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The Summer of Our Discontent?: A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, talks about "Truth in the age of propaganda and polarization" during the first day of Web Summit on November 11, 2025, in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/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 have the latest on the New York Times “Hot Labor Summer,” which began Tuesday as Guild members worked from home ahead of a Wednesday rally outside the Times building. It was the predicament that Managing Editors Carolyn Ryan and Marc Lacey had been working to prevent. And for Executive Editor Joe Kahn, managing a newsroom in revolt in a seismic news environment could prove to be the biggest test of his leadership to date. Tonight, we go inside the newsroom to report how we got here and what comes next.
Also, tonight, a star New York Times reporter has a multi-million dollar book deal, The Daily Mail launches an investigation following allegations – first reported by Breaker – of sexual harassment and retaliation, and The Information founder Jessica Lessin prepares for her super secret, super off-the-record conference.
And finally, for those lucky ducks who will start taking summer Fridays (we are looking at you, publishing world and PR people), we have you covered with a comprehensive reading, watching, and listening list so you can log off Friday and not miss a media story.
Mentioned tonight: Stephen Colbert, Anderson Cooper, Robert Draper, Almar Latour, Elahe Izadi, Ken Bensinger, Gautam Malkani, Brendan Carr, Bari Weiss, Sam Coates, Kathryn Ruemmler, Jeremy Barr, Ramtin Arablouei, Mark Guiducci, Dan Adler, David Sims, Alex Farber, Michael Savage, Matt Brittin, John S.W. MacDonald, Nilay Patel, Byron Allen, Jonah Peretti, Erik Wemple, David Folkenflik, Jim Waterson, Joe Weisenthal, Rohan Goswami, Liz Hoffman, Maureen Dowd, Maggie Harrison Dupré, Ben Mullin, Charlotte Tobitt, Anna Nicolaou, Sebastian Lai, Jimmy Lai, Xi Jinping, Nadia Khomami, Lena Dunham, Adam Driver, Steven Rosenbaum, Anna Wintour, Laura Brown, Kristina O’Neill, Jacob Cohen Donnelly, Max Tcheyan, Nathan May, Ryan Sager, Jesse Watkins, Dan Oshinsky, Nicholas Thompson, Joanna Stern, Anna Palmer, Oliver Darcy, Eric Newcomer, Mosheh Oinounou, Richard Roth, Greta Lawn, Ben Smith, Joe Kahn, Alex MacCallum, Kevin Merida, Carrie Budoff Brown, Rebecca Blumenstein, Emily Ramshaw, Peter Kafka, Hugh Dougherty, S. Mitra Kalita, Noah Shachtman, Brad Stone, Satoshi Nakamoto, John Carreyrou, Elizabeth Holmes, Kara Dudley, Jim Luttrell, Andrea Zagata, Ed Shanahan, Susan DeCarava, Jenny Vrentas, A.G. Sulzberger, David Shipley, Marc Lacey, Carolyn Ryan, and more.
NYT Hot Labor Summer
(Exclusive.) On Tuesday, the New York Times newsroom was emptier than usual. Times Guild members had coordinated to work from home as part of their protracted fight with management to secure a new contract.
Many had placed signs on their desks before leaving the building on Monday. “Fair contract fight now!” read one. “The Times is Union Made” was another visible in photos shared with Breaker.
Sign of the Times: Union members left protest signs on their desks as they coordinated a combined work-from-home day on Tuesday.
But on Tuesday, many of the signs were gone and dumped in a recycling bin. People familiar with the matter tell Breaker that they were removed by…
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⁘ As credited in The New York Times, CNBC, Axios, The New York Post, CNN, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and more.
The Mail Men
(Exclusive.) On Thursday, we brought you details of an explosive lawsuit emerging from The Daily Mail’s New York headquarters.
Real estate reporter Marianne Garvey accused Money & Commerce Editor Daniel Jones and Managing Editor Richard Ellis of “severe, and pervasive gender discrimination, sexual harassment, a hostile work environment, and retaliation.”
The case follows a timeline of allegations mapping a continued pattern of harassment aimed at Garvey. The court documents allege that it was widely accepted that The Daily Mail was willing to turn a blind eye to any complaint about Jones from a female employee.
Breaker has now learned that Garvey was placed on a paid temporary leave of absence on Friday afternoon as The Daily Mail investigates her allegations. That investigation is being taken seriously by London-based executives and is being headed up by the Mail’s U.S. Head of HR, Kara Dudley, who has already begun interviewing Mail staffers.
A Daily Mail spokesman declined to comment.
You’ve Got Mail … Problems
(Exclusive.) In a further sign of troubles at The Daily Mail, it axed its …
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⁘ As credited in The New York Times, CNBC, Axios, The New York Post, CNN, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and more.
The Breaker Pod: Laura Brown & Kristina O’Neill on Where Magazines Go Next, Who Will edit T Magazine, and Anna Wintour Succession
This week's episode of The Breaker Pod was graced by former InStyle EIC Laura Brown and former WSJ. Mag EIC Kristina O’Neill to discuss what comes after the corner office, and why getting fired can be the start of something far more interesting. The pod came to you from a window booth at Sweet Linda (Cheers to the owner, Max Crespo, for inviting us).
Brown and O’Neill masterfully parlayed their exits from two of the most glamorous jobs in publishing into “All the Cool Girls Get Fired.” A bestselling book that has since expanded into a podcast and growing media venture in partnership with In the Arena Studios.
On the pod, the conversation quickly turned, as it often does, to the changing economics of media. Looking back on the heyday of Harper’s Bazaar, where their career paths once crossed, the pair reminisced about an era of Karl Lagerfeld sending faxes, celebrity cover shoots, and editors battling for Page Six attention.
“It was a very intense time in fashion magazines, where you’re blocking photographers and models and designers,” said O’Neill. “The stakes had never been lower,” Brown joked.
They also pointed out a major difference between this era of mags and the last.
“This was back when there was no Instagram,” O’Neill emphasized. “I hired the first digital editor at Harper’s Bazaar… and it was half a person that we had to share with Marie Claire.”
Also on the pod, Brown and O’Neill covered who – if anyone – will replace Anna Wintour at Vogue, if Kristina is in the running for the T Mag editor-in-chief gig, and why now, in Brown’s words, “the individual is the media.”
Catch more in this week's episode of The Breaker Pod. Make sure you check us out and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pods.