🔥 As a free subscriber, YOU’RE MISSING OUT! Upgrade now to read all the scoops. You can use Apple Pay and have full access within seconds. Support fearless independent journalism today!
Story Shapers: PR spin king Matthew Hiltzik and journalist Katie Couric pose at Michael's Restaurant circa February 2012, in New York City. (Photo by Jason Binn/WireImage)
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 a deep dive into one of the most prolific PR fixers and their work on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein. Matthew Hiltzik has represented some of the media and Hollywood’s biggest names, but new emails and documents that have come to light reveal how the dead sex offender was desperate for Hiltzik’s help as he looked to reshape the public narrative about his horrific crimes.
Plus, Axel Springer’s Mathias Döpfner meets with a former top New York Times editor as he searches for a global editor-in-chief of Politico, Sam Lessin hosts power players in Wyoming, details on a brutal round of layoffs at The New York Daily News, a scene report as ProPublica workers stage a walkout ahead of a potential strike, 2WAY inks a new deal and The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman gets a taste of her own medicine.
Also tonight, we have a mea culpa regarding our Tuesday column, where we reported on Rupert Murdoch’s dinner with Donald Trump, along with the New York Post’s Keith Poole and Miranda Devine.
And it’s Thursday, which means Journo Jobs is back. Tonight we have gigs at Vox Media, BBC, WSJ Pro, The New York Times, CBS, and Billboard.
Finally, some shameless self-promotion. We sat down for an interview with Press Gazette to mark the one-year anniversary of Breaker. We revealed that thanks to your support, Breaker is profitable with 40,000 paid and free subscribers. Cheers!
We will have more on the one-year anniversary of Breaker next week.
Mentioned tonight: A.G. Sulzberger, James Bennet, David Ellison, Casey Wasserman, Kathryn Ruemmler Michael Wolff, Savannah Guthrie, John Oliver, Don Lemon, Sharon Waxman, Paul Dacre, Tucker Carlson, Dave Jorgenson, Matt Murray, Kaitlan Collins, Wendy McMahon, Susan DeCarava, Mark Halperin, Megyn Kelly, John Harris, Peter Spiegel, Alex Burns, David Rhodes, Tyler Denk, Joe Flint, Brian Stelter, Preeya Goenka, Lance Frank, Elizabeth Palmer, Imtiaz Tyab, Ramy Inocencio, Claire Day, Brian Morrissey, Sam Lessin, Jessica Lessin, Jesse Angelo, and more.
The Media Fixer & Epstein
(Exclusive.) He is the fixer to the media elite. Matthew Hiltzik has represented Katie Couric, Ronan Farrow, Kelly Ripa, Sean Parker, Marissa Mayer, Eric Schmidt, and is currently working on behalf of CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss.
Hiltzik runs the eponymous Hiltzik Strategies and plays in the space Breaker dubbed last year “Scandal PR,” helping the biggest names escape their biggest scandals. Hiltzik has also been spinning for the likes of Brad Pitt, Alec Baldwin, Justin Bieber, and Brooklyn Beckham.
But in 2017, Hiltzik, who is also a lawyer, took on a client that he has since told friends he deeply regrets – deceased child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Below, we have shared correspondence between the pair, complete with the original spelling and punctuation errors.
According to documents published by the Department of Justice, and obtained and reviewed by Breaker, on April 25th, 2017, Epstein emailed Hiltzik’s office to set up a face-to-face meeting between the pair.
But before the meeting could take place, Epstein’s attorney received a four-page agreement “to assist with…
Support fearless independent journalism.
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.
Bennet’s Springer Training
(Exclusive.) He was once touted as the next editor of The New York Times. James Bennet was a favorite of The Gray Lady publisher A.G. Sulzberger, but that all came crashing down in 2020, when Bennet published the infamous Tom Cotton “send in the troops” op-ed when he was editorial page editor. Bennet resigned over the fiasco, wrote a 16,000-word essay about it, and, after wallowing in the media wilderness, he joined The Economist in 2022 as senior editor.
Bennet, a former editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, clearly still has aspirations to once again be king of the hill at a big-name publication. Breaker has learned that last Thursday, he met with…