First-Looks & Overalls Q1; Indie TV Studio Winning Playbook; Film Finance 2.0
Plus: Was the strike worth it? Big writers tell Lesley Goldberg their answer
It was a media dream team mash-up on Friday in New York when Janice Min was interviewed by Ben Smith onstage at the New York Times’ Times Center in front of 400 guests at the sold-out Newsletter Conference. Their chat was fun, gossipy, and balanced with some A+ insights about modern media and how to think about your audience — including blistering remarks about how web traffic-chasing media has dragged the quality of news into the gutter, leaving an opening for top-tier news and information such as The Ankler and Semafor, where Smith is editor-in-chief.
Okay, okay, dessert first!
Janice on Jay Penske: “A collector of distressed media.”
L.A. Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong: “Like a lot of billionaires, he thought, how fast can I get to Trump? How fast can I debase myself?”
Who should be the next editor of Vanity Fair? “Get Tina Brown to come back and do it for two years and resurrect that thing. That would be amazing.”
Woven through these bon mots were important insights relevant beyond newsletter media. Janice spoke about the power of being audience first and having direct connection with you, our subscribers — and how anything but that is a loser (this after Ben raised how hard it is to read a Penske trade through all the pop-up programmatic ads). “If you’re driving to a revenue goal versus an audience goal, that’s hard,” Janice told the audience. In that instance, your incentives are misaligned and ultimately you’ll fail. In news, “nothing becomes better when you’re chasing scale, right?” Janice told Ben. “The stories become cheaper, faster, worse.” (Public service announcement: Programmatic ads pay on volume, not quality, of content, which incentivizes clickbait headlines.)
We’ll see if we can share the whole conversation later this week . . .
Meanwhile, I wanted to tell you about some nice shoutouts for us this week from the Substack-verse (and I’ll shoutout right back). Sam Widdoes’ Widdoespeak paid homage to new, exceptional work from Nicole LaPorte, Ashley Cullins and Like & Subscribe’s Natalie Jarvey; Jen Topping’s U.K.-based Business of TV also showered love on our team:
What Richard Rushfield and the Ankler team have built is awe-inspiring. There are a whole stable of excellent journalists and specialists underneath the umbrella and they do a great job of covering the full breadth of the TV, film and content creation industries. My own favourites are . . .
Natalie Jarvey on the creator economy, Manori Ravindran on TV, and Sean McNulty’s daily roundup of Hollywood shenanigans which usually has at least one guaranteed guffaw in each post. Richard’s own writing is typically highly amusing, insightful and a repeated shot in the arm for creatives and show business types.
COMING EVENTS
Lastly, before I get to it, some fun doings for our audience in L.A.:
- TODAY, co-stars and executive producers Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks and co-showrunners and executive producers Olivia Milch and Regina Corrado of Prime Video’s limited series The Better Sister join Katey’s Prestige Junkie Live! podcast onstage following a special screening at The London, West Hollywood. Doors open 12:45 p.m. PT
Request to attend here
- THURSDAY, May 8, we’ll have another Art & Crafts Live event at the ASC, featuring artisans from Netflix’s American Primeval, Disney+’s Andor, Peacock’s The Day of the Jackal, Prime Video’s Étoile, and FX’s Grotesquerie.
ASC Clubhouse, 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Request to attend here
- THIS MONTH We’re a Netflix partner for its upcoming May 17-June 2 FYSEE: LA festival, featuring Janice and Katey Rich in some industry conversations you’ll definitely not want to miss:
Opening night, May 17, Netflix Tudum Theater: Janice with the storytellers behind The Diplomat (Debora Cahn), The Residence (Paul William Davies) and Zero Day (Eric Newman) on diplomacy, politics and government on screen
May 30, Netflix Tudum Theater: The Ankler x Letterboxd “Audience First” Screening Series returns with Adolescence co-creators/writers/EP’s Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne introducing a screening of their smash series.
May 30, FYSEE: LA, FYSEE HQ Hub: Katey Rich’s Prestige Junkie Live! podcasts with Paul Giamatti (Black Mirror) and Mara Brock Akil and Karen Pittman from FOREVER.
Register for these and other FYSEE: LA events here.
Now, without further ado, ICYMI, our best of the week:
Series Business: Indie TV Studio Strat; WGA Strike Debate
With Poker Face returning for this week, Elaine Low (paid subscribers only) talked to MRC TV president Jenna Santoianni on how she competes against vertically integrated studios in a market with fewer buyers; her strong feelings about selling pitches vs. scripts; and the five elements MRC believes make a show “undeniable.”
On the two-year anniversary of the start of the WGA strike, and with one to go until the current contract expires, Lesley Goldberg surveys Damon Lindelof, Shawn Ryan and more writers on whether the strike caused, accelerated or is helping them ride out the current contraction — and how WGA messaging has backfired with some members:
Dealmakers: The Tea Leaves of 2025’s Q1 Deals
Ashley Cullins looks at the year-to-date in deals — from overalls to first-looks to selling original films. She reveals (paid subscribers only) which talent has scored deals; which studios were most and least active in doling them out; how Sinners’ success is about to change the market for the better; and where one studio exec recommends taking your project if you’re frustrated dealing with people like him:
How to Get Fans to Fund Your Next Movie
Traditional film financing comes from a studio/streamer or high net-worth individuals. Nicole LaPorte explores a new way — crowdfunding. She interviews Eli Roth, who, like Robert Rodriguez, has adopted it; the benefits and tradeoffs; how giving fans equity changes the artist-investor relationship; and how to run a winning campaign:
Rushfield: What Instagram FOMO Has to Do with Movies
What do Barbenheimier, Anyone But You’s “Unwritten” and A Minecraft Movie’s Chicken Jockey all have in common? They originated from FOMO culture, a decidedly different trend than the fandom that drove the Big IP era — and one Richard says requires studios to take more original swings. Plus: Don’t miss Richard’s new box office breakdown show Monday Morning Quarterbacks with The Wakeup’s Sean McNulty:
Prestige Junkie: Hacks’ L.A. Roots
Katey Rich chats with Hacks star Hannah Einbinder and star/co-creator Paul W. Downs about the show’s fourth season and its renewed L.A. focus. Plus: The Pitt’s Katherine LaNasa talks the hit medical drama:
THE WAKEUP
Spotify and Roku aren’t Hollywood studios, but Sean explained how their earnings signal trends that will hit the creative community as Disney, WBD and Paramount report this week:
🎧 PODCASTS
THE ANKLER
What Deals in 2025 Reveal So Far Surprise, suspense & new industry narratives are taking shape:
Like and subscribe on Apple Podcasts
THE ANKLER X NAB SHOW
How Webtoon Is Building an IP Gold Mine Webtoon Entertainment COO David J. Lee and Wattpad Webtoon Studios' global head of entertainment, David Madden tell Natalie Jarvey how Webtoon, the digital comics platform behind Netflix's Heartstopper, amplifies creators who can make up to $1 million a year on its platform:
MARTINI SHOT
Upfronts, Auspices & Half-Truths What to learn from how the TV game used to be played:
📱 LIKE & SUBSCRIBE FROM NATALIE JARVEY
👓 THE OPTIONIST BY ANDY LEWIS
FINAL HOUSEKEEPING!
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