Pure Puckdemonium: Puck Founder Jon Kelly and WaPo Columnist David Ignatius attend The French Embassy's First Amendment Gala on March 26, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Puck)
Welcome to the latest edition of Breaker. If this email has been forwarded, you can subscribe here and send your questions and complaints here. If you have a tip contact the 24/7 Breaker Tip Hotline via text or Signal # 551 655 2343. Anonymity guaranteed!
We have brought you every twist and turn of the deal we have dubbed Air Puck since we first broke the news last month that Puck was set to acquire Air Mail. Today, as the deal is set to close imminently, we reveal the new editor of Air Mail and why The O.G. of editors, Graydon Carter, is walking away from the publication he built from scratch.
Also today, former deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal Charles Forelle has a new gig – and where he has landed may surprise you.
Plus, more layoffs at The Daily Mail, a scene report from The New Yorker Festival, and Bari Weiss continues to make waves at CBS News.
Finally, it’s Tuesday, which can mean only one thing here at Breaker – Hamish McKenzie is back with Hamish’s Hot Sauce. This week, the Substack co-founder shares his thoughts on AI deniers and how their rejection of the technology will cost them professionally.
Mentioned tonight: Jeff Bezos, David Ellison, Bill Owens, Emma Tucker, Gerry Cardinale, Marie Beaudette, Jeff Fager, Tom Cibrowski, David Remnick, Todd Boehly, Campbell Brown, Isaac Chotiner, Judd Apatow, Marshall Curry, Jelani Cobb, Sharan Shetty, Jessica Henderson, Leo Carey, Clare Malone, Zach Helfand, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Asher Perlman, Padma Lakshmi, Ken Jennings, Lucy Dacus, Amelia Dimoldenberg, Hasan Piker, Julien Baker, Zadie Smith, Kareem Rahma, Salman Rushdie, George Saunders, Ocean Vuong, Jeremy Barr, David Folkenflik, Michael Calderone, Ian Mohr, Ben Mullin, Ben Smith, Maxi Tani, Charlie Warzel, Andrew Zucker and more.
Air Pucked
(Exclusive.) The Air Puck deal is set to close this week, with an announcement expected as early as Tuesday, almost seven weeks since Breaker first reported that Jon Kelly's Puck would acquire his mentor Graydon Carter’s Air Mail.
In that time period, relations between Carter and his former assistant Kelly “went nuclear” as negotiations dragged on, according to two people familiar with the situation.
A day after Breaker broke the news that Puck would acquire Air Mail, Kelly had instructed his ad sales team to reach out to not only Puck’s advertisers but also Air Mail’s in what one person familiar with the matter described as a “disrespectful land grab.”
Several of the advertisers had long-standing relationships with Carter dating back to his days running Vanity Fair. Adding insult to injury, Kelly had also told a number of people that he – and not Carter – would be running Air Mail.
As part of the deal, both Carter and co-editor Alessandra Stanley will leave the publication, Breaker has learned.
Today, Breaker can reveal that the new editor of Air Mail is …
Bari’s Bright Ideas
(Exclusive.) Bari Weiss this week clocks up four weeks on the job as chief booker (sorry, editor-in-chief) of CBS News. Breaker hears that she has unimpressed staffers with a series of bold ideas in the 9 am call.
Last week, following the jewel heist at The Louvre, Weiss suggested they interview author Dan Brown. Staffers questioned what expertise in the matter Brown would provide CBS News viewers? Brown is well known as the bestselling author of the 2003 mystery novel, The Da Vinci Code, about a murder at The Louvre.
On Tuesday’s 9 am call, Weiss suggested a story about how people who are scared of climate change aren’t having children. “She is showing her worst self,” one CBS News journalist told Breaker. “People are running to avoid her.”
Layoffs, as previously reported by Breaker, are expected to begin on Wednesday morning. But that didn’t stop Weiss from announcing a new hire of sorts on Tuesday. Former Wall Street Journal Deputy Editor…
The Breaker Pod
Former Executive Producer of 60 Minutes, Jeff Fager. who spent 37 years at CBS News, is this week's guest on The Breaker Pod.
From the Paramount building at Junior’s Restaurant & Bakery (cheers to the owner, Alan Rosen, for inviting us uptown). Fager says he thinks it is a “mistake” that CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is reporting directly to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, describing the structure as “really unusual.” He then went on to question Weiss’s influence on the hallowed turf at 60 Minutes and how reporting on Israel and Gaza will likely change under her leadership
In a compelling chinwag, Fager also shared his thoughts on the rise and influence of independent media and questioned what legacy news outlets can learn from modern digital publications.
We have a stellar line-up of guests to come, so make sure you check us out and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pods.