Lupa Systems in Talks to Acquire New York Magazine and Vox Media Podcast Network

James Murdoch’s investment firm Lupa Systems is in late-stage talks to acquire New York Magazine and the Vox Media podcast network for $300 million or more. The deal would bring these assets under the same umbrella as Lupa’s existing investments in the Tribeca Festival and Art Basel.

Earlier this year, OpenAI paid more than $100 million for TBPN, a daily tech talk show generating roughly $5 million in annual revenue. Paramount Skydance acquired The Free Press for roughly $150 million in late 2025 and named its founder editor-in-chief of CBS News.

Joe Rogan renewed with Spotify at a reported $250 million. Alex Cooper moved her $60 million Spotify deal to SiriusXM at a reported $125 million. Pat McAfee licensed his daily show to ESPN at a reported $85 million. The Kelce brothers signed with Amazon’s Wondery for a reported $100 million.

The first model is the strategic acqui-hire.

This pattern is visible in OpenAI’s purchase of TBPN and Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of The Free Press. The second is infrastructure-as-a-service. Red Seat Ventures has built this model for commentators like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Bill O’Reilly.

Following its 2025 acquisition by Fox’s Tubi Media Group and subsequent additions of Backtracks and Supercast, Red Seat offers a monetization stack. The third is the institutional bundle. The New York Times moved its podcast back catalog behind a subscription-based paywall in 2024.

Netflix is testing the same logic. A fourth model is now emerging. If the Vox deal closes, it would be the clearest example yet: build or acquire trusted journalistic and creator brands as the editorial scaffolding for premium live experiences. Jay Penske has been operating a version of this for several years, where Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Dick Clark Productions, and a stake in SXSW combine into a vertically integrated culture-and-events business.

James Murdoch has said publicly that live events are the core business of Lupa, and that his investment thesis centers on the ability to gather communities around strong brands. The Futurific Institute, a large-scale global ideas festival backed by Katheryn and James Murdoch, is set to launch in 2028.