MORE ON BARI WEISS ON LEAVING OLD MEDIA BEHIND:

Glenn already blogged her latest, but there’s another part worth breaking out:

The real way I finally left old media is through the thrill of building something new.

The moment I began this publication was the moment everything changed for me. As someone who was used to sitting in the bleachers with the other critics, I finally understood what all that talk about building new things was about. I’m making something that I am proud of with people I admire. People I respect value it enough that they are willing to pay for it to make sure it exists in the world. For me, all of this has been a revelation.

As we’ve been building this new company, we’ve seen the decay of the old institutions accelerate. I look at CNN+, which shut down after just 21 days. The streamer, hyped nonstop by CNN, spent $300 million—or $14,285,714.29 per day. In the end, 150,000 Americans signed up, with an average of 10,000 people watching any content each day. (By comparison, we have more than 180,000 people that receive this newsletter. We did not spend $300 million to achieve this.) Or I look at Spotify, and remember they paid the Obamas $25 million in 2019 to make some podcasts, little of which has had any impact. Or Buzzfeed, which is now basically a penny stock, trading at $2.23 a share.

Welcome to the future, Bari — some have been here a while, but it’s always good to have fresh blood.