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Can Zaz & Shari Go the Distance?

News and notes on the topics everyone is fulminating over as the holidays set in: Zazmount possibilities, Will Lewis’s forthcoming tenure at The Washington Post, and early grumblings from CNN on the Thompson era.

Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Dylan Byers
December 23, 2023

One intriguing quirk of the media industry—from a narrative perspective, at least—is the way that small overtures can catalyze transformative deals. Bob Iger’s courtship of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox assets began over a glass of wine at the Moraga Estate; David Zaslav’s stealth takeover of WarnerMedia began with a coy and characteristically emoji-laden text to John Stankey; Don Graham met Jeff Bezos at the Sun Valley Lodge, named his price for The Washington Post, and sold him the paper less than a month later. These are the stories we tell ourselves, anyway, and then adapt for the HBO screenplay.