascinating to watch the first drafts of the official, Disneyfied Narrative™ come together.