Greetings from New York, where I’m wrapping up a very fruitful week of source meetings and holiday parties. By the way, I’m back east frequently, in New York or Washington, so please give a shout if you’d like to get together.

In tonight’s edition of In the Room, news and notes on some of the industry’s myriad fixations du jour: the Condé Nast layoffs, Stephen A. Smith’s new deal, the latest Taylor Lorenz scandal, etcetera.

🎙️🍸 On Friday’s episode of The Grill Room, I was joined by media advisor and former Hearst Magazines president Troy Young for a wide-ranging and extremely thought-provoking discussion on all the major plot points on my beat, from the power of personality-driven media to the struggles at The Washington Post and CNN. Troy is a sage voice and surprisingly honest arbiter on all things media, so this is one you won’t want to miss.

Meanwhile, I wanted to share one particularly interesting moment from the show. I asked Troy what he thought about the future of legacy brands. Of course, places like The New York Times will endure and evolve with the times, but it seems like the future of media isn’t necessarily going to be created by old-media hands. Here’s what he had to say…

• Troy Young: “CNN is a perfect example. We all got caught up with CNN and questioned whether it was an orientation problem—whether they were too...