Media

Gaza infighting roils Conde Nast

Condé Nast’s high-profile head of diversity quietly stepped down in June amid bitter internal tensions over alleged antisemitism and divisive arguments about the war in Gaza.

The moves earlier this year at the magazine giant, which publishes the New Yorker, Vogue, Wired, GQ, and Vanity Fair, among others, went nearly unnoticed outside its 1 World Trade Center headquarters. But they closely mirror the more public flare-ups this year in US media, most recently at CBS, and were an explicit example of the uncomfortable underlying tensions along generational, ideological, and sometimes ethnic lines.

In September 2020, Condé Nast hired its first head of diversity, equity and inclusion. It was a point of pride for the magazine publisher; Yashica Olden, a veteran DEI officer, became the highest-ranking nonwhite employee at a company that had been roiled by a year of internal frustrations around race. Olden had a long and accomplished resume leading diversity at WPP, the United Nations World Food Program, Credit Suisse, and other major organizations.

“I’m looking forward to her insight and counsel in helping move our workplace culture forward,” Stan Duncan, the company’s chief people officer, said in a press statement at the time.

But by the end of her tenure at the legacy magazine publisher, she herself was the target of complaints of discrimination.

The complaints began immediately after Hamas’ deadly rampage on Oct. 7, 2023. Some Jewish and pro-Israel employees at Condé Nast had been fuming about the coverage of the war as well as the company’s internal resources for supporting them. They were upset by what they perceived as anti-Israel activism and speech by editorial employees, including at least some staffers’ participation in pro-Palestinian protests.

Jewish staff deserved their own employee resource groups, they argued, similar to groups set up within the company for other minority groups. They took the proposal to Olden, who said that the company would support the idea — as long as there could be similar groups for members of all religions, including Muslim staff.

Some believed Olden was not taking them seriously, and filed a formal complaint accusing her of antisemitism. It was an uncomfortable task for human resources, which found itself investigating someone who organizationally sat adjacent to their department. The issue remained a point of contention throughout Olden’s tenure until she exited the organization in June.

Olden did not return a request for comment. A spokesperson for Condé Nast declined to comment.

Building the ‘HBO of short form’

I first met Matthew Segal when his company, ATTN, was a slick, celebrity-focused rival to Vice and BuzzFeed that specialized in videos about huge public figures pushing good causes. ATTN dodged the bullets that hit its generational competitors, selling for a reported $100 million to Candle in 2022. In an interview this week, Segal recalled how attempting to explain private equity to his grandfather got him out of the publishing business.

Now, ATTN is a creative agency that Segal casts as the high-end “HBO” of the vertical video boom. But Segal said he’s operating in the worst digital information space he’s ever seen, one that government action is unlikely to fix. (A possible TikTok ban would be “a massive transfer of wealth and engagement to Meta, and then Google.”)

Segal said he believes social platforms ought to be pressed to put hundreds of millions of dollars into a new digital literacy campaign — and he wants ATTN to play a central role in programming it. One question from our chat:

Ben: Was there a moment when you were like, “OK, we have 100 billion views — it ought to be easy to monetize”?

Matthew: There was a moment actually when I realized that un-monetized views were the worst business to be in in the entire world. It was when I went down to Palm Beach, Florida to visit my grandfather, who’s now passed. He was a door and window salesman.

He was like, “Explain your business model.” I’m like, “Well, we’ve raised this venture capital money and we get all these views and then ideally we’re gonna sell to advertisers,” and he goes, “So, are you making or losing money?” I said, “We’re losing money.” He goes, “I don’t understand that. What kind of business loses money?” And I was like, “It’s called venture capital.” He goes, “This is a bad business. You gotta make money, son.” And so I actually kind of had a eureka moment.

I remember going back to our management team, and this is where I was ahead of the curve. I said, “We’re done. We’re going to pivot to profitability. We are now going to prioritize a culture of making money, finding ways to get all of our content paid for by brands, third parties, platforms themselves, philanthropists, NGOs, whoever will fund it or finance it — anyone we can, but we’re not going to deficit finance.”

Sabrina Tavernise to leave Times audio

Sabrina Tavernise, the co-host of The New York Times’ The Daily, is planning to leave the podcast, two people familiar with the situation told Semafor. The Times has already begun searching for her replacement, auditioning potential personalities to co-host alongside Michael Barbaro. A spokesperson for the Times declined to comment on the move.

Tavernise’s departure comes as the Times has begun to overhaul its growing audio empire. Last week, Barbaro announced to Daily listeners that the show’s archives, along with those of the rest of the Times’ podcasts, were going behind a paywall.

It’s part of the Gray Lady’s push to reach 15 million paid subscribers by the end of 2027, which includes driving free audio listeners to the Times’ standalone audio app (It also includes rolling out new games like Zorse, which Semafor first reported the Times was beta testing earlier this week.)

Barry Diller talks fellow moguls

IAC Chairman Barry Diller offers a mogul’s-eye view on two of Donald Trump’s key supporters, Rupert Murdoch and Elon Musk, to Michael Wolff and James Truman’s Fire and Fury podcast this week, according to an early transcript shared with Semafor.

Diller on Musk: “Capacious, but often addled.”

Diller on Murdoch: “While Rupert has been, in his entire life, anti-establishment, he has also toadied up to whatever the establishment of the moment is, in the most toady ways.

The show will be live Monday morning.

Nick Thompson is CEO of The Atlantic, which recently announced that it will increase the frequency of its print edition.

⁛ News

All clear: The NewsGuild has cleared one of its top union organizers over complaints that her political speech around the war in Gaza was damaging to the union and its employees.

Earlier this year, Semafor reported that some unionized journalists at the New York Times, Reuters, and other newsrooms were frustrated by Guild leaders’ criticism of coverage of Israel’s military actions in Gaza. In particular, these members singled out tweets by New York NewsGuild organizer Nastaran Mohit that admonished Israel and criticized media coverage of the war in the Times, the union’s largest and most important unionized newsroom.

The complaints prompted the Guild to bring in outside counsel Melissa Woods of Cohen, Weiss, and Simon. After several months, the investigator shared her findings with the Guild, concluding that Mohit did not create a hostile work environment and had not violated any existing Guild policies or bylaws. The union plans to announce the findings to membership later this week.

Telegraphic: A right-leaning U.S.-based publisher trying to buy the Telegraph has approached the Koch-founded Stand Together (also a Semafor investor) to chip in, Semafor scooped.

⁋ Publishing

Best name: The trade publication for meatpackers is called Meatingplace. Thank you, New York Times.

⁌ TV

Ready for some football: The NFL is aware that the web of overlapping broadcasting rights could make it complicated for some viewers to find the games they want to watch. Earlier this month, the league launched a “Ways to Watch” toolkit online that maps out a personalized schedule for where to watch national, local and out-of-market games each week depending on each viewer’s location.

⁜ Tech

Crypto cash: Earlier this week, Semafor first reported that the crypto media company Blockworks had launched Blockworks Advisory, a consulting business to supplement its events, editorial, and research arms. The company’s CEO told Semafor he expects it to generate several million dollars next year.

On this week’s episode of Mixed Signals from Semafor Media, Ben and Nayeema take on the critique of bias in the media — a conversation that’s especially timely now, just weeks away from a US election and amid an expanding conflict in the Middle East. Along with Bennet, they try to make sense of what we see as media bias and the moral questions that journalists have to grapple with every day.

Listen to the latest episode of Mixed Signals now.

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