 Good morning,
Happy Saturday morning, and welcome back to The Backstory—your weekend capsule of the best work that we are publishing at Puck. Welcome, too, to all our new subscribers. You can look forward to this round-up email directly from me, Puck’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, every Saturday morning.
It was another extraordinary week here at Puck—Julia Ioffe’s magnificent work on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Matt Belloni’s extraordinary reportage on Hollywood’s secret powerhouse, Dylan Byers’ dish on MSNBC’s headaches, and so much more. Check out some of our very best work, below. And as always, stick around for the backstory on how it all came together.
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WASHINGTON: Julia Ioffe glimpses inside Putin’s media black hole. And… Baratunde Thurston reminds us of all the other crises we’ve missed.
HOLLYWOOD: Matt Belloni gets the inside story on A24’s $2.5 billion deal. And… Eriq Gardner reveals how the war in Ukraine is impacting show business.
WALL STREET: William D. Cohan chats with Bill Ackman.
SILICON VALLEY: Teddy Schleifer has the scoop on Laurene Powell Jobs’s secret meeting. And… Julia Alexander uncovers perhaps the most valuable asset in streaming.
MEDIA: Dylan Byers reports on the MSNBC vision vacuum. And… Brain Morrissey breaks down digital media’s next great pivot.
PODCAST: Get the real inside story on the latest episode of The Powers that Be, hosted by Peter Hamby.
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A year and a half ago, in a Covid-infested world that I can almost hardly remember, back when Puck was still just a glimmer in our eye, my partners and I endeavored to raise the Series A financing necessary to build the new media company of our dreams.
In Zoom meetings with investors, we walked them through our pitch, which was really quite simple: we were entering a new era in which elite journalists were reclaiming their mantle as the original influencers. Their talents, after all, weren’t simply limited to their written work; rather, they were dexterous, omni-channel creators who could author newsletters, host podcasts, create intellectual property, and convene events. They needed an infrastructure to support them creatively and a brand to help elevate, hone, and distribute their work. We wanted to build a company around their manifold creative muscles, and we wanted to ensure that they were owners in that same company. At Puck, we were all going to be business partners. We’d have it no other way.
Why did we insist on this? Part of it was personal and economic. During my career in the media business, I’d been repeatedly stunned by the asymmetrical value structure that had become terra firma. Journalists were the ones who created the magic that imbued the brands, and yet they were, time and again, relegated to lesser financial packages and general economic insecurity. The 2008 financial crisis, which would effectively serve as the extinction event for much of the magazine business, had left a long and harrowing psychological shadow. Its most lasting impact, perhaps, was how it forced many journalists to perpetually undermine their own value. The following decade in the media industry—dominated by scale-driven and click-obsessed newcomers—only exacerbated the self-doubt. We wanted to play our part in correcting the landscape, and restoring some dignity in the process.
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The other motivation, I’ll admit, was creative. Ownership is a powerful motivator, and I don’t just mean financially. If you’ve spent any time with a creative person, you’ll understand that their passion for their craft transcends pure transactionalism. They practice and refine their art because they love it, they are obsessed with it, and they can’t imagine life another way. The articles they write, the shows they craft, it all literally comes from them. As I recall the novelist Richard Price once noted in an interview, writing is the only job where staring into space is grueling work. Journalists are the center of the creative equation. They should be the center of the business equation, too.
This week, we announced two new exciting projects, both of them podcasts, that build on Puck’s zealous belief in the virtuous cycle between serving our creators and serving our community. Matt Belloni, our founding partner and peerless Hollywood expert, will be hosting The Town, a show dedicated to the inner workings of the entertainment industry, which will air three times per week. The Town is a collaboration with The Ringer, the Spotify studio founded by media legend Bill Simmons. As a life-long Simmons fan, we could not be more proud of the partnership. The show begins Monday, and you can subscribe here.
We’re also launching a second show, The Powers that Be Daily, which focuses on Puck’s overlapping spheres of influence in New York, D.C., L.A., and the Valley. It is hosted by Peter Hamby, our Emmy award-winning founding partner, and the host of Snap’s Good Luck America, and will feature short and insiderly conversations with our august team of journalists. In the first episode, also on Monday, Peter and I will be digging into the inside conversation in the media business: M&A, cable news, Barry Diller’s latest multi-billion deal, Times dish, and more. (We’ll be reprising this Media Monday concept weekly.) The Powers that Be Daily is a collaboration with Audacy’s Cadence13, one of the most astonishingly talent-filled players in the space. You can check the show out here.
Why two shows? Well, two reasons. As noted above, our journalists are omni-channel creators who thrive on multiple platforms. And it’s also our job to bring them closer to you than ever before. After all, Puck isn’t an Olympian, institutional brand that’s been around for a century. Rather, we are a six month old brand, building a community based on the modern habits of our consumers.
During those investor Zooms, I used to rattle off an inartful metaphor that journalism has truly entered the farm-to-table era. Consumers don’t just want to order a dish off the menu. They want to learn the story behind that dish—and have the chef stop by and tap the table. At Puck, our business is predicated on bringing you the story behind the story, and making sure that you feel uniquely connected to the storyteller wielding the magic. The Town and The Powers that Be Daily are two important steps in that direction.
Have a great weekend, Jon
P.S. - if there's something holding you back from becoming a subscriber, I'd love to hear about it. Please feel free to reply to this email with your feedback (replies go directly to my inbox).
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