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Springer in his Step: Mathias Dopfner, chief executive officer of Axel Springer, attends the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2019, in Sun Valley, Idaho. (Photo by Drew Angerer/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, we take you inside The Spectator’s Annual Summer Party, a money can't buy ticket featuring the who’s who of media, politics, and society. Which newly minted owner of a prestigious newspaper was locked in conversation with Rupert Murdoch’s most powerful UK exec? Find out below.
With a heatwave hitting New York City as we head into the 4th of July weekend, crank the air-con and catch up on Breaker’s massive month of scoops. We featured detailed coverage of the “60 Minutes” bloodbath, once again ran a keen eye over The New York Times subscription numbers, and we named the potential Gray Lady successors to Joe Kahn.
And it’s Thursday, which means Journo (and Comms) Jobs is back. Tonight we have a bumper edition with opportunities at NPR, Semafor, Vox, BBC, TED, The New York Times, Axios, The Information, Forbes, and The New York Post.
Finally, tonight, Breaker dropped by the BBC’s Broadcasting House in central London on Wednesday to join Katie Razzall and Ros Atkins on Radio 4’s The Media Show. We discussed Bari Weiss and CBS News, the Comcast spin-off, the rise of independent media, and how we got Breaker off the ground. You can listen here.
Mentioned tonight: Dawn Chmielewski, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, Bill Barrow, Maxine Kelly, Dana Brown, Juliette Garside, Michael Savage, Stephen Battaglio, Jim Waterson, Edith Hancock, Brian Roberts, Charlotte Tobitt, Juleanna Glover, A.G. Sulzberger, Elon Musk, Ike Barinholtz, Andrew Garfield, Nicole Sperling, Sam Altman, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Lachlan Murdoch, Sarah Murdoch, Keir Starmer, David Cameron, George Osborne, Ron DeSantis, Rebekah Brooks, Keith “Keefy” Poole, Paul “The Big Cheese” Cheesbrough, Victoria Newton, James Slack, Harry Cole, Tony Gallagher, Ben Taylor, Richard Wallace, Tom Newton Dunn, Michael Gove, Sir Paul Marshall, Paul Dacre, Sir William Shawcross, Shabana Mahmood, Yvette Cooper, Morgan McSweeney, Tyrone Mings, Jay Weatherill, Katie Lam, Robert Jenrick, Sir Alan Parker, David Baddiel, Jeffrey Archer, Jeremy Kyle, Isabel Oakeshott, Freddie Sayers, Freddie Gray, Lara Prendergast, Gus Carter, Tim Shipman, Kemi Badenoch, Piers Morgan, Emily Maitlis, Charlie Potter, Chris Evans, Chris Williams, Richard Tice, Amber de Botton, Bridget Harrison, Paula Froelich, Amol Rajan, Allister Heath, Nick Moar, Robert Peston, David Rhodes, Mark Austin, Beth Rigby, Jon Craig, Sam Coates, Martin Ivens, Anne McElvoy, Nick Robinson, Katy Balls, Daisy Dunlop, Gary Gibbon, Paul Staines, Mickey Dow, Rupert Murdoch, Mathias Döpfner and more.
Speccie Summer Shindig
It’s the hottest ticket of the London summer party season. The Spectator’s annual summer soiree was held on Wednesday in the garden of its Westminster HQ.
Looming large over the shindig was the gentle German giant, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, the center of attention after Monday's close of the Telegraph sale. Döpfner was locked in conversation with …
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Breaker's Best of June
When Breaker launched last year, we had a simple vision to report on what people in the media industry were really talking about from the newsroom to the boardroom. If we felt an irregularity, Breaker would be there to uncover the whole story. Our plan each week is to tell you something you don’t know and make you laugh at something you do know.
Every month, we bring you a wrap of some of our best recent columns, just in case you missed a saucy scoop or want to catch up on Breaker’s best yarns.
So if you’re new to Breaker, welcome. Here’s what you’ve missed so far, and if you are yet to upgrade to a paid subscription, what are you waiting for? Upgrade here and get all the scoops and stories everyone will be talking about, before they're talking about them, in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday.
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The Jay and Bari Show: United Talent Agency Vice Chairman Jay Sures and Bari Weiss embrace at the UTA White House Correspondents' Dinner pre-party at Osteria Mozza in Georgetown. (Photo by Caroline Gutman for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Bari’s “Reign of Error”
On June 2nd, at the CBS News 9 am editorial call, Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss was noticeably absent. It came a day after “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley turned a staff meeting into a hostage recording starring new EP Nick Bilton and deputy Editor-in-Chief Charles Forelle.
The legendary correspondent took aim directly at Weiss: “She is murdering ‘60 Minutes,’” Pelley said. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.” Soon after, Pelley would part ways with the network.
Bilton will now need to recruit new correspondents to replace Anderson Cooper, the recently fired Cecilia Vega, Sharyn Alfonsi, and Pelley.
So, who will replace the open correspondent positions? Breaker has learned Weiss and Forelle have held talks with former New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist …
One plus one equals? Meredith Kopit Levien, president and chief executive officer at The New York Times, speaks onstage during The New York Times DealBook Summit on December 03, 2025. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images for The New York Times)
All The Subs That’s Fit To Hide
In early May, The New York Times Company announced its first-quarter results for 2026, boasting that they now have 13.08 million subscribers. That’s a net increase of “approximately 310,000 digital-only subscribers” compared to their fourth quarter 2025 results and “approximately 1,460,000 digital-only subscribers” since the same time last year.
It's an astonishing feat, but one, as we previously reported, accomplished with some creative math. Back in November, it was Breaker who revealed the devil is in the details.
Buried on page 12 of the third quarter 2025 results press release, in tiny font in footnote 3, The Times acknowledged they had started counting each "Family Subscription" as two subscribers instead of one, effectively doubling their numbers.
