The 2022 Media Hot List: These Publishers Are Thriving Amid Continued Upheaval

It’s been another year of shifting audience behaviors, digital ad revenue headwinds and an industry striving to break away from old systems that cater to limited viewpoints. In other words, business as usual for the media industry. These characteristics create the environment for bold new models, such as Grid’s Laura McGann (our Media Editor of the Year), who is rethinking a more collaborative approach to newsroom reporting. Companies with fluctuating fortunes make for sensible targets for acquisitive organizations. Still, those with complementing business models and audiences, like The New York Times and The Athletic (our Hottest Media Merger), are greater than the sum of their parts.