Vox Media’s Yard Sale & Ackman’s “Madness” Method

Swalwell Domino Theory, Art Market Moneyball, MAGA Perfume Inc.

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to Puck’s best new reporting. Here’s what you need to know…

In the Room: In the coming weeks, Vox Media C.E.O. Jim Bankoff is expected to close multiple deals that will effectively dismantle one of the great media roll-ups of the 2010s. Dylan Byers has exclusive reporting on what’s being sold, who’s buying, and what it all portends about Jim’s future third act. [Read More]
Dry Powder: Amid a double-I.P.O. roadshow and an attempt to buy Universal Music Group, billionaire Bill Ackman published a 2,500-word tirade on X about an alleged shakedown happening inside his own family office. William D. Cohan digs into why the “Oracle of Bro-maha” is fighting fire with ire. [Read More]
Wall Power: The global art market grew 4 percent in 2025, to $59.6 billion in overall sales—yet it’s still down 7 percent from where it was a decade ago. Marion Maneker kicks off a new series of conversations with Clare McAndrew, who authors the art market’s most coveted annual report, to decipher this year’s mixed-bag results. [Inner Circle Exclusive]

A MESSAGE FROM INSTAGRAM

Instagram Teen Accounts: Automatic protections for teens

Instagram Teen Accounts have built-in protections for who can contact teens and the content they can see. Teen Accounts now have a stricter “Limited content” setting for parents who prefer extra controls.

Nearly 95% of parents say Instagram Teen Accounts help safeguard their teens. We will continue adding features to help protect teens online.

Learn more

Line Sheet: Brittany Aldean—Instagram influencer, country music wife, and passionate Trump supporter—launched a beauty brand last week, and it had a very big first week despite minimal press. Rachel Strugatz explains how the beauty industry’s liberal virtue-signaling left an enormous, underserved conservative market wide open. [Read More]
The Best & The Brightest: Indiana Senator Todd Young thinks the Trump administration failed to adequately inform Congress before going to war with Iran, that his Republican colleagues have gotten soft, and that maybe the U.S. shouldn’t have “grabbed the tiger by the ears”—but here we are. Leigh Ann Caldwell presses the senator on his vision for an actual endgame. [Read More]

Meanwhile, on the pods…

The Powers That Be: Peter Hamby and Leigh Ann examine the fallout from Eric Swalwell’s resignation from Congress, and consider whether the scandal could potentially draw in other figures on Capitol Hill. [Listen Here]

MEDIA

Dylan Byers

The Approval Matrix Revolutions

News, notes, and all the scuttlebutt pertaining to Jim Bankoff’s admirable, atom-splitting attempt to sell off Vox Media in parts: New York, its various digital assets, and the podcast network that powers the business.

WALL STREET

William D. Cohan

Ackman Family Values

Amid his double-I.P.O. roadshow and latest attempt to buy Universal Music Group, Bill Ackman has gone public with a bizarre personal drama at Table, his family office—with the lofty goal of teaching other billionaires that it’s better to fight their legal battles on X than settle in the shadows.

ART

Marion Maneker

Art Market Moneyball, With Clare McAndrew

Clare McAndrew, the author of Art Basel and UBS’s influential annual report, discusses calculating transactions in mixed years, the risk of surveying dealers to death, and how she compiles the art market’s most dependable and authoritative assessment.

A MESSAGE FROM INSTAGRAM

Instagram Teen Accounts: Automatic protections for teens

Nearly 95% of parents say Instagram Teen Accounts help safeguard their teens. We will continue adding features to help protect teens online.

Learn more

FASHION

Rachel Strugatz

Make Aldean Great Again

Brittany Aldean’s new MAGA-friendly fragrance brand, Vada, seems to have had a strong debut week. After all, conservatives shop for beauty, too—and they also happen to wield enormous spending power.

WASHINGTON

Leigh Ann Caldwell

Young & The Restless

Straddling the fault line between old-school conservatism and Trump-era loyalty, Senator Todd Young joined Puck in D.C. to talk shop about Iran, his vote against a war powers resolution, and why, even if the war isn’t necessary, America can’t back down.

WASHINGTON

Peter Hamby

Leigh Ann Caldwell

The Powers that Be Daily, Starring Peter Hamby

The Eric Swalwell Domino Effect

Leigh Ann Caldwell joins Peter to examine the fallout from Eric Swalwell’s resignation from Congress and the collapse of his gubernatorial campaign amid a cascade of assault allegations. Then they consider whether the scandal could widen and draw in other figures on Capitol Hill.

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