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Axel Springer

Bari Weiss

Bari Apparent & Politico Animals

The WBD–PSKY post-merger dread hit CNN immediately yesterday, as its journalists and producers pondered life under Bari—but only if her CBS misfires haven’t disqualified her from running the combined operation. Plus, the voracious Mathias Döpfner’s global talent hunt.
Dylan Byers • February 27, 2026
Dylan Byers • February 25, 2026
The WaPo Shiva Begins
Mathias Döpfner
Just when the slow-motion Telegraph sale finally seemed ready to close, Mathias Döpfner entered the chat. Does Axel Springer’s dark horse bid have any real chance? And why does anyone want the headache of owning a newspaper in 2026 anyway?
Dylan Byers • January 16, 2026
The Politico Succession Games Begin…
Mathias Doepfner
An era at Politico has been ending for the last decade—at least since the departures of Mike and Jim, then Jake and Anna, and, of course, the sale to Axel Springer. But with John Harris ascending to the chairmanship, again, it’s finally Axel’s baby. And Mathias Döpfner may be looking outside the mothership for Harris’s successor.
Henry Blodget
Dylan Byers • May 30, 2025
There Will Be Blodget
News and notes on the bloodletting at Business Insider, Henry Blodget’s Web 2.0 darling, which may finally close the chapter on one of the more vexing eras in media history—right in time for the next one.
Mathias Döpfner
Dylan Byers • February 21, 2024
The Ackman-Döpfner Non-Escalation Treaty
A recent dinner between the Axel Springer C.E.O. and the aggrieved hedge fund manager and proud husband likely paved the way for an end to the Business Insider-Neri Oxman contretemps.
Skydance Media C.E.O. David Ellison attends the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 7, 2024.
William D. Cohan • January 14, 2024
Ellison’s Redstone Gambit & Ackman’s Endgame
News and notes on the stories percolating with the Dune Road crowd: David Ellison’s pursuit of National Amusements, Jamie’s boffo number, and Bill Ackman’s relentless crusade against KKR and Axel Springer.
The Ackman vs. Axel fight, wherever it goes, is only the latest manifestation of a broader tension between public figures and news organizations in the digital media age.
Dylan Byers • January 12, 2024
The Declaration on the Rights of Ackman
More news and notes on the hedge fund manager’s very public crusade against Business Insider, Axel Springer, and KKR.
Bill Ackman responded to the B.I. pieces by essentially placing the media company, which is owned by Axel Springer, at the center of his next activist campaign.
Dylan Byers • January 11, 2024
A Season of Ackman’s Life
News and notes on the media holy war of our time: Bill Ackman’s pressure campaign to persuade Business Insider’s investors and executives to disavow a report detailing improper attributions in his wife’s academic work.
John Harris is return to Politico as the outlet’s first-ever global editor-in-chief.
Dylan Byers • July 19, 2023
The Politico Animal
The return of John Harris to the top of Politico signals that the scrappiness and the ambitions of the old days may be back again—and now turbo-charged by Axel Springer’s war chest, and their own deep desire for influence.
Dafna Linzer stepped down as Politico’s executive editor.
Dylan Byers • March 11, 2023
Dafna Punk
The fast and mysterious departure of Politico’s executive editor may have been neither fast nor mysterious.