(Exclusive.) When Axel Springer announced they were buying Politico (including Politico Europe and Protocol) in the summer of 2021, they splashed the cash to the tune of $1 billion. In 2015, the German media giant expanded their portfolio by buying Business Insider for $343 million. Then in 2020, they bought a majority stake in Morning Brew for $75 million.

It was a much-anticipated U.S. expansion from Axel CEO Mathias Döpfner. 

When Breaker encountered Döpfner at the White House correspondents' weekend in 2022, he was accompanied by Jan Bayer, President News Media USA and Deputy Chairman. The pair were clearly enjoying their newfound status in Washington.

Years later, Axel Springer's U.S expansion looks to be on shaky ground. Business Insider faces an uphill battle owing to the rise of A.I., and Politico’s had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 2025, which they would probably rather forget.

As far back as May, Breaker reported on more than 40 staff departures from Politico, with many saying the management style of senior executive editor Alex Burns was partly to blame. This was followed by the news in September that one of Politico’s best-connected journalists, Rachael Bade, was leaving the publication after the cancellation of a promised podcast. She now helms her own Substack, The Inner Circle.

Döpfner himself sprinkled salt into Politico’s wound in the fall when he openly criticized the accuracy of their reporting: "If you don't have the stability to stand the heat, then you shouldn't be in publishing." And finally, there was the forgettable Donald Trump interview earned after Politico questionably named him in their list of the “28 most powerful people expected to shape European policy and politics in 2026.”

Now, Politico is on the hunt for a new editor-in-chief (new developments on that below) after co-founder John Harris announced late last week he was stepping aside to become Chairman. 

This caps off a baffling end-of-year for Harris. On the same day that Breaker delivered the scoop on impending Politico layoffs set for early 2026, Harris and CEO Goli Sheikholeslami co-authored a cryptic memo sent to all staff and reviewed by Breaker. 

“We can’t predict what 2026 will look like with any more precision than most of us could have summoned a year ago about the seismic events of 2025,” the dynamic duo wrote. “The one safe bet is that the next twelve months will be as tumultuous as the past twelve.”

On January 13, it was announced that Politico would be laying off 3% of its workforce, around 30 staff.

Now Breaker has learned that top U.S. Axel Springer exec Gabriel Brotman is...

On Thursday, we brought you a saucy scooplet about Variety’s Tatiana Siegel being poached by The California Post to join Page Six Hollywood.

Less than two hours after Breaker hit your inboxes, The Wrap published a story headlined “Tatiana Siegel Leaves Variety for California Post’s Page Six at Launch / Exclusive.”

“Variety Executive Editor Tatiana Siegel quit the trade publication to join Rupert Murdoch’s California Post on Thursday, where she will write for the new tabloid’s Page Six, one of several high-profile Hollywood trade poaches, The Wrap has learned.”

So how does The Wrap learn such things? Why, by reading Breaker, of course. 

Wrap reporter, Benjamin Lindsay, reached out to both Siegel and The California Post “in hopes of confirming Breaker’s report,” and then Wrap CEO and Editor-in-Chief Sharon Waxman stuck their bylines on the story and claimed it as a scoop for their website.

So, late Thursday, we reached out to Waxman, kindly asking her to update her story to credit Breaker for delivering the scoop first. In the subscription business, every link counts, and a missed credit can easily lead to lost revenue (in fact, two media newsletters picked up the yarn and linked to The Wrap story). 

“You behaved abysmally toward me in the past,” Waxman texted us. “You did not show basic journalistic ethics, much less courtesy. I’m not inclined to extend courtesy back when none is shown. If you are interested in apologizing for your behavior toward me in the past, I am open to a conversation. Otherwise, I am not.”

Breaker has credited and linked back to The Wrap multiple times in the last several months, and we have never reported or written about Waxman. So for a minute there, it was truly baffling to square away Waxman’s response.

But then it dawned on us. A 2021 Daily Beast report, authored by former colleagues Justin Barragona and Diana Falzone, headlined ‘Hollywood Media Mogul Is ‘Degrading’ Boss From Hell, Her Staffers Say.’

‘It’s like a scene from a bad Hollywood movie: an employee takes off a few hours from work to bring his fiancée to the oncologist for a cancer check-up, only to have the tyrannical boss call and curse him out for slacking off,” Barragona and Falzone report, in the article Breaker had no involvement in (though Breaker was employed at The Daily Beast at the time.)

Only, according to one former employee of the entertainment and media news site The Wrap, the above scenario really happened.

“What are you thinking?” founder and CEO Sharon Waxman bellowed at the employee in the fall of 2020, he recalled. “Does she not have a mother or a brother or a family member that can do that shit for her?”

Barragona and Falzone spoke with 20 current and former staffers of Waxman’s who detailed a toxic environment and culture of fear at the website. 

In the article, (again which Breaker had nothing to do with) Barragona and Falzone report Waxman, who now writes for The New York Times’ opinion section, “has often had screaming outbursts at employees, engaged in demeaning behavior, and berated employees for dealing with family emergencies during work hours, including threatening one staffer for working from home to care for their injured child.”

So, we were curious about the culture at The Wrap four years after The Daily Beast report. Surely Waxman saw the error of her ways and has changed?

 “Sharon has views she holds strongly, and The Wrap is a weapon she can wield,” one recently departed staffer told Breaker, describing unglued behaviour by Waxman, including sending Slack messages in the middle of the night, stories being published without reporters being consulted on edits, and comments from subjects being deleted from stories.

Proving that The Wrap is a weigh station and not a destination, in the last year alone, Waxman has lost several key hires.

Last February, The Wrap touted “4 High-Level Hires in Business and Media Coverage, Newsroom Strategy and Video.” All four of those top-level hires have since left The Wrap. 

​Director of photo and video, Jennifer Laski, left after just a year to join The Ankler. Media Editor Brian Lowry quit to join Status after just eight months. Tom Lowry (no relation) left after less than a year to join Sportico while Business Editor, Graham Starr, left after a month. 

In addition to that, Head of Social, Tucker de Saulnier, lasted just three months before quitting without a job to go to, Tech and Media Reporter, Sean Burch, quit after six months, and on Friday, Chief Revenue Officer, Lynne Segall, quit to join The Ankler as Publisher.

“If you can’t hold on to SVPs for a year, it's reflective of a destabilized newsroom,” said the recently departed Wrap employee. “If you are working at The Wrap, you are working at managing Sharon. She’s a nightmare.” 

The Wrap will soon launch a Sunday night media newsletter (because that's what the world needs — another media newsletter) to be helmed by media reporter Corbin Bolies and overseen by Media Editor Michael Calderone. Let’s hope Sharon Whackjob learns one of the tenets of journalism in time for then.

Have you been whacked by The Whackjob? Have a tip about Sharon Waxman and The Wrap? Contact our tipline 24/7 Breaker Tip Hotline via text or Signal # 551 655 2343 or email. Anonymity guaranteed!