CNN is all but ready to pull back the curtain on its rebooted Reliable Sources newsletter. The new version of the widely read tip magazine will be led by senior media reporter Oliver Darcy and will return on Monday, September 26 with a new look and format.
Darcy says the new Reliable newsletter will be in a “shorter format,” although it will “continue to address issues related to newsrooms, partisan media, social media, podcasts and streaming services.” It will also “continue to pay close attention to industrial titans reshaping our information environment.”
But it will have a brand new “polished” visual identity, from the logo to the newsletter structure, which will be organized around specific sections so that readers can quickly find the section they are looking for. CNN says the revamped newsletter is based on feedback they’ve received since the last issue hit inboxes on August 18.
But CNN will also cut back on the frequency of its newsletter. Until he left CNN last month, Brian Stelter and Darcy split responsibilities for the newsletter, publishing six issues a week. Going forward, there will only be four issues a week, Monday through Thursday, which is intended to give Darcy more time to create original reports that can be incorporated into the final product.
The return of the newsletter also marks the return of the “Reliable Sources” brand to CNN, a month after the TV show of the same name was canceled and the newsletter was interrupted.
Stelter created and launched the tip magazine in 2015 based on the long-running TV Hour, and in the years since, it had become a must-read among media and entertainment executives, as well as news junkies. Darcy has been a long-time contributor to the newsletter and was appointed co-author in 2020.
He says Reliable Sources is “an iconic and essential CNN institution” and adds that “it is a great privilege to take over, especially during what is the most profound period for the media industry in modern history.” .”
Darcy’s Reliable newsletter will tie in with what has become an increasingly crowded field for tipping magazines touching on the media business. Earlier New York Times media columnist Ben Smith will launch his own media newsletter in the coming weeks, while The everyday beast launched its own product earlier this year. The subscription news channel Puck has relied on media and entertainment reporting as a cornerstone of its product since its launch a year ago. Axios Media Trends, led by Sara Fischer, has become a must-read newsletter with a specific focus on the business of media.
And of course media channels from Politico and The New York Times to the Wall Street Journal and Nieman Journalism Lab have devoted ample attention to the media sector for a long time.