The Monday Media Diet with Emily Sundberg

On the "crack and crease" of a newspaper, shoppy shops, and Ocean Gate TikTok

Today’s MMD is brought to you by Puck. I’ve been a subscriber for about a year to read people like our friend Lauren Sherman cover the fashion industry deeply, and also for William D. Cohan’s obsessive business and M&A reporting. They have insider coverage of media, tech, and Washington that reads differently from the national papers or the trades.

Add them to your personal media diet by signing up here.

Emily Sundberg (ES) writes an essential daily business newsletter: Feed Me (I’m a paid subscriber). The great Zach Weiss was kind enough to link us up for an interview. Happy to have her with us today. Have an awesome week. -Colin (CJN)

Tell us about yourself.

I’m a writer and I consult occasionally. I have a daily business newsletter called Feed Me which is sometimes controversial, but I think my takes are pretty solid. I’m a firm believer that you can learn a lot about a subculture based on how they spend money. 

I directed a documentary last year about Gardiner’s Island called The End. Maybe you’ve read my Shoppy Shop story, or my Return of Whole Milk story, or you saw me getting destroyed by the internet for speaking to The New York Times about being hot online. I’m from Long Island, I’ve lived in New York for 11 years, I’m always taking steak frites recommendations. 

Describe your media diet. 

This is the first time I’ve talked about this publicly. Part of the value of my newsletter is its timeliness. It comes out every morning around 9am, and I pride myself on having an intentional, entertaining mix of news items with, 1. an element that makes you a little bit smarter every day, and 2. my point of view. People pay for the letter because of my perspective on these stories that typical publications can’t always hold because of standards, advertisers, whatever.

I subscribe to newsletters from all the big guys (The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business of Fashion, Bloomberg) for a digested version of what they think is the most important news. I like Puck, Vanity Fair, and Air Mail for Coastal Elite gossipy news. Throughout the day, I’ll scan these emails and highlight or screenshot stories that I have an opinion on. 

I subscribe to all kinds of newsletters. On the record, a few are Opulent Tips, first Derivative, Vittles, The Generalist, Chips and Dips, and Magasin. I have a few that are off the record, and I’ll gladly tell you if we go for a drink.

I like industry publications from hospitality, beauty, venture capital, and real estate writers. 

I spend a lot of time on company job boards and LinkedIn, because you can obviously predict the trajectory of a company (Glossier is hiring for three new fragrance roles -> Glossier is obviously expanding their fragrance department) by those open positions. I follow the most influential – not to be confused with the most-followed – people at companies I respect and I study their moves.

But here’s where it really goes down: my texts. I spend so much time meeting people – online, at parties, at bars, for random awkward coffee dates on the Upper East Side. Connecting with people is an art I’ve worked on my whole life and I don’t want you to think this is calculated. There’s a back and forth in friendship when you create a web of people interested in similar topics (in this case, business-adjacent news in New York). And that’s the fire I’m always adding fuel to.

What’s the last great book you read?

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

What are you reading now?

In The Kitchen With Love by Sophia Loren.

What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?

If I’m reading The Times I’m probably on an airplane or the LIRR, and I try to embody 90’s Wall Street trader and crease and crack those sections with Level 10 volume.

Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?

Natasha Stagg and Liara Roux.

What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone? 

I don’t use any non-famous apps. I like the Dunkin app and I’m addicted to Instagram.

Plane or train?

Train, my fear of flying gets 5% worse every year. I appreciate jumping between worlds (Brooklyn and Montauk, Paris and Marseille, etc.) with minimal effort. 

What is one place everyone should visit? 

I like midtown. I adore the original art deco fixtures (foot-pedal operated electric hand dryers) and hall of mirrors in the women’s bathroom at Radio City Music Hall. I love people watching in a big red booth at Monkey Bar, and trying to guess who is a mistress and who is a wife. I like seeing all the finance guys walking around, looking like clones of each other. If you can sneak into The Pierre’s Rotunda, that’s really spectacular. Whenever I spend a few hours there, it feels like someone injected a liquified Empire State Building into my body.

I also had a pretty extraordinary experience at Le Doyenne in France earlier this year, but I’m not sure if you’d be able to replicate it, per se…

Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into. 

Easy, Gardiner’s Island. On the island there’s one majestic estate, virgin forests that are home to wildlife that no longer exist anywhere else, and buried treasure. It’s the largest and oldest privately-owned island in America. I spent a decent amount of time out on Long Island during COVID working on my documentary about the island and many of the things I learned couldn’t even make the movie because of the nature of the stories.

I didn’t leave Ocean Gate TikTok for months. That story swallowed hours of my life. And you know what? I’d let it swallow more.

I’m also always learning new things about Keith McNally’s luxurious web of a life. Sadly, he stopped answering my emails about making a doc about him.

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Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Emily (ES)

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