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Bezos Succession Questions & CNN’s Max Spat

News and notes from the Sulzberger penthouse: on Mark Thompson’s new CNN, the WaPo C.E.O. search, and Zaslav’s battle with DirecTV.

Jeff Bezos remains committed to growing and globalizing The Washington Post—the mystery, which has become a parlor game in media circles these days, is who he will task to do it.
Jeff Bezos remains committed to growing and globalizing The Washington Post—the mystery, which has become a parlor game in media circles these days, is who he will task to do it. Photo: Cooper Neill/Getty Images
Dylan Byers
October 4, 2023

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On Monday evening, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., the fourth inheritor to Adolph Ochs’ Times Co. heirloom, and the paper’s former publisher, hosted an intimate gathering at his West Side penthouse to celebrate the launch of Marty Baron’s new memoir, which chronicles his time atop The Washington Post amid the Trump–Bezos era. On a rooftop terrace overlooking the park and midtown, Times chairman A.G. (Pinch’s son) and executive editor Joe Kahn commingled with incoming CNN chief executive Mark Thompson, NBCUniversal News Group chairman Cesar Conde, and The New Yorker’s David Remnick. There were plenty of other swells: philanthropic people, foundation types, and even Liev Schreiber, who famously portrayed Baron in Spotlight. Inevitably, some of these conversations turned to media topics du jour: Thompson’s plans to resuscitate and reinvent CNN, the Post’s search for its next C.E.O., the Times’ myriad achievements, etcetera.