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  • 28 Jan 2019 at 10:34 AM
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Breaking Media appoints new Managing Director for defense and federal sector

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Exciting growth developments for BreakingDefense.com

January 21, 2019 – Breaking Media Inc. has named David Smith as Managing Director, Defense and Government to lead its defense and federal sector based in Washington DC. Mr. Smith will be responsible for business and product development, brand strategy, sales and marketing and is tasked with expanding the growth and success of BreakingDefense.com, the premier news analysis digital brand serving the defense and national security sector. In addition, Mr. Smith will explore and develop plans for growth within the federal civilian with an eventual relaunch of BreakingGovernment.com.

David Smith has more than 25 years of experience in all facets of media communications — digital media, audience, product and brand development, sales, marketing, production and content strategy. Mr. Smith is an expert in defense, government and international markets and a leader in how to craft innovative, creative and engaging media approaches to these markets.

“We are extremely excited to have David join our team leading our growing Washington DC presence.  David’s business experience and market knowledge will accelerate Breaking Defense’s ascent as a media leader in the defense and national security sector,” stated John Lerner, CEO of Breaking Media.   “David will work closely with our editor, Colin Clark, our Group Publisher, Hsiaolei Miller, and me as he develops new products and marketing solutions for the Defense, Security and Government markets”

“I’m delighted to join Breaking Media, to lead their growth strategy forward in public sector markets in Washington, DC,” said Mr. Smith.  “Breaking Defense has earned an avid audience following for the depth of our news analysis, which is unrivalled in the defense media markets. With expertise gained in a variety of markets, Breaking Media’s digital marketing execution for clients is exemplary and a cornerstone for its success. I look forward to building upon the Breaking Defense success path, providing clients powerful new media solutions while increasing the breadth and focus of our product offerings.”

Mr. Smith has worked in a variety of media and corporate settings, including 1105 Media and TIBCO Software, and was vice president of marketing and business development for Army Times Publishing Company (now Sightline Media) at a prior point in his career. While there he conceived and developed the Military Times Service Member of the Year program, the C4ISRNET Conference, the Middle East Air Chief Conference, the launch of Space News. David was a key player on the original team that developed Defense News, and he planned its successful international expansion. In his most recent role as President /Managing Director of Sightline Media, Mr. Smith developed and launched the C4ISRNET brand, conceived and launched FifthDomain.com and the Defense News Conference, while stabilizing and growing the company after its divesture from TEGNA Inc.  Mr. Smith is a graduate of Washington & Lee University and did his graduate study at the University of Virginia.

In related developments, Breaking Media has inaugurated a new central office for its Washington DC operation, located at 1440 G Street NW.  Breaking Defense will also soon be adding an additional defense reporter to its editorial staff, and has secured a new media sales representative, Melissa Rettig.  Ms. Rettig has over 20 years of experience in media sales in defense and federal markets, including Defense News, Space News, Jane’s Defence Weekly and Homeland Security Today.

About Breaking Media

Breaking Media runs a network of next-generation business-to-business media brands targeting influential professionals: Above the Law, Dealbreaker, Fashionista, MedCity News, Breaking Defense, Breaking Energy and Breaking Gov. Because of its authentic, inside-the-industry content, Breaking Media reaches over 5 million affluent, decision-making professionals per month and connects brands with this deeply targeted, engaged and influential audience through innovative content integration, custom research products, event marketing and more.  The company was founded in 2006.

  • 30 Oct 2018 at 2:24 PM
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Introducing The Above the Law Writing Contest

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Legal writing and media is not immune to the diversity problem of the legal industry. Publications are just as likely to have their own implicit biases. And online trolls have a special place in their empty hearts for targeting women, non-binary persons, and people of color. Yet the voices that rise above and lead thinking in the legal industry have an opportunity to make a real impact.  

Breaking Media is proud to say that 60 percent of its staff is female, 40 percent of its editorial leads are women, and 40 percent are people of color. Above the Law is the largest publication in the legal industry with 1,300,000 unique readers a month and 10,000,000 pageviews a month. I may be biased, but we have the best talent, and our diversity is a strength.

Above the Law would not have its success without its 100+ incredible columnists. To ensure Above the Law has a pipeline of the best writing talent, and a publication with a variety of opinions and perspectives, ATL will launch its inaugural writing contest. We are particularly looking for underrepresented voices — people of color, LGBTQ+, women — and new voices who want to publish across a broad range of topics. You do not need to be an established writer, or have published elsewhere. We don’t care if you have 10 followers on social media or 10 million. 

