6AM City Rewinds (Scoop): The newsletter-based local news company 6AM City, which at one point staffed local outposts in around 30 cities across the country, has cut roughly 30% of its work force over the past 18 months, CEO and cofounder Ryan Heafy confirmed to ADWEEK. As part of this retrenchment, it has also retreated from around 11 markets, leaving its total of core markets at 19. U
sing technology it gained from its June acquisition of Good Daily, which uses artificial intelligence to scrape relevant local news and compile it into automated newsletters, the company has not abandoned any of its markets, per se. Instead, it has continued serving them, albeit with AI-enabled emails, which the company refers to as 5AM City. The painful decision was made in the name of achieving profitability, according to Heafy, which 6AM City is on pace to reach in this quarter.
The Whollop at WaPo: The Washington Post endured a historic round of layoffs on Wednesday, which essentially eliminated its sports desk, curbed its foreign coverage, and winnowed its metro reporting. The cuts are part of an effort to curb commercial declines at the beleaguered publisher, which lost $100 million in 2024. Newsroom staff and critics have beseeched owner Jeff Bezos to intervene, but he shows no signs of doing so.
Going forward, the storied news outlet plans to double down on its core areas of coverage, including politics and national security, although it faces ample competition in those spaces from outlets including Politico and Punchbowl News. The Post is effectively acting out The New York Times’ strategy in reverse, contracting from a multifaceted, general interest outlet into a niche resource for those working in and around The Hill.
Pulled Quotes
“Kobie West, the clinical director of the Dr. Robert Hunter International Problem Gambling Center, in Las Vegas, compares the present moment in gambling addiction to the days of blissful ignorance that allowed America’s opioid epidemic to spiral out of control.”
Harper’s Magazine’s Jasper Craven, on the looming sports-betting crisis
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“Journalistically charismatic but politically compliant: that was Murdoch’s ideal editor, exemplified by the vinegary brutes running his British tabloids.”
The New Yorker’s Andrew O’Hagan, on the rise of Rupert Murdoch
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“Digital advertising, which accounts for a large and growing share of big tech’s revenues, is looking less recession-proof.”
The Economist, on the shaky foundation undergirding the AI boom
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“‘I think, therefore I am.’”
An AI bot, communicating with other bots on the AI-only social media OpenClaw
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Quote/Unquote
Amit Sharan is the senior vice president of marketing at Tatari, a television advertising and measurement platform that helps brands manage campaigns across linear and connected TV. Tatari has helped four clients place Super Bowl buys this year—Tecovas, Ro, Life360, and Manscaped—giving the agency an intimate look at the process.
