Vox Media to Acquire Preet Bharara’s Podcast Company Cafe Studios
- The former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York will join the company as a host, co-founder and creative director of Cafe.
Preet Bharara’s podcasts will soon have a new home. Vox Media will be acquiring Cafe Studios, the podcast company co-founded by the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The Wall Street Journal reported that Bharara will join Vox Media as a host, co-founder and creative director of Cafe, “which will continue to exist as a brand.” He will report to Vox Media Studios President Marty Moe. The financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed by both the companies, the Journal report noted. A year after he was fired by former president Trump, Bharara co-founded Cafe in 2020 with his younger brother, Some Spider CEO Vinit Bharara, who won’t be joining Vox Media.
“I can’t express how excited I am to bring @TamaraSepper & the whole Cafe team to @voxmedia under the leadership of @Bankoff & @mtmoe1,” Bharara tweeted. “Special shout out to my brother @vinitbharara for taking a chance and making all of this happen.”
The younger Bharara also took to Twitter to congratulate his elder brother. “Proud of @PreetBharara and @cafedotcom team; @Bankoff and @voxmedia were the best and perfect fit among many suitors.”
Among podcasts Cafe Studios publishes are “Stay Tuned With Preet,” a current-events and pop-culture talk show; “Third Degree,” a legal-analysis show hosted by former federal and state prosecutor Elie Honig; and “Doing Justice,” a narrative podcast based on a book by Bharara of the same name. “Stay Tuned With Preet,” is the most popular podcast in Cafe Studios’ portfolio, averaging about two million downloads a month, a person familiar with the matter told the Journal.
Vox Media Chief Executive Officer Jim Bankoff told the Journal that Cafe Studios was worth buying “because of its strong advertising business, the quality of its shows and its subscription business.”
Bharara said he wanted to sell Cafe, “in part, because teaming up with Vox Media was a quicker alternative to fundraising and would create bigger opportunities.” He said with the new collaboration, he hoped to explore creating scripted shows and documentaries and hosting live events and expand his reach. “I want to do things of quality in this space like I did in the law,” he said. “And we felt that Vox [Media] was the best fit for that.”