Welcome to this week’s edition of Confider, the media newsletter that pulls back the curtain to reveal what’s really going on inside the world’s most powerful navel-gazing industry. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here.
EXCLUSIVE — PUSHKIN IN PERIL: Forty years of friendship between media titans Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg is being seriously tested as Pushkin Industries, the podcast company they co-founded together, navigates some extremely perilous cultural and financial headwinds, Confider has learned. Read the full Confider scoop here.
EXCLUSIVE — BEHIND THE FALL OF JEZEBEL: Months before G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller killed off Jezebel, management tasked staff with coming up with ad-friendly packages for the sales team to pitch to prospective sponsors, several former staffers told Confider. The request was handed down this past spring to Jezebel’s then-editor-in-chief Laura Bassett and called for employees—already stretched thin—to brainstorm on five ideas to make the site more “sellable” to ad buyers concerned about the site’s edgy content. After coming up with ideas, multiple sources said, the editorial staff was essentially ghosted, never receiving feedback from the sales team or management. In fact, interim editor-in-chief Lauren Tousignant told Confider she never met once with sales before last week’s shuttering. “It is not uncommon for editorial to come up with content packages for the ad sales team to take to the marketing community,” a G/O Media spokesperson said when reached for comment. A common task, indeed, but one that underscored hostilities between management and Jezebel, especially, as 404 Media first reported, the sales team eventually pressed Jezebel to nix the site’s “Sex. Celebrity. Politics. With Teeth” motto as a last-ditch effort to improve “brand safety.” G/O Media bosses also told Jezebel staff earlier this year to comply with company policy by removing curse words from headlines because it would negatively impact ad revenue, especially from programmatic ads. Additionally, Confider has learned that months before Axios reported that Lea Goldman, G/O Media’s deputy editorial director, led the company’s efforts to sell Jezebel, editorial director Merrill Brown—who was let go last week—proposed the idea of Bassett fundraising to purchase the site herself. After Bassett announced she’d left Jezebel in August, citing frustrations with Spanfeller and management, Brown suggested that she could use her Twitter clout to crowdfund the money to buy Jezebel. While Brown didn’t have the authority to offer the site to Bassett or a group of Jezebel alum, he did suggest they could buy the IP if they were able to raise $2 million, the amount needed to run the site for a full year. Defector, a site launched by ex-Deadspin staffers who quit en masse in 2019 after Spanfeller told them to “stick to sports,” first reported on Brown’s conversation with Bassett. Following Bassett’s exit, Jezebel staff was met with radio silence from management until they finally scored a meeting with Brown and Goldman last month, during which Goldman reassured them that Spanfeller had no plans to fold the famed site. At the same time, multiple sources told us, the pair were vague and non-committal about whether Jezebel was even being shopped around. After the Axios story came out several days after the meeting, rumors swirled within the Jezebel office about potential buyers. Several staffers told Confider that at one point they’d heard that Literally Media, owners of comedy website Cracked.com, sought a women’s brand and that Jezebel could fit that bill—a rumor Goldman denied when asked directly by Tousignant. “I would go so far to say that was maybe the only definitive answer I got on anything,” she told Confider.
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EXCLUSIVE — GERALDO’S CNN DREAM: Tabloid TV legend Geraldo Rivera, who ditched Fox News this summer after 22 years, has become an ever-increasing presence on CNN since becoming a free agent. Rivera, who was fired from Fox News’ popular talk show The Five amid a “toxic” rivalry with co-host Greg Gutfeld, has made at least 11 appearances on CNN since his Fox exit, including a Sunday night sitdown with Jim Acosta. So is Rivera looking to find a new home at the cable news pioneer? Uh, maybe. After Confider texted him to see if he’s had any talks with CNN about a gig, he told us he’s had “no formal discussions,” before adding: “I think it would be a good fit.” He continued: “Do you want to be my agent? Presently, I’m unrepresented. Maybe you could make my future employment a Daily Beast project? Thanks, Geraldo.” CNN declined to comment.
Tips? We’re all ears: confider@thedailybeast.com
MORE FROM THE BEAST MEDIA DESK
—Former Fox News reporter/producer Jason Donner is suing the network, claiming they fired him for calling out their coverage of the Jan. 6 insurrection. In the lawsuit, he claims he called Fox’s control room during the MAGA riot, after the network labeled the mob “peaceful,” and told them: “I don’t want to hear any of this fucking shit on our air ever again because you’re gonna get us all killed.” More here.
—1819 News is firing back at critics who’ve taken the right-wing “investigative journalism” outlet to task for its “inhumane” outing of a local pastor, leading him to commit suicide. “We did our job,” the site’s CEO said in a recent podcast. Read about the whole sordid affair here.
—A week after Gannett announced it had hired a full-on Swiftie to cover all things Taylor Swift, the media giant revealed its dedicated Beyoncé reporter, who was only a little more cautious about fawning over their subject. “I do want to make clear I’m a Beyoncé stan, but my point in saying that was mainly to maintain my integrity as a journalist,” said Caché McClay. More here.
RECENT READS
—The Brits are coming! Well, actually, they are already here. Keith Poole at the New York Post, Emma Tucker at The Wall Street Journal, Mark Thompson at CNN, and now Will Lewis at The Washington Post. So just what is the secret sauce these top journos are bringing with them from across the pond? Find out here.
—Speaking of events across the pond: Is famed editor Graydon Carter eying a move to London? While in the city to launch a special London edition of Air Mail, he teased to the Times the reason he would consider a move to Old Blighty. Find out what it is here.
—The Washington Post last week published and then later took down an editorial cartoon depicting a Hamas leader using Palestinian children as human shields. The artwork from Michael Ramirez had been widely criticized as racist, and in a note to readers, editorial page editor David Shipley admitted to having “missed something profound, and divisive” in having published it. More here.
***WHAT ARE WE OUTRAGED ABOUT NOW?***
After Democrats took control of both chambers of Virginia’s legislature, easily won the governor’s race in deep-red Kentucky, and enshrined abortion rights in the Ohio Constitution, Fox News was more than a little pissed about yet another GOP electoral flop. So Fox did what Fox does best: Have a good old-fashioned meltdown. That was bad news for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, whom Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch had previously urged to run for president. “What an epic failure by Governor Youngkin. It’s a huge loss for him,” Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade fumed on Wednesday morning, sticking the knife in Youngkin’s White House aspirations. White House correspondent Peter Doocy also let the governor know he was toast, saying the election results were “potentially lethal to this theory that Youngkin could ride a red wave in Richmond to a last-minute presidential campaign as a dark horse Trump alternative in 2024.” While still declaring themselves “pro-life,” the network’s conservative stars seemed to suggest conservatives must learn to live with abortion if it means winning elections. “Republicans need to look at all of these numbers, and really think about what’s more important. Yes, most people that are Republicans are probably pro-life,” Ainsley Earhardt exclaimed. “And we love our babies. And I love being a mother. But what’s most important? Republicans taking over. And Republicans being able to keep our country!”
Confider will be back next week with more saucy scooplets. In the meantime, subscribe here and send us questions, complaints, or tips here.
