| On Wednesday afternoon, I headed down to Washington for a dinner in celebration of my partner, Dylan Byers, right smack dab in the middle of the prelude to the White House Correspondents Association dinner.
What once began as a somnolent log-rolling Saturday evening tux-and-gown affair in the Hilton ballroom, attended by the media and the government officials that they held accountable, has since morphed into a veritable D.C.-shaped Mardi Gras of pronounced duration. The days preceding the dinner now offer a cavalcade of “the night before”-style events, as if this were the Oscars on the Potomac. Nearly every media organization throws its own swell bash leading up to the big enchilada: there’s the CAA event, the UTA party, the Axios after hours soirée, the Politico embassy soirée, the famous Tammy Haddad luncheon, the CNN next-day hangover brunch, and so it goes.
Dylan, the best media reporter in the business, is usually the toast of the town during this week. After all, he’s worked at many of these institutions, and usually has a better beat on what’s going on inside their walls than their own employees. It’s not unusual to hear someone introduce themself to Dylan at a party and then ask if their contract is being renewed. Anyway, we decided to convene a small mid-week Puck Private Dinner of media executives and political operatives to commence the rolling celebration, toast Dylan, and trade stories and views about the business.
The private dinner is a new-ish product innovation at Puck, a chance to bring our network and audience closer together than ever before. My partner Matt Belloni created the innovation months ago with a private event at the home of producer Jason Blum that was attended by various industry leaders. Our other partner, Lauren Sherman, also hosted a Puck Private Dinner earlier in the week that was attended by fashion industry C.E.O.s and luminaries. Dylan’s dinner was held at the historic and ageless Jefferson Hotel, on 16th and M, not far from the rush of K Street and the White House.
After a festive and effervescent cocktail hour, a group of the most influential media leaders, founders, brilliant journalists, messaging maestros and D.C. legends sat around the table and talked shop. Of course, I can’t get into the details—these private dinners are strictly off the record—but I can relate that it was refreshing to see that some of the wisest and sharpest minds in the business are dealing with the same challenges, such as the decline of the liner bundle, the rise of the influencer model, and the looming threat of generative A.I., like ChatGPT. Our business is transforming before our eyes, and we’re all trying to iterate in real time. It was reassuring to hear members of this august crowd share their candid views.
And, yes, there was some gossip. This past week, after all, was filled with some of the more stunning media news in recent quarters: Jeff Shell’s ouster at NBCU, Tucker Carlson’s defenestration at Fox News, and Don Lemon’s parachute from CNN. As an added reminder that life is unpredictable: Lemon has hired the litigator Bryan Freedman, whose defense of Chris Cuomo eventually facilitated an internal investigation that eventually forced Jeff Zucker to resign from the network after it became clear that he was involved in a relationship with company C.M.O. Allison Gollust. Meanwhile, Lemon also hired Gollust, a highly respected messaging expert, to handle his P.R., pitting the two in an optical battle against the regime that replaced Zucker. Truth is stranger than fiction.
CNN may have come up at our dinner, but if you really want to know what’s going on at the network, I encourage you to find time this weekend to read Dylan’s latest masterpiece, The Worldwide Leader in Zaz, which documents the network’s performance in its first year under David Zaslav’s WBD. And if you’re trying to imagine the next phase of evolution in the industry, I’d suggest finding time, too, to sit down with Bill Cohan’s scintillating analysis of a potential future M&A combination for WBD. The Post-Shell WBD-NBCU M&A Fantasy artfully examines the contours and shape of the idea with depth and rigor, once again demonstrating Bill’s peerlessness in the art of Wall Street coverage. Indeed, it’s the story of our time, and particularly the sort of work that you should expect from Puck.
Have a great weekend,
Jon |
