The battle for WBD played out amid a pivotal backdrop for Wall Street: a period investment banks hope will mark a full-throated M&A rebound, in which just landing a role on a deal of this size is as useful for one's street cred as actually winning it. Even advisers on the losing side will walk away with hefty fees, boardroom credibility, and proof they belong on the biggest mandates of the coming year.
The Rebootings Brian Morrissey delivered the sharpest indictment. He listed the proximate causes editorial drift, scale addiction, poor leadership then dismissed them: He bought this asset 13 years ago and has had more than enough time to figure out a path. Morrissey compared Bezos unfavorably to Elon Musk: Say what you want about Elon Musk, he'd have taken his sleeping bag out a while ago. Bezos, by contrast, acted like he acquired a series of car dealerships after watching some passive income influencer's YouTube videos.
For four days this month, Williamsburg will again become home to "the Coachella of podcasts" as On Air Fest returns to Brooklyn with one of its most ambitious lineups yet. Running from Feb. 23 to 26, On Air Fest 2026 will span three walkable neighborhood venues: the Wythe Hotel, Arlo Williamsburg and The XX Venue. The event will feature live podcast tapings, intimate interviews, performances, panels and industry conversations that explore how audio, media and culture intersect and evolve.
Every weekday, Mediaite's team of media-savvy writers and editors will sift through the dozens of media newsletters and curate all of the day's best content in easily-digestible fashion complete with insider knowledge and smart takes, all delivered to your inbox. Yes, we will sort through all the unique takes (and sort out the aggregation) and become your ultimate meta media newsletter, the single place you need to stay on top of everything in the media/politics newsletter world.
This is a new daily, five-minute briefing on what the dozens of media newsletters are actually saying the scoops, arguments, and fault lines shaping the media in real time. Not just aggregation. Interpretation. The goal is simple: one place, one newsletter, to see the media conversation behind the headlines who's driving it, who's missing it, and why it matters.
The Drum Awards for Online Media celebrate the original, clever and thought-provoking work of editorial teams and media owners whose skill and commitment keep the public informed. Spriha Srivastava, the UK bureau chief and executive editor of Insider, chaired the jury for our 2023 awards and was joined in the judging room by experts from NBCUniversal, HuffPost, The New York Times Magazine, Channel 4 and many other major media organizations.
However, this year, the pendulum has swung violently in the opposite direction. Essentially, leadership told many of us to "reword or avoid any mention of DEI," be leery of explicitly mentioning the communities most harmed by inequality or inequity in our work, and avoid citing who is committing the harm out of fear of retribution. Many of us knew the backlash to the media industry's embrace of DEI during the pandemic was brewing.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
The video-which Tranter later took down-seemed like yet another sign that the art of reviewing the arts was in a strange state. This year has been grim for criticism: The Associated Press stopped reviewing books; Vanity Fair winnowed its critical staff; The New York Times reassigned veteran critics to other jobs; and Chicago-the city of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel-lost its only remaining full-time print-media movie reviewer when the Chicago Tribune 's Michael Phillips took a buyout.
Here at Mediaite, we spend our days and nights chronicling what truly has become a fractured media environment. There are, of course, the many conflicts you see on air. And there are also the ones happening behind-the-scenes as networks, digital outlets, and big-ticket independent personalities all do battle to secure their place in an uncertain landscape.
The Guild has transformed itself in recent years, thanks to rising rank-and-file militancy and innovative organizing tactics. Since 2020, the Guild has organized 210 workplaces, including some of the largest media organizations in the U.S. That includes 600 tech workers at the New York Times (the largest unionized tech unit in the country), 226 workers at Politico, and 180 workers at The Atlantic magazine, as well as smaller operations like 20 workers at the Anchorage Daily News.
The challenge in late night is that the advertising marketplace is in significant secular decline, according to CBS chief George Cheeks. He explained that financial headwinds made it challenging to keep The Late Show With Stephen Colbert going, despite their admiration for the show. As soon as Taylor Tomlinson declined to return as host, Cheeks understood that the network could not sustain programming in that timeslot.
