On Monday morning, the Times published a story conveying what was already well-known in media circles, partly because I had reported it over the weekend—former top ABC executive Ben Sherwood and former Hearst chief content officer Joanna Coles had a new project on their hands. The duo would be taking over 49 percent of Barry Diller’s boutique digital media entity, The Daily Beast, not to be confused with his sprawling Dotdash Meredith enterprise. What’s more, the two former media heroes weren’t just figureheads in the deal. They would be rolling up their sleeves and returning to the salt mines to also operate the business—Sherwood as C.E.O. and Coles as chief content and creative officer.