Oliver Darcy Staffing Up Status: Hires Brian Lowry and Natalie Korach in Expansion Push (Exclusive)

Status is staffing up.

The newsletter founded and led by former CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy is adding two notable editorial hires from Vanity Fair and The Wrap.

Brian Lowry, who had been media editor at The Wrap and before that spent years working at CNN (where he previously worked with Darcy) and Variety, will join Status as Hollywood correspondent and editor, while Natalie Korach, most recently a reporter at Vanity Fair, will join Status as media correspondent. The pair join editor Jon Passantino, who joined the company earlier this year.

“Brian is one of the most respected voices in all Hollywood,” Darcy tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “These past couple of weeks are the perfect example of how Hollywood is a critical part of this broader story in America that we are telling every night in Status. As we were thinking about where to expand, these entertainment conglomerates that are based in Hollywood, they own many of the newsrooms, and they’re responsible for late night shows like Colbert and Kimmel, and that immediate consolidation picks up, we definitely want someone covering that story in Hollywood.”

“Natalie is someone who has established herself early on as a fantastic reporter who’s able to scoop and reveal what’s going on behind the scenes, which is exactly what we want to do here,” Darcy adds. “She’s also someone who, at Vanity Fair, has been writing feature profiles and going really deep in coverage. So I’m looking forward to not only seeing her current events work, but also to seeing her do some longer stuff for Status and help us dig a little deeper into different stories.”

In connection with the new hires, Status will expand to seven days per week, with Korach anchoring two of the daily installments; and Lowry leading a new Friday edition of the newsletter. Lowry will also contribute film and TV reviews to the publication.

“I’m thrilled to join Status, which has quickly become essential reading on the media industry, given its unflinching and clear-eyed coverage,” says Korach. “I look forward to drawing on my experience in profiles and features to give readers an even deeper perspective on the forces shaping the business and our culture.”

“I have tremendous respect for what Oliver and Jon have built in a very short time, and the opportunity to reunite and explore this strange new world with them was too good an opportunity to pass up,” Lowry adds.

Notably, Darcy says that he is also seeking to beef up the business side of Status, turning to former Deadline chief revenue officer Stacey Farish, who will help build out the company’s advertising and sponsorship initiatives.

Darcy says that he views the expansion push, which now includes a video podcast called Power Lines, as meeting the moment for media reporting.

“I think accountability journalism is more important than ever, particularly as we’re seeing Donald Trump assault free speech in America and intimidate media companies and technology companies into, frankly, some degree of silence,” Darcy says. “We’re not owned by billionaires, we are accountable to readers, and I think that gives us the ability to be uniquely tough in our coverage and to call things out.”