Kindle the romance: Lauren Sánchez and Jeff Bezos attend the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Week show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 26, 2026. (Photo by Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images)
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!
In tonight’s edition, with layoffs expected as early as next week, we report from inside The Washington Post, where a “total fear and paralysis” has taken over newsroom staff. This follows yet another example of the growing distrust between management and journalists, with a story potentially critical of an Amazon product being sidelined.
Also, Larry and David Ellison are the media story of our time. Between Larry’s investment in TikTok and son, David’s, acquisition of Paramount, and a continuing play for Warner Brothers. Discovery, it was only a matter of time before a savvy operator would start shopping a book proposal. Tonight, we reveal the prominent journalist who is closing in on a six-figure deal for a book about The Ellisons.
Plus, layoffs hit publishing house Simon & Schuster, and when we asked, you delivered – Breaker readers, your responses to our Penske “Don't say Monopolistic” collective noun think-tank are below.
Finally, it’s Thursday, which means Journo Jobs is back. Tonight, we have gigs at Vox, CNN, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and the New York Post.
Mentioned tonight: Jeff Bezos, Will Lewis, Barry Diller, Jay Penske, David Remnick, Joe Flint, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer, Charlotte Klein, Max Stein, Natalie Jarvey, Reeves Wiedeman, Tim Davie, Michael Savage, Jeffrey Trachtenberg, and more.
Bezos Kindles WaPo
(Exclusive.) At the start of the year, a reporter at The Washington Post began contacting people in the publishing world.
Just weeks earlier, Michael Cader at Publishers Marketplace broke a story about a new feature for Amazon’s Kindle that raised concerns in the book industry.
‘Kindle's New "Ask this Book" Uses Generative AI to Create An In-Book Chatbot - Without Permission or Rights - Publishers Lunch,’ was the headline on the December 12th story.
According to Amazon, the new AI feature “serves as your expert reading assistant, instantly answering questions about plot details, character relationships, and thematic elements without disrupting your reading flow.”
“It’s an in-book chatbot. You ask any question about the book, and a generative AI process provides you answers,” Cader writes, but the issue is larger than it appears on the surface.
"Authors have been fighting diligently to limit the encroachment of generative AI in courts and in contracts, and now there is a new front in those battles as Amazon has quietly helped themselves to thousands of texts, with more planned soon,” the piece went on to report.
When questioned if there was an opt-out to protect authors and publishers, Amazon spokesperson Ale Iraheta said, “To ensure a consistent reading experience, the feature is always on, and there is no option for authors or publishers to opt titles out.”
While there are plenty of publishers and authors ready to vent about Amazon’s sleight of hand, the Washington Post story has…
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The Ellisons Turn The Page
(Exclusive.) At Breaker, we joked back in mid-January about whether a New York Magazine cover story about Larry and David Ellison by writer Reeves Wiedeman was a “book proposal in drag.”
Now, Breaker has learned a prominent journalist is closing in on a six-figure book deal to detail the trials and tribulations of the family whose dealmaking is fast enshrining them as the next Murdochs.
That journalist is New York Times writer…