Anne Hathaway Just Buried Print Media

Somewhere this weekend:

A former staff writer is buying a ticket to a film about her old job.

Coffee at the ready…

The Devil Wears Prada 2 opens today with a projected $100 million debut, and its opening scene is the most relatable moment in any blockbuster this year:

A journalist getting laid off by text. Anne Hathaway plays a star reporter who wins a press award. Seconds later, her phone buzzes. The whole newsroom is gone. A fashion magazine then hires her to launder its credibility after a sweatshop scandal.

The audience watching includes people who got that exact text last month.

Disney is selling them their own funeral, and the queue runs around the block.

Prada 2 is tracking for a $95-105 million domestic open from 4,150 theatres and a global debut near $180 million.

That beats Marvel's Thunderbolts in the same slot last year. Capes used to open the summer.

This time, it is a woman in her sixties trying to save a magazine.

The plot, per Time's review, is built on a real industry collapse.

Hathaway's Andy Sachs is a star reporter at a made-up paper called the New York Vanguard. She gets the layoff text seconds before her award speech.

Runway then headhunts her to scrub its image after a sweatshop endorsement.

Streep's Miranda surveys her September issue and mutters it is now "so thin you could floss with it."

Variety said the script stops one syllable short of "enshittification".

The receipts are real.

Press Gazette's 2026 tracker logged over 500 journalism layoffs by early March, on pace to break last year's 3,434.

The Washington Post is cutting a third of its staff. CBS News Radio went silent. Conde Nast cut sixteen more two weeks ago.

Behind every number is someone who got the same text Andy gets in the opening scene.

The film is not a satire. It is a casting call.

Hollywood gets it. Publishers do not.

People will pay $20 to watch print die beautifully, with Streep in couture and a perfect close-up. A ticket is not a subscription. Fine. But mourning is something people pay for once.

Stewardship is something they will not pay for at all.

Pro: The film names a real loss. Mastheads were how a generation learned what mattered, and 500 layoffs in three months are worth mourning.

Con: Print is dying, but journalism is moving. Substack passed five million paid subscriptions last year and kept climbing, and the writers who used to fill mastheads are filling inboxes. Mourning the magazine confuses the wrapper with the work.

Our read: The writing is finding new homes. The buildings had editors, fact-checkers, and a paycheque that did not depend on the algorithm.

[Report] Press Gazette — "Journalism job cuts in 2026 tracked"

500+ journalist layoffs across the UK and US in three months, with cuts at the Washington Post, ABC News, the Wall Street Journal, Conde Nast, and the BBC.

Why it matters: Andy's opening scene was someone's actual Tuesday.

500+ journalists fired in Q1. One movie about it: $100M.

[Press Gazette]

Variety — "Devil Wears Prada 2 Review" — The critic who introduced "enshittification" to a sequel review deserves a raise.

Press Gazette — "Journalism Job Cuts in 2026 Tracked" — The grim ledger behind every "we're going in a different direction" memo.

The Wrap — "Prada 2 Steals Marvel's Slot" — Capes lost the first weekend of summer to a fashion-mag editor. Worth one click.t.

Why is everyone going to see Prada 2?

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For the love of coffee, see you Monday!

Enjoy your Friday, keep it caffeinated.

That's Friday.

Be kind to anyone you know who used to have a press pass.

Stay caffeinated.

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