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Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon digest featuring
Puck’s best new reporting.

Today, we lead with Dylan Byers’ riveting chronicle of the dual H.R. dramas engulfing The Washington Post and Politico—from the cavalcade of high-profile defections to the Times and the Journal to the percolating anxiety in their newsrooms as the second Trump era looms.

Plus, below the fold: Bill Cohan unravels the sorry saga of a private equity mutiny gone wrong. Marion Maneker bellies up to the bar at the art world’s new upscale SoHo hangout. On Impolitic, John Heilemann chats with tech-billionaire whisperer Kara Swisher about the Silicon Valley technocrats making inroads with Trump. On The Varsity, John Ourand connects with CFP
executive director Rich Clark to delve into the early successes of this year’s College Football Playoff. And on The Powers That Be, Jon Kelly reunites with Peter Hamby to decode the exodus of marquee talent from Beltway newsrooms and how Netflix is winning sports’ streaming future.

Dylan takes a close look at the post-election reporter transfers at The Washington Post
and Politico—and what this exodus reveals about the state of play at both publications. The Post, of course, has endured a well-chronicled and depressing era of finger-pointing regarding the paper’s direction. Will the latest migration of high-profile Posties mark the end of this internal blame game? Meanwhile, over at Politico, political reporter Meridith McGraw, congressional reporter Olivia Beavers, and trade and economics reporter Gavin Bade all jumped ship to The Wall
Street Journal—fomenting fresh anxiety about what’s next for the Potomac outfit as the industry prepares for Trump’s return.

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In recent years, private equity has become such an astoundingly lucrative business that
it should come as no surprise that the temptation of greater fortune sometimes leads its practitioners astray. To wit: In the several decades Bill has spent covering the P.E. industry (and, once upon a time, advising these businesses as a banker), he has never seen legal opinion as scathing as the 114-page barn burner from a Delaware Court of Chancery judge in a case involving VitalCaring Group, a business created by two mid-market P.E. firms to buy companies in the home healthcare
industry. According to the judge, the firms aided and abetted the “egregious breaches of the duty of loyalty” owed by three executives that the firms had poached from their former employer, Encompass Health Corporation. Indeed, the lawsuit illustrates how intense the competition between P.E. firms has become—and just how cutthroat the industry’s players can be. 

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The true story of the rise, fall, and resurgence of pop star Robbie Williams. The film is told from Williams'
perspective, following his journey from childhood and being the youngest member of Take That to his achievements as a solo artist, all while confronting the challenges that this level of fame and success can bring.

Recently, Marion swung by the art world’s new SoHo hangout, Manuela, a restaurant opened in late
October by the gallery Hauser & Wirth. As Marion observes, the folks at Hauser & Wirth want guests to experience the art collecting lifestyle in a down-to-earth, casual setting (complete with a very mindful seasonal locavore menu), while offering a chance for the industry’s major players to rub shoulders with the aspirational and the merely curious, alike. Strategically, combining art and hospitality has been one of the few new business innovations in art dealing since the emergence of the
global gallery decades ago, but can a simple concept of art gallery-as-restaurant bring new collectors into the fold?

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John is joined by Kara Swisher to discuss why 2025 will be the year of slap fights among tech
billionaires competing for Donald Trump’s affections. Swisher analyzes the relationships between Trump and Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and other infobarons; why the tech elite’s eagerness to cash in on the “coin-op president” promises to turn Trump 2.0 into a pay-for-play free-for-all; and the future of BlueSky as Musk accelerates X’s transformation into a “Nazi porn bar.” She also speculates on Elon’s ultimate objective: not to conquer D.C. but to relocate to Mars—a goal that Kara
and John both heartily endorse.

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The true story of the rise, fall, and resurgence of pop star Robbie Williams. The film is told from Williams'
perspective, following his journey from childhood and being the youngest member of Take That to his achievements as a solo artist, all while confronting the challenges that this level of fame and success can bring.

Rich Clark, executive director of CFP, joins John for a candid conversation about this year’s
College Football Playoff and the state of college sports in the N.I.L. era. They discuss the early successes of the inaugural 12-team format, CFP going head-to-head with the NFL, potential changes we could see down the line, the New Orleans act of terrorism that caused the Sugar Bowl to be delayed, and much more.

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Jon Kelly reunites with Peter to chew over the key departures from The Washington Post
and whether C.E.O. Will Lewis can pivot the newsroom with a wave of new talent. They also discuss Netflix’s Christmas Day NFL games and why sports rights seem destined for the big streamers.

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