Happy Friday, and welcome back to In The Room, my biweekly private email on the inner workings of the media industry. Tonight, with Warners’ stock down another 17 percent, we take a closer look at Zaz’s merciless cost cutting strategy, the mixed signals he’s sending to creatives, and his unyielding affinity for a linear business in inexorable decline.

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The number Zaz does care about is EBITDA, which he described as “our financial North Star.” He and his longtime deputy, J.B. Perrette, now hope to see their streaming segment break even in 2024 and generate $1 billion in EBITDA by 2025. “The number on the corner of J.B.’s desk and mine is the breakeven and the $1 billion,” Zaz reiterated later in the call. This is presumably the right note to signal to investors and analysts, who are indeed most interested in knowing how the company intends to...