Good morning,

Thanks for reading The Backstory, your Saturday review of the best new work at Puck.

It was another sensational week: Matt Belloni reviewed David Zaslav’s dwindling options; Eriq Gardner illuminated Hollywood’s post-Sora legal wars; Ian Krietzberg detailed Sam Altman’s erotica motives, while John Ourand chatted up Adam Silver about the NBA’s A.I. plans; Dylan Byers offered the latest CNN scholarship; Julia Alexander analyzed the McAfee economic miracle; Lauren Sherman weighed in on the NikeSkims discourse; Rachel Strugatz revealed the new beauty V.C. of the moment; Sarah Shapiro ran the numbers on the current Charvet craze; Bill Cohan checked in on S.B.F.’s dad; Marion Maneker captured the deal flow from Frieze in London; and Julie Brener Davich uncovered a next-gen market opportunity.

Meanwhile, Julia Ioffe explored the Melania–Putin diplomatic mission; Leigh Ann Caldwell explained Chuck Schumer’s dark vision; and Peter Hamby caught up with the Gavin Newsom player haters.

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

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Hospitals are here when you need us most – but hospitals across America are at risk of closure.

Lauren Sherman examines the NikeSkims experiment and LVMH’s recent numbers.
and…
Rachel Strugatz identifies the next Kirsten Green.
meanwhile…
Sarah Shapiro details Charvet’s anti-P.E. play.

Marion Maneker captures the flavor of the market at Frieze.
and…
Julie Davich talks to the new prince of porcelain.

Matt Belloni uncovers the Saudis’ new studio and reveals David Zaslav’s declining options.
meanwhile…
Eriq Gardner surveils the next fronts in the A.I. legal wars.
and…
Scott Mendelson assesses why Tron: Ares tanked.

Ian Krietzberg investigates OpenAI’s anti-Elon legal battlefield.

Dylan Byers offers the latest CNN-ology.
and…
Julia Alexander explores how Pat McAfee remade sports media.
meanwhile…
John Ourand grills Adam Silver about the NBA’s personalization plans.

Bill Cohan delivers an update on the House of S.B.F.

Leigh Ann Caldwell considers Schumer’s shutdown calculus.
and…
Julia Ioffe gets to the bottom of the Putin–Melania friendship.
and…
Peter Hamby checks in on Newsom’s ’28 warm-up act.

Dylan chats up the TBPN podcast guys on The Grill Room.
and…
Ourand and author Ken Belson chart the NFL’s rise to invincibility on The Varsity.
and…
Lauren and former magazine-era superstars Kristina O’Neill and Laura Brown share the elevator gossip on Fashion People.
and…
John Heilemann and longtime diplomat Dennis Ross discuss the Middle East peace talks on Impolitic.
and…
Matt and Apple’s Eddy Cue decode the tech giant’s entertainment and sports strategy on The Town.
and…
Ian and Peter discuss Sam Altman’s internal battle between profit and principle on The Powers That Be.

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Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Puck

On Thursday morning, I ascended to the 66th floor of The Spiral, Tishman Speyer’s new landmark building in Hudson Yards, to celebrate a special occasion: Puck’s inaugural In the Arena conference on the evolving sports media landscape, in collaboration with MoffettNathanson. For months, my partner and friend John Ourand had been working to assemble a gangbusters team of luminaries in the business, digging deep into his unparalleled Rolodex to curate a day of programming on the most pertinent topics coursing through the industry. NBA commissioner Adam Silver, Fanatics founder and C.E.O. Michael Rubin, Commanders owner Josh Harris, Fox Sports C.E.O. Eric Shanks, RedBird founder and new Paramount Skydance overlord Gerry Cardinale, and Amazon Prime Video honcho Jay Marine headlined a very full and engaging agenda.

Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Puck

In many ways, the sports media industry is belatedly following a paradigm shift that has befallen other creative businesses. As the son of authors, I watched firsthand how Amazon disrupted the book business. I was in college with an encyclopedic Case Logic when Napster put all my favorite songs online for free. And, early in my career, I had a proximate view into how Google and Facebook undercut the news industry. Just as Netflix caught Hollywood off-guard more than a decade ago, the sports media business is coming to terms with its own changing landscape: in short, the challenge of maximizing profits and expanding audiences in a balkanized, post-monoculture ecosystem.

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Hospitals need your help to stay. Protect 24/7 care—because when the doors close, it is too late.

It was a leitmotif that surfaced again and again throughout the day’s conversations. In one fascinating moment, Silver presaged how the micro-fractured consumer environment could personalize even further. (You can read an excerpt of that conversation in Silver Linings Playbook.) The old days of synchronous, shared experiences almost seem quaint and primitive these days, especially as the rate of change accelerates.

Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Puck

I believe in the convening power of sports on many levels. (By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be throwing batting practice to a bunch of 11- and 12-year-old boys…) One of the most refreshing elements of the industry, however, is its resilience and desire to experiment. So many sectors of the media industry found themselves left behind because they feared innovation or mistook secular trends for blips or minor inconveniences. But anyone around sports knows that the breaks of the game are sudden and unexpected, and outcomes aren’t sealed until the final whistle blows. This, of course, is one of the hallmarks of our transient age, an extraordinary feature of In the Arena, and something you can count on learning about daily in Puck.

Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Puck

Have a great weekend,
Jon

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