Some news: Business Insider is undergoing a staff reduction today. I’m told fewer than 5% of the newsroom is being affected. Here’s the note, from Editor-in-Chief Jamie Heller

Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, just sent a note to employees saying that lawyers for the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook mass shooting are going to seek emergency relief from higher courts tomorrow. Calls today’s ruling “newly insane, unprecedented legal stalling.”

some late-breaking news on @theonion.com’s quest to take over Infowars: A Texas appeals court just stayed the turnover of the site to the official who inked the agreement with an affiliate of The Onion. This puts the deal in bizarre legal limbo for now. More TK.

news: The FT is offering buyouts. Pay determined by length of service. However, "for this year only, we have agreement to lift the cap on individual payments in 2026 from £100,000 to £120,000."

SCOOP with Elizabeth Williamson: The Onion has a new plan to take over Infowars. It has entered into an agreement to license the Infowars brand and plans to operate it as a comedy site. A Texas judge must approve the deal. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/b...

NPR: Employees may NOT bet on the Tiny Desk!!

Washington Post C.E.O. Jeff D'Onofrio emailed employees last week, expressing hope the company will be break-even this year and profitable thereafter. He also cited three priorities for 2026: "journalistic excellence, data, cost mastery & productivity, and disruptive growth."

NEW: A judge has granted The Wall Street Journal's motion to dismiss President Trump's complaint over its Epstein reporting storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

scoop: more than 1,000 directors, writers, actors and other entertainment industry professionals have signed an open letter opposing Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/b...

New: federal Judge hands NPR and PBS a victory over President Trump: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/b...

Scoop with @jessicatesta.bsky.social: CNBC and MS NOW parent Versant is among the companies in talks to acquire Vox Media's podcast biz www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/b...

NEWS: Axios is cutting 11 people across national, local, news desk visuals and social:

After The Washington Post cut its newsroom roughly in half in February, I teamed up with @katierobertson.bsky.social @erikwemple.bsky.social to examine why its owner, Jeff Bezos, was insisting on major cuts after years of investment. The answer is here: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/b...

NPR is doing a thing

tidbit: I’m told The Washington Post town hall with Matt Murray and Jeff D’onofrio is underway. Per source, Matt kicked it off with a shoutout to the lawyers representing Hannah Natanson, leading the room in applause

scooplet: Mathias Dopfner, C.E.O. of Axel Springer (Politico, Business Insider, Welt) met with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles earlier today. Source says it was an introductory, get-to-know-you meeting.

NEW: “CBS Evening News” producer Alicia Hastey sends a bombshell farewell note: Stories are “evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations.”

“I’m glad Will Lewis has been fired. I wish it had happened before he fired all my friends.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/t...

NEW: A eulogy for The Post's sports department, which transformed the press box forever and created some of the best sportswriters in America www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...

NEWS: The cuts were so severe that at least one department head asked to leave The Post rather than be included in the planning. Peter Finn, The Post's international editor, requested that he be laid off once he learned about the scope of the cuts to his section. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...

A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."

New: Washington Post Executive Editor Matt Murray and HR Chief Wayne Connell tell employees to stay home for a zoom webinar ahead of “significant actions across the company.” Widely expected layoffs are scheduled to begin today.

News: Former CBS digital exec Christy Tanner is the new CEO of NYPR (the parent organization of WNYC and WQXR)

Jim Butcher's "Twelve Months" is at the top of the NYT's best-seller list this week. I went down to Colorado in March to profile Jim and discovered some surprising connections between his life and the fantasy world of his ultra-popular Dresden Files www.nytimes.com/2025/05/19/b...

The Wall Street Journal opinion page allows President Trump to impugn The Journal (and flout its style guide):

Among the batch of newly released emails from Jeffrey Epstein: Epstein telling Peter Thiel he would “gladly share…expenses for the Gawker suit.” This was sent the day after @rmac.bsky.social and @mattdrange.bsky.social reported in Forbes that Thiel was behind the lawsuit that would bankrupt Gawker

More: Matt Murray is expected to be seated next to Don Graham, the former owner of the Post, according to the seating chart.

