Media

DC’s Dark Bubble: Last Monday night, right in the heart of the American political power complex on K Street in Washington DC, a carjacker shot the former top official of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, who later died. It was the beginning of a spree that ended in a police shootout. The next day’s shooting was in Dupont Circle, the city’s unofficial media hub. The police have warned drivers to stay in the center lane. Crime in Washington, D.C. really is out of control, creating a strange phenomenon: The nation’s political and media elite have a true, and grounded, belief that they are living amid a crime wave. But nationally, crime is receding. The trend is particularly pronounced in the big cities in November’s swing states. Detroit, for instance, experienced its fewest murders since 1966. Is the dark D.C. bubble affecting the way politicians and journalists see the nation? We’re honestly not sure, but would be curious what you think!

How Condé Nast bought and destroyed America’s iconic music publication

In 2015, Condé Nast was nearing a deal to buy the music site Pitchfork, its first major editorial acquisition in years. But executives needed to be sure that the site, founded in 1996, could really meet the glossy empire’s editorial standards. So they asked New Yorker editor-in-chief David Remnick whether Pitchfork’s content was consistent with other Condé brands. Remnick, a music fan and Pitchfork reader, signed off, backing a deal the company believed would help connect the aging legacy content brands with a new generation of audiences.

Last month, Semafor broke the news that Condé Nast will fold the publication into GQ, laying off Pitchfork’s top editors and at least 10 other longtime staff writers, some of whom had joined the music media outlet when it was a Chicago-based blog in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

It was a remarkable fall for the most important music publication of its generation, the tastemaker of an indie music scene that eventually subsumed much of mainstream pop music. And even as its GenX and old millennial fans aged and tastemaking shifted to platforms and influencers, Pitchfork remained the premier publication for music criticism, its year-end lists synonymous with critical acclaim. Now it will be an arm of a men’s magazine whose business revolves around searchable ecommerce lists for the best chore coats.

It was equally remarkable because it wasn’t all that long ago, Pitchfork represented Condé Nast’s digital future.

As Pitchfork grew from a niche blog to the tastemaker of the indie music wave, and from Chicago to Brooklyn, bankers began to circle. VCs offered to inject capital. The swaggering Vice repeatedly suggested an acquisition that would’ve made Pitchfork the company’s flagship music arm. Founder Ryan Schreiber and longtime CEO Chris Kaskie were wary of selling to a partner who, in exchange for funding, would demand rapid growth. “Scale/investment always felt wrong and we said no to all of it, especially from the VC/PE world,” Kaskie told me in an email.

Scott Greenstein is the President and Chief Content Officer of SiriusXM and leads company’s programming and advertising sales.

⁛ News

POTUS Punting: For the second year in a row, President Joe Biden has declined to participate in the traditional pre-Super Bowl interview. Last year, the White House pitted Fox’s various news groups against each other, and blamed internal corporate conflict for its decision to cancel. This year, White House communications director Ben LaBolt said the White House hopes “viewers enjoy watching what they tuned in for — the game.” Poor campaign strategy and “optics” is one thing: The reason presidents traditionally participated in the pre-Super Bowl interview was the ability to draft off of the most watched television event of the year. In an environment where media attention is increasingly fractured, this is even more valuable. But beyond the giant, waving the political red flag of a major candidate seeking the presidency and passing up an opportunity to take advantage of the biggest platform possible, it’s pretty bleak news for journalism when a Democratic president running on restoring American norms won’t sit down one-on-one with a serious mainstream television or print reporter. The White House loves to complain that the media doesn’t cover the president’s successes. Yet given an opportunity, Biden punts.

Tucker at the Bolshoi: Tucker Carlson was spotted at Moscow’s famous ballet, prompting reasonable speculation that he’s in town to interview Vladimir Putin. Carlson’s X-centric media venture has been slipping steadily out of relevance, but he represents exactly the kind of marginal but hard-to-ignore voice Moscow seeks to promote, and an interview would give Putin a platform to fuel Congressional Republicans’ opposition to aiding Ukraine.

Anger at the Journal: Wall Street Journal editor Emma Tucker is facing significant internal blowback over cuts the paper made to its Washington, D.C. bureau last week. Since joining the paper last year, Tucker has demoted top editors and made moves to restructure the paper’s editorial departments. But last week’s cuts of at least 20 editors and journalists in Washington prompted criticism from the staff union and open anger in the newsroom. One person familiar with her plans told Semafor that Tucker is headed to D.C. to address the bureau on Monday, but will likely face a frosty or outright hostile reception among remaining staff.

Killing The Messenger: Adding insult to injury, the Messenger emailed staff last week requesting that the company’s employees send company laptops back at their own expense. Some staff countered that if the company wants their laptops back, it will need to pay up.

Gli abbonamenti: Italy’s Il Post, an explainer-heavy digital news site, has hit 80,000 paid subscribers to a Guardian-style membership program, its founder Luca Sofri tells us. It’s a bit of rare good news in an embattled business, for an explainer-heavy, youth-oriented site that has “managed to build a trustworthy news brand in a media ecosystem awash in sensational stories, gossip, sex scandals, and outright fabrication.”

Dept. of Corrections: We included a chart reflecting media layoffs, rather news layoffs, in last weeks’ newsletter. Thanks to Institute for Independent Journalists founder Katherine Reynolds Lewis for the catch. Here’s the accurately grim chart.

☊ Audio

Still a few bucks in podcasts: Joe Rogan could make up to $250 million from his new deal with Spotify for the most listened to podcast in the U.S.

The mechanics: The deal will see Rogan get a share of the revenue his show generates on the platforms, part of a wider push by Spotify to pay smaller minimum guarantees to its talent, and instead aim to distribute risk through revenue-sharing deals.

✰ Hollywood

Paramount Auction: Byron Allen is pushing his way into the Paramount Global sale, and support in Washington could balance out Hollywood’s dismissive view of the mogul.

The Best/Worst Job in Hollywood: The Great Mentioner is hard at work spinning up names to replace Netflix film boss Scott Stuber.

Poor Elmo: Larry David is promoting another season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” as only he can: By throttling a muppet.

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