Proving that the devil is in the details once again, in their most recent results, the New York Times had …
Error Apparent: Bari Weiss, with Sarah Haider, Grimes, and Anna Khachiyan backstage at the Ace Hotel, Los Angeles, September 13, 2023. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Bari’s Global Hire
Desperately in need of a win to distract from her reign of error, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss has poached a big-name correspondent, Breaker has learned.
Adding more intrigue to the hire is the fact that Weiss has raided Sky News, where former CBS News President David Rhodes is executive chairman.
Weiss has hired …
Karpe Diem: Former Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp speaks onstage at the 2025 Literacy Partners Evening of Readings & Gala Dinner on June 09, 2025, in New York City. (Photo by Randy Brooke/Getty Images)
Simon & Schuster’s Next Chapter
Simon & Schuster has just released one of their most highly anticipated books this year.
“Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” by gun New York Times political reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan is already sold out.
Behind the scenes at one of the biggest publishing houses in the U.S, a regime change has unsettled long-standing editors and execs, resulting in …
I promise I did this much work: Special correspondent at Vanity Fair, Nick Bilton, speaks onstage at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit 2018. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
The “60 Minutes” Execution
In a meeting that lasted just minutes, Bari Weiss informed “60 Minutes” Executive Producer Tanya Simon that while her work was exceptional, they were changing direction and she was out of a job, according to people briefed on the meeting.
“I was on the show for 30 years and wondered what would happen to it, but I never expected it to be executed,” former legendary correspondent Steve Kroft told Breaker. “There is no smoking gun, but Trump’s fingerprints and DNA are everywhere.”
That “change of direction” is the appointment of former New York Times and Vanity Fair (where Breaker is a contributing editor) writer, Nick Bilton, who, in what is becoming a prerequisite under Weiss to work at CBS News, brings with him zero broadcast experience (and no management background).
Among people who previously worked with Bilton at Vanity Fair, the news was met with…
A thunder Downunder: New York Times Managing Editor Joseph Kahn gives the keynote speech at the Andrew Olle lecture on October 27, 2017, in Sydney, Australia. (photo by El Pics/ Getty Images)
The Grill Lady Successors
In mid June, some of The New York Times biggest bylines and most senior business leaders came together in Upstate New York for the annual Sulzberger BBQ.
A couple of hundred guests descended on the Catskills to be treated to a delicious spread of fried chicken, hot dogs, and a tasty potato and corn salad.
Last year, we were on hand to taste test the food, loyal Breaker readers will recall our high praise for the fried chicken with a ”crunchy crust that remained attached to the protein rather than slipping off like a cheap sock.” We gave it 5 stars. (However, a pesto pasta salad we called “the black sheep of the Sulzberger spread” scored a measly 2 stars with a flavor we described as “decent”).
There was plenty for The Times top talent to discuss, including who may be next in line to…
60 Excuses
Following the departure of Scott Pelley, new “60 Minutes” executive arsonist/firefighter Nick Bilton attempted to put out the five-alarm blaze he had helped start.
“It has been a trying and difficult few days, I know that,” Bilton, stating the bleeding obvious, told his battle-weary troops. “I've spent a lot of time in conversation with many of you, and especially in consultation with Lesley, Bill, and Jon.”
CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss has been meeting with prospective replacements for the “fired three” (Scott Pelley, Sharon Alfonsi, and Cecilia Vega, along with Anderson Cooper, who left the show earlier this year as Breaker first reported).
One of the names in the mix, who has met with Weiss, is …
Hot and Heavy (New York) Times: Singer Maggie Rogers performs at the Resonator Awards on January 27, 2026, in L.A. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images)
The Gray Lady Blushes
At Rosalia’s Madison Square Garden show in June, singer Maggie Rogers told the crowd about a journalist that her friend set her up with.
“They're single, they're handsome, and they work for the New York Times," Rogers recounted her friend telling her.
Rogers told the crowd that the journalist wooed her with a spin around the city in his vintage car. “So we're driving around Manhattan, and we're talking, and I'm kind of falling in love a little bit…So suddenly he says, "Oh my god, we're actually really close to the office. Can I take you to The New York Times?"
“I mean, it's such a move. It's one in the morning, like an empty New York Times,” Rogers continued, setting the scene. “So we go in, and he gives me a full, empty tour of the building. We make out in the conference room, and it's like a really good time.”
The night ends with more canoodling before Rogers recalls the date to friends the following day. "I found someone."... They say, "What's his name?" And I tell them, and my friend goes, "Oh my god, that's my friend's boyfriend."
So who is this lothario? Four people familiar with the matter tell us the man is …
Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch: Mark Thompson, Chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, Audie Cornish, and Anderson Cooper attend Warner Bros. Discovery’s 2025 Upfront on May 14, 2025, in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery)
Cardinale Rules
What happens to CNN when Paramount closes its deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery is a matter hotly debated from Atlanta to Hudson Yards HQ within the news network.
Many staffers admit they are “in denial” about the possibility they will have to report to current CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss. Others we have spoken to are anxious about the layoffs to come and the potential for political interference from new owner David Ellison.
At the Financial Times’ Weekend Festival at Spring Studios, one of the key architects of the deal, RedBird Capital Partners’ Gerry Cardinale, was interviewed by the FT’s U.S. Finance Editor James Fontanella-Khan. Khan earlier this year pulled off one of the most epic lunches with the FT with Cardinale, where the pair enjoyed two bottles of wine and a “fiery grappa” inside AC Milan’s private training ground canteen (Ed note: this should be taught in journalism college).
Breaker asked Cardinale what happens to CNN when the deal closes and if Bari Weiss should lead both CBS and CNN, and he responded …