Founded by veterans of New York media, Puck News is led by Chief Executive Officer Joe Purzycki and editor-in-chief Jon Kelly. But Kelly and Purzycki stress the company isn’t about a charismatic founder like Vice’s Shane Smith, but its star talent. Kelly has recruited a handful of influential writers to write newsletters and serve as founding partners in his new venture. The whole venture is a bet on two concepts gaining a lot of currency in media circles: that journalism shouldn’t be free, and that journalists need to be more like social media influencers. “There is an elite group of journalists who want to be long-form writers, column writers, newsletters writers and want to have a direct connection with the large audiences they’ve amassed on social channels,” Kelly said.