We will be providing editorial support and a platform for distribution, and most importantly, prize money. To participate, please submit one article idea with your name and email here. Please limit the article pitch to 250 words or less. 

ATL editors will review the article pitches and select a group of finalists to publish the article for publication. All finalists’ stories will publish on Above the Law and be featured in an ATL eBook.

One winner will be chosen based on editorial feedback, web engagement (time on page, social shares, pageviews), and reader feedback.

All finalists who publish will be paid the standard ATL columnist fee. The winner will receive bragging rights, a columnist position at ATL, and $1,000 bonus.

If you are new to writing or blogging, or just want some one-on-one time with editors, Staci Zaretsky and Kathryn Rubino will be hosting a live chat on Thursday, November 28 at 3:30 p.m. They will share tips for starting out, finding your voice, and answering questions.

Interested? Enter the contest here, and save these dates:

  • Facebook Live video: 11/29/2018
  • Story Pitches due: 12/19/2018
  • Finalists selected: 1/16/2019
  • Publication: 3/1/2019
  • Finalist chosen: 4/4/2019

If you’re not ready to submit, but want to reminders for deadlines, submit your email here.



  • 30 Aug 2018 at 11:27 AM
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Breaking Media Is Looking For Dynamic Digital Entrepreneurs

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In 2006, Breaking Media launched our groundbreaking b2b brands AbovetheLaw.com, Dealbreaker.com, and Fashionista.com. We believed industry news could be both entertaining and smart, as well as connect digital communities of rank-and-file associates, managers, and executives. We expanded this model into defense (BreakingDefense.com), energy (BreakingEnergy.com), and government (BreakingGov.com) through an acquisition from AOL in 2013, and into healthcare via the acquisition of MedCity News in 2015. In our CEO John Lerner’s 8-year tenure, Breaking Media has grown by an average of 23% every year in revenue.

Our steady and consistent growth is due to our investment and trust in strong editorial voices, and our commitment to the dynamic and evolving needs of our marketing partners. Beyond the banner ad, Breaking Media now offers a subscription program for tech startups with Evolve the Law, and a custom content studio that publishes hundreds of interviews, podcasts, infographs, quizzes, research reports, social campaigns a year. As a part of this evolution, we are strengthening and expanding our custom content team with the following roles:

Breaking Media offers:

  • Salary plus bonus
  • Medical, Dental, 401K
  • Startup environment with opportunities for career acceleration
  • Work from home flexibility

We are located in NoHo, New York City, and are committed to advancing the careers of our team. We believe in diversity, and are an equal-opportunity employer. Please email resumes and cover letters to jobs@breakingmedia.com.

  • 19 Oct 2017 at 2:57 PM
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BREAKING MEDIA ANNOUNCES EDITORIAL PROMOTION AT ABOVE THE LAW

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Photo: Above the Law

October 18, 2017 – Breaking Media today announced the promotion of Elie Mystal to Executive Editor of Above the Law (ATL). Elie joined ATL in 2008 by winning the ATL Idol Contest. Over the past 9 years, Elie has served in numerous editorial roles at Above the Law and Breaking Media, most recently serving as Editor at Large of Breaking Media.  Prior to joining ATL, Elie wrote about politics and popular culture at City Hall News and the New York Press. Elie received a degree in Government from Harvard University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He was formerly a litigator at Debevoise & Plimpton, and has been with Above the Law for nine years.   In his new role, Elie will oversee all day-to-day editorial operations of the Above the Law brand.

David Lat, Founding Editor of Above the Law, after taking family leave to care for his new-born son, will move into the role of Editor at Large at Above the Law, which will allow him to continue contributing to the pages of ATL. In his new role, David will work on long-form pieces, features, profiles, and other stories about the legal profession.

“As media consumption becomes more polarized, and decentralized, Above the Law stands out as a place where our readers and writers are all operating from the same set of facts. We have the luxury of facilitating discussion and building communities around a common, shared reality, and that is all too rare in online media these days,” said Mystal.

“Having worked alongside Mr. Mystal for the past 7 years, I can think of no writer more qualified to take on the leadership of Above the Law” stated John Lerner, CEO of Breaking Media.  “Elie’s experience in online legal journalism is unparalleled.  We are incredibly fortunate to have such a creative and talented editorial team (Staci Zaretsky, Joe Patrice and Kathryn Rubino), and Elie gets David back as a writer after his leave as part of that team.  They are always the smartest and funniest people in the room!” added Breaking Media Group Publisher, Hsiaolei Miller, who oversees the business side of Above the Law.

