The Murdoch who didn't snitch

After we dropped our Tuesday lead story on the fake Condé Nast recruiters, a lot of you reached out about your own headaches dealing with scammers in the job market. I honestly had no idea how far the bar was in hell. One member also pointed out that this isn’t the first time Condé has dealt with this issue. Be safe out there!

We’re back with another free Thursday newsletter, which means another edition of Maxed Out, our job board with the most interesting roles posted in the last 24 hours, and what we’re seeing and hearing around the industry. We save our biggest scoops and stories for our Tuesday paid members — you can sign up here to upgrade.  

xoxo,

Stephanie

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Maxed Out is where we ask our favorite people in media about what they're reading, watching and listening to on the internet, but with a twist: they must come clean about how much time they're spending on their phone.

Until recently Chantal Waldholz was the global head of audience development for Glamour, meaning she was behind some of the brand’s biggest cover story rollouts, including that incredibly cute holiday-themed Olandria and Nic photoshoot that I saw all over my feed last December. After Condé announced a massive round of cuts last month that gutted almost the entire Glamour team in the U.S., Chantal is now a free agent. She wrote a very sweet goodbye note to her coworkers a week ago, and this part in particular really touched me: 

“I'm doing the thing I've been dreaming about for a while now: going all in on building my own brands. Something I talked to my dad about often before he passed away in December 2024. He stopped talking about my accomplishments at Condé Nast and started telling people his daughter was behind one of the most influential New York-based accounts.”

This isn’t a loss for her as much as a new door opened. For years, Chantal has run a popular drinking account called @drinkinglongisland that she’s now planning to put even more weight behind. Onward and upward!

Tell us about yourself and your media career — what projects are you working on now?

Ah! You’ve caught me at an exciting time. After six years, I’m transitioning from my role as Senior Global Director of Audience Development at Glamour (Condé Nast) into the next chapter, which includes freelance work and a full focus on my lifestyle projects, Drinking Long Island and Explore With Chantal. I have a super fun freelance project coming up in Vegas for the opening of Lisa Vanderpump’s new hotel, where I’ll be covering everything from a social media lens—what to expect, reviews of the restaurants, bars and so much more. Be sure to follow me @drinkinglongisland and @explorewithchantal to come along for the ride.

What's your average phone screen time for a given week? Are you surprised by that number?

Last week’s average was 11 hours and 39 minutes. I’m not sure whether to be terrified or impressed! I live my life online, so I’m not surprised per se, but now you have me thinking: am I missing out on too much real life? 

Where do you spend your daily screen time online? What are your go-to spots on the Internet that you think people should know and why?

Instagram, various text chains and Substack.

Instagram is where my content lives and I’m constantly developing my brand there (93K followers and counting). I also live way too much in my Explore page. Let’s just say if I ever lost my phone and someone got into it, they’d find a whole lot of Heated Rivalry edits, Harry Styles thirst traps and Summer House clips. (Team Ciara, btw.)

But, some of my favorite time on Instagram is spent with the accounts I genuinely can’t stop watching:

@dopequeenpheebs, Phoebe Robinson, is a must-follow for me. Her takes are unmatched, she keeps it real, speaks candidly about the Black experience, holds people accountable and is absolutely hilarious while doing it. 

@IAmPoliticsGirl, Leigh McGowan, is someone I’m fully obsessed with—passionate, loud, intelligent and her takedowns of the worst people in politics are some of the best on the internet. 

@MonteMader, Monte Mader, has this incredible storytelling ability that keeps you glued; her videos have made me feel every emotion imaginable.

@derrickdowneyjr, Derrick Downey Jr., his squirrel videos give me life. This man radiates pure joy and I truly wish all men were like Derrick. 

@avellinofarms, Paul Avellino, is a gardener who’s deeply focused on humanity and teaching people how to provide for themselves, and he has a beautiful way of showing how everything, especially food, is political.

@childfreemillennial, Marcela, is deeply relatable to me as a childfree millennial myself; she is unabashedly, unapologetically herself. 

Then there’s @blakelythornton and @corey_obrien. If you don’t know who these two are, go to their pages immediately and thank me later.

And of course, @lieats, Missy Mooney. A favorite local Long Island account run by a woman with a beautiful heart who always stands up for what’s right.

As for texts... I’m available for my people 24/7. We’re usually talking about work drama, pop culture moments (I live for all things pop culture) and where we’re traveling next.

I’m also getting deeper into Substack and will finally have time to launch my own this summer. But right now, I’m heavily into Aaron Parnas’s The Parnas Perspective. If you’re not following him, please fix that immediately. Aaron has this rare ability to deliver important news in a way that actually feels approachable, even for people who don’t typically watch or read the news. He’s highly intelligent, genuinely wants to see good in this world and is the definition of passion—every ounce of sweat goes into his reporting (AND he’s a new dad!). He delivers 5 to 10 minute videos typically around twice a day, sharing news in a clever, bite-sized way that would make even someone who claims they don’t care about politics stop and listen. We are lucky to have him at a time when media, quite frankly, is in disarray.

And honestly, my go-to advice for anyone: spend your time online wherever makes you feel good. Whatever gives you a good escape. For me, that’s also where Reddit comes in. And of course, @drinkinglongisland and @explorewithchantal (I promise it’s always a good time). Follow along on Substack too, launch is coming soon: substack.com/@drinkinglongisland.

What we’re seeing and hearing around the industry.

1) Miami Herald reporter Julie Brown was blocked from getting a Pulitzer Prize  for her 2018 reporting on Jeffrey Epstein due to a concern raised by former ProPublica editor Joseph Sexton, Semafor reports. Julie was in the running for her investigative series called “Perversion of Justice,” which was the catalyst for the federal government to reopen the case against Epstein. Joseph, who was an awards judge at the time, thought that the “most explosive elements of her reporting had been previously published, both in news articles and books,” he told Semafor. “I and others on the jury felt the work was not the best entry for a category that greatly values fully novel reporting.”

Well, all these years later, it seems like the Pulitzer Board might have had a change of heart. The board announced on Monday that Julie would receive a “special citation” for the series. According to the Pulitzer website, a special citation is a rarely issued recognition of “a work or an individual of particular merit.” The board does weigh the original reporting aspect of a story heavily when deciding who gets an award, and a vast majority of stories that have won awards have original reporting. But given the story’s impact it more than deserves the recognition, and it’s hard to argue otherwise.  

Thanks to the member who sent us this fun opinion to debate in Tuesday’s newsletter. Have a media hot take of your own? Email [email protected]