Puck was designed to change that. It was built to reveal the backstory, to take readers into back rooms, and to display the back-scratching that takes place within them. Puck sought to capitalize on the same idea driving the newsletter company Substack โthat certain writers, with dedicated followings, can be their own profit centers. They would get an equity stake in the company and receive bonuses based on their subscriber numbers. For every thousand subscribers they bring in, writers get ten thousand dollars.
Part of its pitch is that its writers move in the same elevated spaces as the people whom they cover. In one conversation, he told me that he thought sending Twitter D. It ostensibly expects the same of its readers. Puck makes no attempt to conceal its yearning for a rarefied audience. C-suite, senior director, senior executive, and director are four of the seven Puck-sanctioned reader careers.
Discovery C. Her Puck readership is particularly connected, Ioffe said. The Puck style is authoritative and knowing. Its writers regularly refer to the moguls they cover by their first names. William D. But Puck can also be guilty of overreach. A decade ago, media startups single-mindedly chased clicks to drive advertising revenue. Puck is just one of a flotilla of new digital publications targeting specific subsets of readersโPunchbowl Capitol Hill and the Ankler Hollywood have adopted similar strategies.
Many people who know him described him as impish or mischievous, with a sense of humor that went just up to the line and often over it. But Kelly was invariably disciplined during our conversations, even the off-the-record chats. In middle school, he started reading the New York Observer , and later in his teen-age years, Spy magazine, the irreverent publication of culture, politics, and power that Carter co-founded in the mid-eighties.
Carter was livid. Why would you leave the Yankees to play for the Blue Jays? His ambition had started to grow. Kelly had heard that Adam Mendelsohn, a communications executive who helped advise LeBron James on the launch of his SpringHill production company, was scouting for potential media investments for TPG. Kelly decided to reach out to him. They arranged to meet in Los Angeles. Jones faced criticism during her first years at the magazine, including from inside the company.
