Former Manhattan U.S. attorney Preet Bharara is joining Vox Media following the company’s purchase of Cafe Studios Inc., which publishes his podcast “Stay Tuned With Preet.”
Vox bought the podcast company as an effort to expand its presence in the podcast sphere and will keep Cafe Studios running under its ownership with Bharara as host and creative director. He will report to Vox Media Studios President Marty Moe. The financial terms of the deal have not been released.
This is Vox Media’s fourth merger or acquisition since 2019. In that time, it acquired film, television, audio and production studio Epic; acquired the commenting platform Coral; and merged with the publisher of New York Magazine and its properties, which include Cut and Vulture.
“Preet and his team at Cafe have built a successful podcast studio with a compelling perspective — and an equally impressive community of devoted listeners,” Vox Media Chairman, CEO and co-founder Jim Bankoff, said in a statement. “Bringing Cafe into the Vox Media Podcast Network is aligned with our goal of delivering high-quality editorial content at scale and providing audiences highly relevant voices and insights.”
“This is an opportunity for tremendous growth with a company that shares in Cafe’s mission, values, and commitment to quality,” Bharara said. “Our creators are bursting at the seams with plans for more thoughtful, educational content and, in Vox Media, we earn a partner with a large audience, strategic business, and a strong reach across text, video, and events.”
Among the other podcasts published by Cafe Studios are a legal analysis show called “Third Degree” and the narrative podcast “Doing Justice,” which is based on Bharara’s book of the same name.
After Donald Trump took office, Bharara was fired by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions after he refused to resign. Since then, Bharara has become a scholar in residence at NYU while turning his career as a prosecutor into fuel for several media ventures. Along with “Stay Tuned With Preet,” which features longform interviews, Bharara also co-hosts a legal commentary podcast called “Cafe Insider” with former New Jersey AG Anne Milgram. His 2019 book “Doing Justice” was also turned into a narrative podcast. With two million downloads per month for “Stay Tuned,” Bharara is hoping to use Vox’s established platform to expand his podcasts’ reach.
“I wanted to do things of quality in this space like I did with the law,” he told WSJ. “And we felt that Vox was the best fit for that.”