Oliver Darcy, who had ably helmed CNN’s media newsletter, “Reliable Sources,” after Brian Stelter was fired by the short-lived Chris Licht regime in 2022, is striking out on his own.
Darcy’s new venture, Status, promises to provide “the new, definitive nightly briefing that informs readers about what is really happening in the corridors of media power.”
It will be interesting to see whether he can succeed. Darcy is excellent, but he’s blown past the $5-a-month fee charged by nearly all solo newsletter authors. To read more than his Sunday edition and limited previews, you’ll need to fork over $14.95 a month — as much as most daily newspapers charge.
I wish Oliver luck, but I’m going to hang back for a while and see whether he’s able to establish Status as a must-read. Meanwhile, “Reliable Sources” will be back this fall with a new lead writer, according to Variety.
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You know I’m a cynic, but even this disgusts me. Any journalism who claims to be telling you what’s *really* happening in X situation (excepting maybe certain science journalists) is flat-out a liar. That’s 100% marketing spin of the exact same ilk as sports journalists claiming they know what’s *really* going on in the clubhouse. Or like those bonehead reporters from American papers that covered the Kremlin in the Soviet era and actually believed *anything* the Politburo told them.
My screaming instinct on this is that he’s charging an outrageously high price in a desperate attempt to convey legitimacy to his illegitimate product. “It’s so expensive so it MUST be legit!”
Now granted, I don’t know Darcy from Adam. I didn’t really follow Stelter before, and I didn’t follow Darcy at all.
CNN long ago ceased to be a relevant news source for me. So maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe he’ll have some good nuggets worth sharing. But then again, maybe a blind squirrel can find a nut sometimes, too…and it’s not worth $15/mo to watch the squirrel stumble about.
Yeah, that’s pretty harsh. Oliver’s really good. But here’s the problem: CNN still has a few very good media reporters, and they’re bringing back “Reliable Sources” this fall — for free, I assume, though Mark Thompson keeps making noises about charging for stuff. And there are a number of other free media newsletters out there from Poynter, CJR, Axios, etc.