Joe Pompeo
Senior Media Correspondent
Joe Pompeo is Vanity Fair’s senior media correspondent and the author of Blood & Ink: The Scandalous Jazz Age Double Murder That Hooked America on True Crime. He previously worked at publications including Politico and the New York Observer. Follow him on Twitter and Substack.
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The Tragedy of Jane King: How a Murder Spree Collided With Hollywood’s Punk Revolution
In 1977, a quasi-legal basement venue called the Masque supercharged a scene that gave rise to legends like X, the Germs, and the Go-Go’s. In a pivotal episode largely lost to history, a pair of serial killers claimed one of the Masque’s own.Exclusive: Rachel Maddow Gives Her First Interview as She Steps Back From the Nightly Grind and Revs Up for Her Next Act
The cable juggernaut signed a multimillion-dollar contract to not be on the air five nights a week. Now, Maddow opens up about why she’s changing gears, her upcoming projects, her health scares, the Steele dossier, and her surprisingly amiable rapport with Tucker Carlson.How Richard Rushfield’s The Ankler Took on Hollywood
Rushfield’s sharp-tongued missives have earned him a bold-faced subscriber list. (“I read it the second I see it pop up,” says Richard Plepler.) But can Rushfield and coconspirator Janice Min scale his scrappy newsletter into a big business?All That Zaz: With Warner Bros. Discovery Merger, David Zaslav Is Angling to Become America’s King of Content
After 15 years running Discovery, the media mogul for Main Street opens up about his upcoming battle with Disney and Netflix. “He’s a reflection of his audience,” says Nancy Pelosi. “He’s a regular guy.”“There Has to Be a Line”: Substack’s Founders Dive Headfirst Into the Culture Wars
The newsletter company is on a mission to disrupt the attention economy away from “cheap outrage and flame wars,” drawing in literati from Patti Smith to Salman Rushdie. But its refusal to engage with transphobia and disinformation means controversy is never far behind.A Jazz Age Murder Scandal, a Tabloid War, and the Birth of America’s True-Crime Obsession
While podcasts and narrative television series may make our national ripped-from-the-headlines habit feel like a modern condition, its origins span back to the cutthroat newspaper business at the start of the 20th century. In this exclusive excerpt from his upcoming book, Blood & Ink, Vanity Fair’s Joe Pompeo sheds light on one of the tabloid wars’ boldest characters, editor Philip Alan Payne, a pioneer in the art of manufacturing a story.
