Good morning,

Happy New Year! Thanks for reading The Backstory and here’s to a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2026 from all of us here at Puck.

As the rest of the world lay in overserved torpor, my indefatigable partners were hard at work ushering in yet another fabulous week at Puck. Matt Belloni recounted Mike and Pam’s miraculous, Zaz-humbling, six-month run at Warner Bros.; Bill Cohan continued his hero’s work effectively banking the WBD deal for Paramount and Netflix; Mark Healy chatted up Reed Hastings on art and skiing; Julia Alexander presaged Jeff Bezos’s next NFL play. And Dylan Byers assessed the values of the Silicon Valley mogul set with Jim Steyer.

Meanwhile, Ian Krietzberg evaluated Sam Altman’s code red; Lauren Sherman revealed the Saks Global C.E.O.’s dethroning; Alex French profiled the pied piper of the collectibles market; Marion Maneker toured the Jamie Dimon galleries; Eriq Gardner previewed the end of a CAA legal war; John Heilemann and Ezra Klein previewed the Democrats’ 2026 strategy; Julia Ioffe took Trump and Putin to couples therapy; Abby Livingston examined the Republicans’ midterm tripwire; and Leigh Ann Caldwell gathered the latest D.M.V. gossip as the Hill begins a new semester.

Check out these stories, and others, via the links below. And stick around for the backstory on how it all came together.

Lauren Sherman breaks the news of Marc Metrick’s defenestration at Saks.

Marion Maneker visits the Jamie Dimon colossus.
and…
Mark Healy interviews Reed Hastings about his Storm King West.
Meanwhile…
Alex French talks shop with the king of collectibles.

Matt Belloni applauds Mike and Pam’s heroic year at Warner Bros.—and wonders aloud if the recipe can be replicated in ’26.
and…
Eriq Gardner draws up a media lawsuit roadmap for the new year.

Ian Krietzberg explains how Sam Altman boxed himself into a Google dungeon.

David Margolick chronicles Norman Mailer’s Sancho Panza.
and…
Fran Lebowitz lays down the law.

Dylan Byers charts the latest Bari Weiss beefs and surveys the A.I. takeover with a seasoned media watchman.

Julia Alexander hypothesizes how Amazon might take a second bite at the NFL apple.

Bill Cohan offers the latest deal kremlinology on where Zaz and the Ellisons are missing one another.

Leigh Ann Caldwell captures the excitement and horror as midterm season dawns on the Hill.
and…
Julia Ioffe gets the readout from Zelensky’s Mar-a-Lago summit.
and…
Abby Livingston digs into the Republicans’ ’26 strategy.

Dylan and Julia Alexander predict CNN’s future on The Grill Room.
and…
Ourand welcomes back Marchand (!!) on The Varsity.
and…
Lauren and costume designer Stacey Battat scrutinize Sofia Coppola’s style on Fashion People.
and…
John Heilemann and Ezra Klein review the year in politics on Impolitic.
and…
Matt and Julia discuss the biggest streaming winners (and losers) of ’25 on The Town.
and…
Peter Hamby and I prophesy TikTok’s slippage and ponder some Times drama on The Powers That Be.

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I spent last Sunday morning tubing up at Stratton, racing my wife and sons in barely inflated donuts at warp speed, screaming and careening ever downward—a juvenile yet thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a few hours of the holiday season. As we headed to the lodge for hot chocolate, old habits had me rummaging around my parka for my iPhone to check in on the world and, of course, Puck. Flicking through texts, emails, and news alerts, I homed in on a Slack message from my partner Lauren Sherman.

Line Sheet, Lauren’s industry-defining email franchise on the fashion business, generally operates Monday through Friday and goes dark over the weekend. But Lauren and I had planned to put Line Sheet on hiatus between Christmas and New Year’s Day—a decision we made against our shared Calvinist work ethic, given that the fashion industry itself essentially goes to ground during that somnolent window. I figured that both Lauren and Line Sheet’s audience would benefit from us planning ahead rather than programming the knee-jerk best of… content that often fills channels as the calendar turns.

But Lauren, as tireless as she is omniscient, was hunting up a major scoop. She had heard from multiple sources that Saks Global C.E.O. Marc Metrick was due to step down from the year-old, debt-saddled, multibrand retail conglomerate. It certainly seemed like a logical outcome based on her previous reporting: Metrick had recently missed a major meeting in Dallas; he wasn’t communicating with typical industry contacts, as he normally would; and a key factoring firm that helps finance brands’ orders with Saks had paused underwriting agreements. Meanwhile, a crucial debt payment of over $100 million loomed. I told Lauren to finish reporting it out. If she nailed it, I promised we’d abandon our pact and send out a special edition of Line Sheet to break this consequential news. And there I was, at last, at the front of the hot cocoa line…

A couple hours later, I hopped on the phone with Lauren, who walked me through her sourcing and various updates. Indeed, she had nailed it.

For a reporter, there are few things as exhilarating as the period between confirmation and publication—the adrenaline-filled interval where they’re preparing to reveal a secret to the rest of the world. I’ve been a party to it many times, and it never gets old… And yet, Lauren and I were both circumspect and empathetic about the profoundly consequential context surrounding Metrick’s departure.

A year ago, Saks had acquired Neiman Marcus Group in a deal financed by a $2.2 billion bond exchange. Metrick, a Saks lifer, was bestowed the C.E.O. job from chairman and financial architect Richard Baker almost by fiat. The initial reaction was cautious optimism: Everyone in the industry knew Metrick and hoped that necessary consolidation would strengthen this vital, if challenged, distribution channel.

Alas, signs of trouble emerged almost immediately. In February, Metrick signaled that Saks would extend its vendor repayment schedule to as many as 90 days, up from the customary 30 or 60—an arguably clever policy but one that triggered panic across the industry. Then the bonds traded down and a $600 million debt restructuring was completed over the summer—events covered brilliantly and perspicaciously by our partner Bill Cohan, a former restructuring and M&A banker who had detected challenges early on. Eventually, news surfaced that Saks was open to parting with a large minority stake in the historic Bergdorf building, and as December rolled around, the company sold land rights and executed lease-backs on two stores. These are not victimless events: In the fashion industry, Saks is too big to fail, and its financial woes have already had downstream impacts. (Disclosure: Earlier this year, Saks sued Puck over our coverage of its financial condition.)

On Sunday evening, we published a special edition of Line Sheet featuring Lauren’s exclusive on Metrick’s imminent departure. And true to our assumption, Lauren was so far ahead of the industry that her reporting wasn’t confirmed until yesterday, nearly a full week later, when Baker announced that he would be taking over Metrick’s responsibilities. By that point, the company had missed its interest payment, triggering a grace period, and a team at Puck quickly mobilized to follow the latest act in this drama.

As we begin a new year, the entire industry is monitoring the situation at Saks—and doing so, in particular, through Lauren’s reporting. It’s one of the most pivotal stories of our time, and exactly what you should expect from Puck.

Have a great weekend,
Jon

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