About Above the Law

Above the Law takes a behind-the-scenes look at the world of law. The brand provides news and insights about the profession’s most colorful personalities and powerful institutions, as well as original commentary on breaking legal developments. The site was founded in 2006, and now reaches over 1,200,000 unique visitors per month to its website, and 500,000 subscribers and followers offsite.

About Breaking Media

Breaking Media runs a network of next-generation business-to-business media brands targeting influential professionals: Above the Law, Dealbreaker, Fashionista, MedCity News, Breaking Defense, Breaking Energy and Breaking Gov. Because of its authentic, inside-the-industry content, Breaking Media reaches over 5 million affluent, decision-making professionals per month and connects brands with this deeply targeted, engaged and influential audience through innovative content integration, custom research products, event marketing and more.  Headquartered in Manhattan, the company was founded in 2006.

CONTACT: John Lerner, CEO, lerner@breakingmedia.com

  • 10 Dec 2015 at 12:27 PM
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FASHIONISTA LAUNCHES IN-HOUSE NATIVE ADVERTISING STUDIO, ‘COLAB’

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In addition to some exciting editorial changes at Fashionista, we’re thrilled to formally introduce Fashionista CoLab — Fashionista’s own in-house native advertising studio that will align premium advertisers with engaging, creative content on Fashionista. Nina Frazier Hansen, Fashionista’s creative director since April 2014, will oversee and manage native advertising campaigns run through the CoLab.

In conjunction with CoLab, on Jan. 7, Fashionista will launch its own premium private advertising exchange. Fashionista‘s goal is to meet the advertising needs of premium fashion, beauty, retail and luxury brands by accessing Fashionista‘s unique desktop, tablet and mobile audiences.

For the past four years, Fashionista‘s ad sales have been represented by Say Media as part of a network of consumer brands. With the growth of Fashionista over that period, Fashionista is now best positioned to deliver unique banner and native advertising solutions. Though separated on the ad side, Fashionista will remain on Say Media’s CMS platform, Tempest.

We’re more committed than ever to bring you the industry news that matters most, and the site’s voice, vision and coverage of the fashion industry will remain the same. We want to align both our native and banner advertising with the brands that matter most to our readers, with content of value like this recent gift guide produced in collaboration with The Woolmark Company, and a city guide series produced in partnership with Uniqlo to celebrate the opening of three new flagship locations in Boston, Chicago and Seattle.

Here’s to a new year! Have questions or interest in advertising on Fashionista? Email advertising@fashionista.com for more info.

A Most Appealing Announcement

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If you’re like me, you’ve been reading Howard Bashman’s excellent appellate litigation blog, How Appealing, for years. When I started to write online more than a decade ago, Howard, a pioneer of legal blogging, was a role model and inspiration. (I pay homage to Howard Bashman and How Appealing with shout-outs in my forthcoming novel.)

Given our longtime admiration of Howard Bashman and How Appealing here at Above the Law, we are absolutely delighted to announce this partnership: effective October 1, 2014, How Appealing will be hosted at howappealing.abovethelaw.com. You can read Howard’s announcement of the affiliation here.

For those of you who love How Appealing and Above the Law as they are, there’s nothing to fear. Howard Bashman will continue to run the web’s top blog devoted to appellate litigation, and we will continue to cover the legal profession here at ATL in our inimitable style. We will display headlines of recent How Appealing posts on ATL, and How Appealing will display headlines of recent ATL posts. The primary change resulting from this partnership will be felt by advertisers, who will now enjoy a broader range of options within the Breaking Media family. If you are interested in advertising on How Appealing, Above the Law, or both, please contact advertising@breakingmedia.com.

Given How Appealing’s record of excellence dating back to 2002, we couldn’t be happier with this partnership. We look forward to working with Howard Bashman and How Appealing in the years ahead.

Announcing the new location of “How Appealing” [How Appealing]

David Lat is Managing Editor of Above the Law, a Breaking Media site.

  • 15 May 2014 at 10:23 AM
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Welcome to the New Fashionista

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As you might have noticed, we’ve had a little work done.

Well, more than a little work. In fact, our whole site is different: we’ve got a new site format, a new logo, a new spot color (bye bye, baby pink!), bigger images and a whole new set of site fonts.

