Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon digest of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Julia Alexander digs into the risks and rewards of a potential Warner Bros. Discovery–Paramount Skydance merger. A combined streamer could have more than 200 million subscribers—but in today’s market, engagement, not scale, is king. As Julia notes, the real hurdle would be winning younger audiences and making the platform more user-friendly, because neither quality nor quantity matter if viewers can’t find the content…

Plus, below the fold: Lauren Sherman handicaps the frontrunners—and one dark horse—to acquire Armani in the wake of Giorgio Armani’s passing. John Ourand breaks down all the media rights negotiations surrounding the NFL’s 2029 season. And Abby Livingston looks at the PAC money fueling House Democrats’ gerontocracy problem.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Dylan Byers and Julia welcome New York Times Co. C.E.O. Meredith Kopit Levien to The Grill Room for a deep dive into the paper’s evolution into a full-blown lifestyle brand. On The Town, Matt Belloni chats with Lucas Shaw and Rich Greenfield about the viability of Ellison’s WBD roll-up fantasy. On Fashion People, Lauren rings up Eckhaus Latta’s designers to discuss the future of New York Fashion Week and the best and worst looks from the Emmys red carpet. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and John Heilemann wade into the grotesque state of American politics following Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

HOLLYWOOD

Buying Warner Bros. Discovery would give Paramount 150 million streaming subscribers and big theatrical I.P. But scale alone won’t turn the Ellisons’ Hollywood foray into a legit Netflix rival. Could two studios become more than the sum of their parts?

FASHION

The late designer stipulated in his will that his namesake must be sold off, and named three preferred buyers: EssilorLuxottica, L’Oréal, and obviously LVMH. Which makes the most sense, and could a stalking-horse bid emerge?

SPORTS

Right now, we’re wading through a bizarre and likely ephemeral market in which the linear players have become preferred destinations for sports rights. Will this all end when the NFL hits the block? And when it does, who will get left out?

WASHINGTON

Amid enduring party anger over Biden’s decision to stand for reelection despite his decline, Democrats are trying to figure out what to do with well-funded, institutionally coddled elderly members who have no intention of stepping aside.

MEDIA

Meredith Kopit Levien, C.E.O. of The New York Times Co., joins Dylan and Julia for a deep dive into the paper’s metamorphosis from a traditional news company to a full-spectrum lifestyle brand. Kopit Levien breaks down how they’re harnessing A.I. tools, tinkering with audio and video, and sharpening their advertising playbook—all while building a diverse revenue stream anchored in subscriptions. She also weighs in on The Athletic’s success, the Times’s quest to reach 15 million subscribers by 2027, and much, much more.

HOLLYWOOD

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw and LightShed’s Rich Greenfield to discuss the report that David Ellison is interested in making a majority-cash bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Matt, Lucas, and Rich discuss why Ellison is doing this now, after just acquiring Paramount, whether a merger like this is even possible, the ramifications of the continued consolidation in Hollywood, how valuable Warner Bros. is to Ellison, and what else Ellison could buy.

FASHION

Lauren is joined by the Eckhaus Latta designers to discuss the future of New York Fashion Week, the best and worst (and most confusing) of the Emmys red carpet, what Giorgio Armani’s will says about the future of the company, and some thoughts on Mark Guiducci’s incoming Vanity Fair.

WASHINGTON

John Heilemann joins Peter to discuss the grotesque state of American politics in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination, with a divisive president canonizing him as a martyr and furious White House aides vowing retribution against the left. John and Peter consider whether this is the new political norm—or just a particularly rancid chapter we’ll eventually consign to history.

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