Why acquire a media company when you can just snipe its star talent?

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How Zarna Garg became an unlikely TikTok star

Zarna Garg, a mother and former litigation attorney, was in her 40s before she even began to think about a career in standup comedy. A year ago she barely knew what TikTok was. Now she has over 100,000 followers and 15 million views on the platform. [Simon Owens]

The rise and fall of J. Walter Thompson, the world's oldest advertising agency

We live in an era when it's incredibly easy for a few employees to break off and launch their own marketing agency, which makes it difficult for these large advertising firms of yesteryear to maintain their dominance. [Business Insider]

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Meet the woman tasked with turning around scandal-plagued Bon Appétit

A great profile of Bon Appetit's incoming editor-in-chief. The magazine's pivot to YouTube was brilliant and it'll be interesting to see where she takes it. [CNN]

How the white political establishment anointed Charlamagne tha God as the spokesman for all Black voters

A good deep dive into how radio host Charlamagne tha God became such an influential figure in politics. [Slate]

As media titans merge, empires bloom while local news dies on the vine

"The Times has stopped short of swallowing entire media properties whole, but it has routinely done the next best thing: poach their top talent."

Why spend a ton of money acquiring an entire media company when you can just snipe away its top talent for a fraction of the price? [Medialyte]

Want to chat with more of your media peers?

I run a private Facebook group that I only promote to readers of this newsletter. Its membership includes hundreds of the top media people in the industry. We have pretty vibrant discussions about industry news, and I regularly dip into the community to add my 2 cents. Join here: [link]

How BuzzFeed’s HuffPost acquisition can help the combined company’s ad sales pitch

A good overview of the advertising synergies between BuzzFeed News and newly-acquired HuffPost. [Digiday]

10 digital media companies that are hot acquisition targets, including Patch and TheSkimm

If the 2010s were the decade of massive VC investments in digital upstarts, will the 2020s be the decade when all those upstarts get acquired? I remain skeptical that consolidation and massive scale will provide the silver bullet media executives hope for. [Business Insider]

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