Puck poaches Leigh Ann Caldwell from Washington Post

• Last month, the company hired veteran Hollywood journalist Kim Masters, who had been The Hollywood Reporter's star investigative reporter for over a decade.
• In the past year, it tapped John Heilemann, a veteran political reporter and media entrepreneur, as chief political columnist, and brought on John Ourand, one of the country's top sports business reporters.
• It also hired veteran writers Lauren Sherman and Marion Maneker to cover fashion and art, respectively.

Zoom in: Caldwell will help expand Puck's current Washington newsletter, "The Best & The Brightest," from four to five days per week, Puck co-founder Jon Kelly told Axios.

• The product is currently helmed by Puck journalists Julia Ioffe, Peter Hamby, Tara Palmeri, Abby Livingston and John Heilemann.
• Caldwell will helm a special Sunday edition of the newsletter. Her input will help reorient the newsletter, on Sunday and throughout the week, to be more laser-focused on the personalities and deal-making happening on Capitol Hill.

Zoom out: Puck sees a strong business opportunity in expanding its coverage of Washington ahead of the next administration. The company plans to build a standing live events franchise in Washington around Caldwell, given her experience anchoring live events at The Washington Post, Kelly said.

• In her most recent role at The Post, Caldwell served as the co-author of the Early 202 newsletter, focusing her coverage on Congress and, specifically, Congressional leadership.
• Her relationships on Capitol Hill are "invaluable at this moment and unbelievably, profoundly important," Kelly said.

State of play: Caldwell departs at a trying time for The Post and legacy media. A veteran of a newspaper company and before that, NBC and CNN, Caldwell said she was attracted to Kelly's business vision for Puck.

• "He has a model for success, and it's an organization that's super dynamic and has a lot of opportunity to growth."
• Caldwell is the latest in a wave of big journalists who have been defecting from The Post amid exasperation with leadership.

The big picture: Launched in 2021, Puck's initial focus was to hire big-name journalists and give them the branding and infrastructure they needed to leave legacy outlets and connect more directly with their audiences.

• Puck's CEO, former Twitter ad sales chief Sarah Personette, said that strategy has helped the company "really recognize this unmet need to provide executives and opinion elite with unparalleled access to the insider story."

• Puck's editorial focus is on America's power centers and the people and industries that drive them. In addition to Washington, Puck has established a strong presence in Los Angeles covering media and Hollywood, as well as art, fashion and markets in New York.
• Personette said part of Puck's 2025 goal is to build upon the cross-section of coverage across those industries.

By the numbers: As a private company, Kelly declined to disclose Puck's latest revenue or subscriber numbers.

• The Wall Street Journal last year wrote that the company has amassed roughly 40,000 full-paying subscribers and surpassed $10 million in revenue in 2023.

What to watch: Kelly said the expansion of Puck's Washington product is an example of a larger shift at the company to take its newsletter writers and build stronger business franchises around them, such as podcasts, events and in some cases, affiliate partnerships.

• Last month, Puck acquired the fashion newsletter Retail Diary and hired its author Sarah Shapiro to join Sherman in the expansion of her fashion newsletter, Line Sheet.
• Its art market newsletter, Wall Power is expanding to four days a week this month following its hire of Julie Brener Davich from Sotheby's.
• It launched four new podcasts around its newsletter products last year including "Impolitic with John Heilemann," "Fashion People" with Sherman, "The Varsity" with Ourand and "The Grill Room" with Puck's senior media correspondent Dylan Byers.