Puck and Air Mail prepare to merge

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1. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/puck-nears-deal-acquire-graydon-carter-air-mail-1236368845/ – Please view link – unable to able to access data
2. https://www.axios.com/2025/09/11/puck-air-mail-deal – Puck, a subscription-based digital newsletter company, has agreed to acquire Air Mail, a digital media startup founded by former magazine editor Graydon Carter. This merger marks a reunion between Puck founder Jon Kelly and his previous boss, Carter. Both companies promote a digital journalism style reminiscent of the classic, glossy magazine era and hold similar editorial aesthetics. They also share key investors, including Standard Investments (linked to Standard Industries) and TPG, a major private equity firm. Puck, launched in 2021, has raised over $17 million and garnered 40,000 paying subscribers by 2023. This acquisition reflects a broader trend toward consolidation in the niche, subscription-driven digital media landscape.
3. https://www.axios.com/2023/05/08/scoop-puck-co-founder-and-ceo-exiting-the-company – Puck News co-founder and CEO Joe Purzycki is leaving the company, according to an internal note sent from co-founder and editor-in-chief Jon Kelly to staff Monday obtained by Axios. Purzycki, who co-founded the company with Kelly and Max Tcheyan, an early employee … , will remain as an advisor during the transition period. Before Puck, Purzycki co-founded Luminary, a podcast company, and served as an early advisor to Air Mail. The departure comes as Puck is finalizing a new financing round with the support of its founding investors, Standard and T … . Puck News has about 240,000 free and … .
4. https://www.axios.com/2024/04/09/puck-acquires-substack-newsletter-artelligence – Puck has acquired Artelligence, a Substack newsletter about the global art market authored by veteran art director and journalist Marion Maneker, Puck editor-in-chief Jon Kelly tells Axios. Why it matters: It’s the first time Puck has acquired an existing newsletter instead … Zoom in: The newsletter – which … ‘Wall Power.’ Zoom out: The deal serves as … Between the lines: Puck’s … . State of play: The Artelligence … . By the numbers: Including Maneker … .
5. https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-zucker-redbird-imi-may-invest-graydon-carter-air-mail-2023-6 – Jeff Zucker’s media venture, RedBird IMI, is exploring a majority stake in Graydon Carter’s startup Air Mail, The New York Times reported. RedBird IMI, which has $1 billion in backing from private-equity firm RedBird Capital Partners and Abu Dhabi-based International Media Investments, was formed to acquire and build companies in media, sports, and entertainment. It is one of three investors circling Air Mail, according to the Times. Carter, who spent 25 years leading Condé Nast’s Vanity Fair, launched Air Mail — ‘a lively digital weekly for the world citizen,’ per its website — in 2019. The company raised $17 million in a series B funding round in December 2021, Axios reported, bringing its total fundraise at the time to $32 million. RedBird participated in that round, which was led by Standard Investments and also included TPG Growth. In May 2021, as he was seeking investors for the series B, Carter told Insider he expected Air Mail to reach profitability in three years. Zucker was named CEO of RedBird IMI in December 2022, less than a year after his ouster from CNN shocked the network and the media industry. Zucker’s exit came after he disclosed a consensual romantic relationship with a colleague. His successor, CNN CEO Chris Licht, was chosen by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to lead the network with a mission to provide less partisan reporting. Licht has faced plunging ratings, talent dramas, and a barrage of criticism of his leadership, particularly after the network hosted a town hall with former President Donald Trump. Zaslav has repeatedly defended Licht and his mission, but a profile of the embattled CNN CEO in The Atlantic revealed concern over Licht’s leadership in the network’s newsroom and beyond. During the Cannes Film Festival in May, Zaslav and Carter cohosted a star-packed party celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Warner Bros. movie studio. The two executives told the Times they shared a long friendship and collaborated closely on the event. Representatives for Zucker and Carter did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
6. https://www.imdb.com/news/ni65472388/ – Puck has entered into an exclusive agreement to acquire Air Mail, a digital weekly founded by Graydon Carter. The acquisition aims to combine Air Mail’s focus on culture and lifestyle with Puck’s scoop-driven, industry-specific newsletters and podcasts. The deal, which may take months to complete, is largely being paid for with Puck’s stock, reflecting a trend in digital publishing.
7. https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/the-e-mail-newsletter-for-the-mogul-set – Kelly told me that, by the time of the meeting, he was already intent on leaving. He became an adviser to TPG, working with the company on media investments and acquiring what he called ‘a mid-career M.B.A.’ (He sprinkles business terms into conversations with the zeal of a convert—’you know, we’re an A.R.P.U. business,’ he told me at one point.) Kelly met two of his co-founders, Max Tcheyan and Joe Purzycki, formerly of The Athletic and Luminary, respectively, through the firm’s match-making. The C.O.O. and co-founder Liz Gough joined on from Condé Nast. TPG is now one of the funders of Puck, along with the investment arm of Standard Industries, ‘the world’s largest roofing and waterproofing company,’ which employs a number of former Vanity Fair staffers. ‘The vibe of the office feels like Vanity Fair,’ Kelly told me, of Standard. ‘It’s beautiful; people are sharp and sophisticated. It’s just classy.’ TPG and Standard also fund Carter’s ‘Air Mail’—a mix of culture writing, reported features, and high-end fashion and beauty coverage—though Carter and Kelly both went out of their way to quash the idea that Carter was responsible for getting Kelly in the door with TPG. Or that he shadow-edits Puck. Carter did come up with the site’s name, though. The Puck Building, which is now owned by the Kushner family’s company, is where Carter’s Spy magazine was originally housed. And Puck’s automated e-mail persona, Fritz, was also the name of the Waverly Inn’s reservation bot. Carter and Kelly’s relationship is complex—a teetering mille-feuille of ego and affection. People pointed me to Kelly’s remarks at an editor’s memorial service in 2021 as an example of their dynamic. Carter couldn’t attend the service but enlisted Kelly to read something he’d written. ‘I wanted to say a few words myself,’ Kelly says, in a video of the service that can be found online. ‘First, as always, Graydon.’ Kelly appeared perturbed when I commented that his years at Vanity Fair seemed to loom large. ‘Maybe more to you—I mean, I love Vanity Fair,’ he said. ‘I wanted to do my own thing.’ But when Kelly offered a vision for his career, he couldn’t help but mention Carter. ‘I always thought that I was trying to be an ersatz version of my media heroes,’ he said, ‘like Graydon, Bill Simmons, and, no joke, Kris Jenner.’ To Kelly, each of them has what he called an innate ability to identify talent and to ‘take advantage of their superpowers.’