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Fit for a Kingsbury: Kathleen Kingsbury, Opinion Editor of The New York Times, speaks at the 60th annual National Magazine Awards 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for American Society of Magazine Editors)
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!
It’ll be the greatest race this side of the midterms, as we have the latest on the candidates lining up to take over from a side-stepping New York Times Business Editor, Ellen Pollock. Opinion Editor Kathleen Kingsbury is now considered a serious contender, but whose all-important endorsement is Kingsbury counting on to secure the job? We have fresh reporting from inside The Gray Lady below.
Plus, Barry Diller had plenty to say on the art of reinvention today at the Travel + Leisure summit, including the renaming of Dotdash Meredith to People Inc., and why it’s important to trust your instinct over data. We were there and have a scene report below.
Also, Sharon Waxman has a new recruit at the recently abandoned media desk at The Wrap, and former Wrap employees have weighed in with advice on how to survive working for “Whackjob.”
Finally, we have the most comprehensive Reading, Listening, and Watching List to keep you up to date on all the media news as the summer rolls on.
Mentioned tonight: Kathleen Kingsbury, David Leonhardt, Pui-Wing Tam, Deborah Solomon, Mohammed Hadi, Ellen Pollock, Carolyn Ryan, Marc Lacey, Joe Kahn, Barry Diller, Sharon Waxman, Ben Smith, Justin Smith, Jacqui Gifford, David Streitfeld, Katie Razzall, Scott Mills, Michael Savage, Richard Brody, Bryan Curtis, Adam Gabbatt, Scott Nover, Chris Smith, Jeremy Barr, Trevor Henderson, Ben Fritz, Daniel Thomas, Caitlin Ostroff, Alexander Osipovich, Erik Wemple, Geraldine McKelvie, Jim Armitage, Mark Stenberg, Adam Banicki, Alice Brooker, Victoria Bekiempis, Gretchen Carlson, Letitia James, Jody Godoy, Dawn Chmielewski, Elizabeth Dwoskin, Peter Thiel, A.J. Katz, Michael Calderone, Corbin Bolies, Amy-Jo Crowley, Milana Vinn and more.
The Gray Lady Ledger
(Exclusive.) Last May, New York Times Opinion Editor Kathleen Kingsbury posed for a splashy New York magazine photo shoot surrounded by her fiefdom (New York magazine listed all of the people in the picture: there were 117).
Many within the Times viewed the piece as Kingsbury signalling her greater ambitions at The Gray Lady.
Breaker’s Thursday revelation that New York Times Business Editor, Ellen Pollock, is stepping aside (but staying at the paper in a yet to be announced role), had long been expected within the walls of 680 Eighth Avenue.
And it may be the newsroom role Kingsbury has been waiting on, in the hope of realizing her dream of one day running the paper.
Tech editor, Pui-Wing Tam, had been seen as Pollock’s natural successor. She is beloved by her San Francisco reporters and seen as having the necessary chops to lead the business desk.
But Wing-Tam, who declined to comment when contacted by Breaker on Tuesday, is believed to prefer San Fran, where she has lived for the last quarter of a century, over the “big apple”.
Economics Editor, Deborah Solomon, is also viewed internally as a strong contender. Solomon performed tours of duty at The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg before joining “the dark side” at corporate comms firms including Finsbury and Brunswick. She saw the light and returned to journalism in 2017, joining the Times’ D.C. bureau.
Former Deputy Business Editor, Mohammed Hadi, was also considered as a potential replacement until his move in May to become news director on the News Desk.
But while Times Executive Editor Joe Kahn would prefer Tam or Solomon in the job, according to people familiar with the situation, Kingsbury has the backing of…
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⁘ As credited in The New York Times, CNBC, Axios, The New York Post, CNN, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and more.
Diller The Killer
Deal or No Diller: Barry Diller opened Travel + Leisure World’s Best Summit Tuesday alongside Editor-in-Chief Jacqui Gifford. (Credit: Breaker Media)
(Exclusive.) Barry Diller has perfected the art of reinvention over his five-decade-long career. From ABC to Paramount to Fox. QVC to IAC.
Diller, the owner of subsidiary publisher People Inc., formally known as Dotdash Meredith, described the decision behind last year's name change that mimics its flagship “People” magazine.
“We had this company called Dotdash…It's not a bad couple of words. It's a meaning that's a bit digital. But it doesn't mean anything,” he told Travel + Leisure Editor-in-Chief Jacqui Gifford at the World’s Best Summit Tuesday at People Inc’s downtown headquarters.
“And then, of course, we acquired Meredith, which does mean something to the descendants of Mr. Meredith. But it also did not…So a couple of years ago, I guess, I said, ‘Why don't we call it People?’ And the issue then was…
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The rest of this newsletter is for paid subscribers.
⁘ Unlock full access to our twice-weekly newsletter and archive.
⁘ As credited in The New York Times, CNBC, Axios, The New York Post, CNN, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and more.