Fashionista has evolved a great deal since its founding six years ago, and developing a design that would reflect those changes — and the changes in online media consumption that have occurred in that timeframe — was a fun and challenging project.

We think of ourselves as an industry publication with consumer appeal — a site that is a must-read for the industry, but also speaks to the people who want to work in the industry or are highly interested in it. Thus, we wanted the site and logo to convey “fashion,” “news” (hence the bold upper case font), “industry” and “webby” (thus the use of blue as our spot color, instead of fashion magazines’ typical pink or red). We also like to think of ourselves as personable, that we don’t take ourselves (or the industry we cover) too seriously. That, we hope, comes out in the headlines and the writing itself.

Read more »

  • 29 Jan 2014 at 4:00 PM
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What Is ATL Redline?

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Now that we’ve been doing it for a couple of days, we thought we’d tell you what we’re doing.

ATL Redline is a new project for Breaking Media that will represent Above the Law’s presence on Kinja, Gawker Media’s popular publishing platform. Above the Law has established itself as the go-to place for lawyers and law students who want an inside look at the practice of law and the lives of attorneys. With Redline, we’re going to draw on that knowledge to highlight the law behind today’s news for a broader audience. Whether it’s the latest celebrity scandal or the next outrageous campaign speech, there’s usually a law or lawyer somewhere influencing what is happening. Redline will cut out the jargon, so you won’t need a law degree to have an informed opinion and participate in the debate.

Read more »

  • 03 May 2010 at 2:59 PM

Fashionista Is Looking for an Editor/Writer

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Fashionista, recently recognized by the Daily Beast as one of the fashion industry’s most influential blogs, is looking for an editor/writer. We want someone who can stay out until 3 am in a quest–or maybe mad scramble–for industry gossip, be the first with designer moves, put together a smart slide show, and bring a personal touch to the site. This is an amazing opportunity for someone who wants to supercharge a career in fashion journalism.

The perfect candidate will have the following qualities:

1. Strong reporting and writing abilities. Preference will be given to previously-published candidates who come with a network of industry sources.

2. An encyclopedic knowledge of fashion history and familiarity with the industry’s major players.

3. Experience in online publishing. We want someone who’s excited to become a master in WordPress, who knows how use social media effectively, and who will consider how to write copy and headlines for search engines.

4. An entrepreneurial attitude. Breaking Media, Fashionista’s parent company, is a fast-growing company with a start-up vibe so the ability to live without a car service and Frank Gehry-designed cafeteria is a must–as are smart ideas on how to grow Fashionista.

If you think you’ve got what it takes, send a cover letter, resume, and writing samples (Links are fine.) to jobs (at) fashionista.com.

Matt Creamer is executive editor of Breaking Media. You can follow him on Twitter at @matt_creamer.

  • 26 Apr 2010 at 7:00 PM
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Meet Breaking Media

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Hi there. This is the (not-very-)corporate site for Breaking Media and a place where we will post our musings on the media business.

From the Breaking Media Inc. point of view it’s a repository of basic information on all our sites and somewhere to keep you up to date with plans for new sites and developments on the existing sites. It also has a list of our services and useful information for advertisers, such as breakdowns of our audiences and our ad specs. And, of course, there are details on our staff and how to get hold of us.

But as longtime reporters on/students of the media and marketing worlds, Matt Creamer and I also figured we’d use BreakingMedia.com to share some of our thinking on those businesses, and some of the morsels of wisdom and insight we receive from the many smart industry thinkers we’ve met in our careers covering media at Advertising Age and other publications. We’ll throw around some thoughts on professional-content business models, the evolution of media agencies, the application of technology in media, mobile marketing (my latest obsession), and whatever gets our goat on any given day.

We also plan to rope in a few of our staff. Our super-smart editors from AboveTheLaw will offer the occasional insight into legal issues that affect the media business. The influential editors of Fashionista.com will give us their take on the fashion media market from time to time, or we’ll pull in some funding/M&A thinking from Dealbreaker. And, of course, we’ll be seeking contributions from a few of our friends and contacts too. (Want to chime in, just drop Matt or me a line.)

In time we’ll pull this stuff together into a regular e-mail too, not with the aim of trying to rival Ad Age’s Mediaworks or Mediapost – we’ll be lucky if we can muster a story every 24 hours – but more a ‘thought of the day’ type offering for a small, select audience. So let us know if you’d like to be on the list.

Jonah Bloom is the CEO and editor in chief of Breaking Media.