The ESPN Catch-22, WaPo Rumbles, CNN Plot Points

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Good evening, I’m Dylan Byers.

Welcome back to In The Room, my biweekly private email on the inner workings of the American media. Tonight, some gut checks on ESPN’s fate, CNN’s digital ambitions and Fred Ryan’s future at the Washington Post.

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The ESPN Catch-22, WaPo Rumbles, CNN Plot Points

DYLAN BYERS

Jimmy Pitaro, the president-turned-recently-appointed chairman of ESPN, must be feeling a little bit of whiplash these days. When Pitaro was first promoted to run the network, in 2018, replacing the legendary and beloved John Skipper following his sudden exit, ESPN was viewed as core to the overall business—a linear cash cow and a key differentiator for Disney in the streaming wars. In the five years since, however, his parentco’s plans have ricocheted back and forth and back again, from public commitments about ESPN’s essential place in its portfolio to very real explorations of a sale or spin-off...

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