Of note: On the attendee roster of this D.C. fete, Bezos is listed as the founder of Amazon, Blue Origin and Prometheus, but not as the owner of The Washington Post

More: Will Lewis, the current CEO of The Post, is also expected to attend, as is Matt Murray, the executive editor, according to the seating chart.

some Washington Post news: Jeff Bezos is expected to attend the Alfalfa Club dinner in Washington, D.C. tonight, according to a seating chart obtained by @tylerpager.bsky.social. He is sitting at a table near Fred Ryan, the former Washington Post publisher. President Trump will also be there.

Just a quick heads-up that @mulbenmulinben.bsky.social is not me. I’ve heard the account is messaging people.

New, with @erikwemple.bsky.social and @katierobertson.bsky.social: The Washington Post is planning cuts that are set to reshape one of America's foremost news organizations

The CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Pat Harrison, just delivered her last words to the board. "Together, we will prove that a nation of neighbors will survive."

During Bari Weiss's employee town hall at CBS News today, Gayle King gave a passionate speech, rallying the troops and criticizing leakers: "I'll be curious to see how long it takes for this to get out. 'Cause it'll be somebody in this room." w/ Mike Grynbaum

some (rare) good news for the journalism industry: The Philadelphia Inquirer is profitable www.inquirer.com/opinion/comm...

new w/ @erikwemple.bsky.social: The Washington Post has reversed course on its Olympics coverage — again www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/b...

NEW: When Congress killed The Corporation for Public Broadcasting in July, experts predicted scores of stations could go dark. Six months later, vanishingly few have shut down. Inside the public media apocalypse that wasn't (yet.) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/b...

NEWS: Bari Weiss will hold an all-hands meeting to discuss the future of CBS News tomorrow, per note that just went out to employees.

More: @erikwemple and I have been told that employees on The Washington Post foreign staff have been told explicitly that their jobs are at risk. There was also a directive barring reporters from going to high-risk zones as of Feb. 1, which some have taken as a precursor to cuts.

news w/ @erikwemple.bsky.social: The Washington Post's foreign correspondents, including those in Ukraine, are pleading with Jeff Bezos not to slash the paper's coverage of the world. "We urge you to consider how the proposed layoffs will certainly lead us first to irrelevance and later extinction."

Noteworthy: Warner Bros. says CNN will generate roughly $600 million in profit this year, down from $1 billion a decade ago www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...

Breaking: Netflix goes all-cash in bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. w/ @laurenhirsch.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/b...

scoop: A top editor at Axel Springer was ousted after a workplace investigation into his conduct at an alcohol-filled Christmas party www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/b...

In recent months, there have been questions about whether the Corporation of Public Broadcasting would go into "hibernation" -- biding its time in case new funding eventually became available. That won't happen. The board of the CPB has voted to dissolve the organization.

Happy new year! If there's something going on at your media company you think the public needs to know about, drop me a line on Signal: benmullin.13

scoop: During a heated conference call this spring, the head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting told Katherine Maher, the C.E.O. of NPR, that she should resign. My profile of Katherine Maher, which goes behind-the-scenes of the most consequential fight in NPR’s history.

NEW: Bari Weiss addresses her decision to hold last night's CECOT story on the CBS News morning editorial call: "Our viewers come first, not a listing schedule or anything else..."

scoop: Shelly Banjo to be named deputy editor in chief at @semafor.com, reporting to @semaforben.bsky.social

Barry Diller's advice to Paramount and Netflix? "Be prepared for a long siege." David Ellison's war with Netflix is a re-run of Diller's quest for Paramount three decades ago. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/b...

news: USA Today Editor in Chief Caren Bohan is exiting the company, per sources familiar. She will be replaced in the interim by Michael McCarter.