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Dear Media, led by CEO Michael Bosstick, is also making an investment into Claudia and Jackie Oshry’s cocktail brand Spritz Society.
By J. Clara Chan
Dear Media is adding Claudia and Jackie Oshry’s Toast News Network — which includes the sister’s popular podcast The Morning Toast — into its roster of shows.
As part of the deal, brokered by WME and the law firm Weintraub Tobin, Dear Media will have the exclusive ad rights to all shows in the Toast News Network, which includes podcasts from the actor Josh Peck and the influencers Lauren Elizabeth and Shannon Ford. The Oshry sisters will serve as advisers for future content expansion plans and digital strategy for the podcast network’s original shows and, timed to the deal, the hosts will rebrand their podcast The Morning Toast to just The Toast, five years after its initial launch in 2017.
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Under CEO Michael Bosstick, Dear Media is also making an investment into Spritz Society, the cocktail company co-founded by the Oshry sisters. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“The podcast landscape is constantly shifting, so to find a network that could not only shift with us but that we could also add tremendous value to was crucial. We are thrilled to be continuing to accelerate our growth within the Dear Media portfolio and know it is the perfect home for The Toast and Toast News Network,” Claudia Oshry said in a statement.
“It’s quite rare to discover talent who can not only build a loyal audience, but turn that loyal audience into a massively engaged community. Betting on The Toast, their network, and their beverage business Spritz Society is a no brainer,” Bosstick added.
The Morning Toast is a pop culture podcast targeting Millennial audiences that has developed a dedicated fan base since the show’s launch. But the Oshrys have also been at the center of a few scandals, including when The Daily Beast reported in 2018 that the sisters’ mother is the anti-Muslim and far-right commenter Pamela Geller and past Islamophobic social media posts written by the sisters were resurfaced, leading the two to apologize.
Though some fans have turned away from the Toast brand, the flagship Toast podcast still remains popular in the U.S. and ranks within the top 20 comedy shows on Apple Podcasts, according to Chartable.
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