Guess who might buy New York Magazine.
Plus: An Upper East Side school’s silent auction haul, Anonymous Transit Expert returns, and more
Good morning, everyone.
I’m in DC today to throw a party with my friend Jake Sherman and Punchbowl News. Looking forward to meeting some of you.
Today’s newsletter includes: The return of Anonymous Transit Expert, a mystery men’s magazine has a new editor, a secondhand children’s store opens in Brooklyn, and a dream Martha’s Vineyard journalism job that comes with a house.
Freightmogging in Gramercy Park. By Anonymous Transit Expert
Guess who’s back? The Anonymous Transit Expert started writing Stand Clear – a transportation-focused column that served as Feed Me’s Metro Section – in 2024. The Anonymous Transit Expert has to stay anonymous because he has a Real Job in a Real Office, and he has been largely absent from Feed Me for the last few months because he had the “worst filing season ever.”
Good morning (and good afternoon, and maybe good evening) - after a long cold winter moving numbers from A to B, finding a new place to live before the World Cup comes to town, and monitoring the situation(s), I’ve returned to Outside and feel like a Real Person again. The gas station/hamburger stand on 8th Ave and West 13th is charging $7 for a gallon of diesel and I’m crossing my fingers that my summer JetBlue flights don’t get Spirit’d.
While the rest of New York fixed its attention on Monday night’s Met Gala, real movers and shakers convened at Third Avenue’s Gramercy Ale House for the “hottest freight gathering of the season”: Reed Loustalot’s Freight Mogging and Maxxing Meetup. By day, Reed is the CMO of Truck Parking Club, a platform that connects owners of vacant property with truckers looking for, as the name suggests, a place to park. By night, he’s the CMO of Truck Parking Club, who holds court as he roves across the country. Last night’s co-host was a former freight reporter. Attendees had much to say about the state of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), utilization of inland waterways, and Amazon’s announcement of a Supply Chain Services offering, which we immediately concluded should have been abbreviated “ASS”.
Amazon’s announcement that they would open their logistics infrastructure, arguably the most robust and integrated in the country, to any business was interpreted as an understated mic-drop. With a single press release, the king of 1-day delivery entered direct competition with freight carriers (trucks on the highway physically moving cargo), 3PL’s (contracted supply chain managers), and brokers (the people who connect carriers to cargo). According to Justin Martin, former trucker and current independent freight fraud analyst, the announcement was akin to a “carpet bombing of nukes” for the industries.
Upon learning this, I immediately wanted to know if my younger brother, who is set to finish college with a supply chain management degree, made a grave mistake choosing his career. I was reassured that he had not, and the industry still had a high floor. For the freight junkies, freight curious, and freight naive, the star of the program was a longer-than-53-foot trailer — illegal in Manhattan without special permitting and presumed to be a mobile construction office — trundling down the avenue flanked by two Ohio-plated PT Cruiser escorts. After it disappeared across 21st Street, I turned my attention to a demo of SearchCarriers, a sort of enterprise VinWiki for freight carriers that makes sense of inspection and safety data on America’s two million motor carriers, who all must register with and submit to inspection by federal authorities. The rest of the evening passed as the long trailer did: above the speed limit in the center lane.
I received a crash course on the history of Yellow Trucking, which had been called the Spirit Airlines of freight, and, like Spirit, declared spectacular Chapter 11 bankruptcy, in 2023, from which it has not re-emerged. I received a crash course on the “Chameleon carriers” — companies with appalling safety records that shed their tainted reputations by forming new LLCs — contributing to our ever more dangerous highways. I was informed that the trucker Zuck keeps putting in my reels feed is less of a caricature than I imagined, and that most of the Moldovan trucking concerns in America can be traced back to a single man who very much wants his country to join the EU. Among the group’s other deliberations: stoicism is out, the most evil PE firm starts with a “B,” and entry-level employees in every business need to get really good at going to lunch, fast.
This year, as I start to thaw from my winter hibernation, I’m more appreciative of the facts that (a) most industries are a lot smaller than they appear on paper (or on Twitter, or television) and (b) a tweet, email thread, short burst of phone calls, or attendance at a freight gathering can marshal a great wealth of knowledge and experience immediately. A common point of view shared independently by the gala attendees is: “Nobody cares about trucking, or freight.” But after last night, I can’t believe that. If a tweet about freightmogging (I still don’t know what freightmogging is) can bring together a room willing to entertain every question from an American Truck Simulator owner who leaves feeling like he’s earned a supply-chain degree, there must be a great many who care.
This concludes Stand Clear by Anonymous Transit Expert.
