Ankler Media has joined with LAist to provide entertainment news to Southern California’s largest public radio station.
The move by the Brentwood-based entertainment and media startup gives it access to a combined audience of 10 million people through radio station LAist 89.3 (KPCC), LAist.com, newsletters and social media.
The Ankler team will provide entertainment news and analysis every Thursday on LAist 89.3 with on-air segments during “Morning Edition, “AirTalk and “All Things Considered.” The team will also cover breaking entertainment news.
The LAist.com site will feature entertainment content on its homepage, through newsletters and social media. The journalists providing the content will include Ankler founder Richard Rushfield, Ankler Media Chief Executive Janice Min, Elaine Low, Peter Kiefer and Sean McNulty.
No money was exchanged or will be exchanged as part of the deal, according to the two organizations.
The Los Angeles area is heading into a pivotal year for the entertainment industry as it recovers from last year’s writers and actors strikes and streaming wars, and the people of Southern California are interested more than ever before in how Hollywood shapes their lives and careers, Min said.
“We’re thrilled to bring our brand of entertainment news to the LAist audience, the largest public radio audience in L.A., and LAist’s massive web presence” Min added in a statement. “The intelligence, reporting, values and credibility of LAist very much are in alignment with ours.”
Kristen Muller, chief content officer of Southern California Public Radio, which owns LAist, called the content from the Ankler “essential reading” for the entertainment industry, from the C-Suite to set builders to makeup artists.
“As the media landscape in L.A. continues to evolve, this new partnership ensures that audiences across Southern California understand the seismic changes within the entertainment industry and the impact it has on our region,” Herb Scannell, chief executive of the Pasadena member-supported public media network, said in a statement.
The Ankler newsletter, founded in 2017, is the flagship brand within Ankler Media, which was formed in January 2022 and is helmed by Min, who also serves as editor in chief, and Rushfield, editorial director and chief columnist. With numerous newsletters and podcasts, Ankler Media provides daily insights, analysis and news about the world of entertainment.
With 74,000 subscribers across its titles and more than 1.3 million podcast downloads, The Ankler has expanded into live events and has become one of the largest publications on Substack, the San Francisco-based email publishing platform it uses to send out its newsletters.
LAist is a brand committed to serve audiences from Santa Barbara to Palm Springs. Its work reaches more than 7 million people per month on LAist.com and social media platforms. In 2019 the brand grew to include LAist Studios, a dedicated podcast development and production studio.