Have a story you want to see on Feed Me next week? 📣 Reply to this email or text the anonymous Feed Me Tip Line: (646) 494-3916
James Jung, who spent the last four years as Editorial Director of a16z-backed Blackbird Labs, Inc., has a new job. He’ll be the new Editor in Chief of InsideHook. I learned that this was the mystery men’s magazine editor job that I wrote about earlier this year— “a well‑known lifestyle and culture brand for men—one that’s in need of a gut renovation. The bones are great. What’s needed now is a top editor who brings a clear vision for rewriting the playbook and making it essential.” Founded in 2012, InsideHook bills itself as a daily lifestyle magazine for men. I hadn’t heard of InsideHook until recently, and am curious how it will position itself against legacy men’s magazines like GQ and Esquire, in addition to the growing world of podcasts and newsletters “for the guys.” I really like Jung’s videos for Blackbird. He’s gotten very fun interviews out of people, in the increasingly crowded category of “candid interview that includes a few cocktails.” He’s also photogenic and funny which you can’t say for all editors. I spoke to him yesterday:
“At a decade-plus old, InsideHook presents a unique opportunity: take a legacy(ish) media brand and reinvent it for the cadence and pov of modern publishing. We’ll still lean heavily male, with plenty of aspirational verticals and stories (also: nightlife coverage, restaurants, and more IRL), but narrow the aperture (no more monolithic men’s brand like the days of yore) and inject a ton of fun and personality into everything. I want our writers and creators to be stars, and I want their audiences to have a 1:1 relationship with them. Also: interiority. I want to explore more stories about the inner lives of men, with boots-on-the-ground, lived experience and expertise… We need that, now more than ever. Also, look for a short-form social series soon, something — at least in terms of tone and aesthetics — like ‘Take Me To Your Spot,’ the series I co-produced and hosted for Blackbird.”
Stewart Butterfield, the co-founder and former CEO of Slack, and Jennifer Rubio, the co-founder and former CEO of Away, pledged $23 million to ensure that all of the Met’s internships are paid in perpetuity. “Internships are often the first meaningful point of entry into this field,” Rubio said of the art world, “yet too often that pathway depends on circumstance rather than talent. Stewart and I are proud to support The Met in making that entry point more equitable, ensuring that emerging voices, perspectives, and expertise help define the future of the Museum and the broader cultural landscape.”
James Murdoch, son of Rupert, is in advanced talks to buy Vox Media’s New York magazine and podcast division. I will spend more time this week learning about James, but I did just find this 2006 BBC piece about him. “As a teenager, he was regarded as the brightest of the Murdoch brood but was also something of a rebel.” We can work with this!
Upper East Side French-American bilingual school Lycée Français announced the auction items for their Spring Benefit. One person has bid on the Audemars Piguet museum visit in Switzerland ($10k starting offer), but, weirdly, nobody has bid on the $1,000 of cosmetic treatments from the stock photo doctor yet.
America’s debt exceeds its GDP for the first time since World War II. That sounds bad.
Want a two-bedroom furnished house on Martha’s Vineyard, health benefits, the opportunity to fall in love with a fisherman, and to report on stories like Alan Dershowitz being refused pierogies? Then do I have a job for you: The Vineyard Gazette is hiring a reporter. FWIW, Jason Gay, the WSJ’s award-winning sports columnist, also got his start at The Gazette.
Cosmo, a playful secondhand children’s store, is opening in Brooklyn on June 8. “Truly *everything* inside has been designed or made by a friend or local business owner,” owner Shanna Cooper told me. “From the tiles lining our checkout counter (by Pomo Ceramics) to so many of the small details throughout the shop.” Cosmo’s focus is circular fashion (sort of like The RealReal but for kids). They’ll buy pre-loved clothing at 25% via Venmo on the spot or 50% in-store credit (that never expires). “Alongside pre-loved, we carry a mix of special, small maker brands and more accessible essentials like organic cotton basics at $5 and under. We’ve been doing ‘home buying’ for months with parents that live within a few blocks of the shop, like Ash Math (style director at J.Crew), who has contributed beautiful pieces from brands like Wheat and Makie from her daughter’s sweet wardrobe!” Cooper told me that the store will also host kids art classes and mending workshops, and have a small produce stand this summer.
Cosmo in BedStuy. Rich Gersten, founder of True Beauty Ventures, joined Substack to announce that they’re raising their third fund. TBV’s portfolio ranges from Moon Juice to Crown Affair, and it focuses on investing in beauty and wellness brands from Seed to Series B. They raised their last round ($70 million) in 2024.
The trailer for A24’s Tony, the Anthony Bourdain movie, is out. It stars Dominic Sessa (who you might know from The Holdovers), and Cum Town’s Stavros Halkias makes an appearance.
After Noah Kahan’s last tour, he considered mundane jobs to shake off the overwhelming feeling of fame. Rolling Stone’s Angie Martoccio interviewed him for the magazine’s most recent cover story. “He thought about enrolling in psychology classes at a community college, and even got fingerprinted to be a substitute teacher. At one point, he considered becoming a groundskeeper at a golf course, repairing divots.” I’ve been listening to Kahan’s new album a lot and I’m quite interested in his relationship with stardom, and his complicated feelings about his hometown. “Haircut” is my favorite song so far.
The pierogi story lives in my head rent free. I think of it every few months, and also uploaded that market to my market directory website.
Not sold on this Tony trailer! I love Dominic, but he seems to be playing the same character he played in the leftovers..... it's hard for anyone to embody a person that we spent years watching on tv, but get the voice right at least! We'll see! I want to like it! Praying this is not another back to black situation