Yahoo News WME Buys D.C. Literary Agency Ross Yoon, Bringing Over Authors and Journalists
Talent agency WME is establishing a foothold inside the Beltway.
The Beverly Hills-based representation giant has acquired the literary agency Ross Yoon, the company said on Friday. Led by Gail Ross and Howard Yoon, the agency focuses on the non-fiction space, and has a roster of author clients including Time journalist Molly Ball, Mother Jones’ D.C. chief David Corn, New York Times columnist Ezra Klein, Politico Playbook writer Ryan Lizza, Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty, Vanity Fair correspondent Gabriel Sherman and many others.
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As part of the deal — financial terms weren’t disclosed — Ross and Yoon will join WME as partners and bring agent Ethan Bassoff and coordinator Dara Kaye with them. A media lawyer in addition to founding the literary agency, Ross is also a partner at law firm Trister, Ross, Schadler & Gold in D.C. Yoon, a former adjunct professor at Georgetown University as well as author and book consultant, began his agency work as Ross’ literary assistant.
The agency will maintain its office in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. but will now be housed under WME’s Jay Mandel-led books division, which also has outposts in New York, London and Nashville. “We are proud that after so many hugely successful independent years Gail and Howard chose WME as their partner in this next phase of growth,” stated WME co-chairmen Christian Muirhead and Richard Weitz.
The Ross Yoon roster of media names will now also be paired in Endeavor’s WME portfolio with another relatively recent buy, The Harry Walker Agency (HWA), a leader in the event speaker space that was acquired in 2019. The New York-based HWA also reps many clients — MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, investigative reporter Ronan Farrow — in non-fiction for paid speaking engagements, so there’s what Endeavor chief Ari Emanuel might call the “flywheel” effect in action with the synergies for the Ross Yoon buy.
The deal marks the second boutique agency acquisition for the Endeavor-owned talent firm within the past three months. In April, WME snapped up Nashville-based agency Red 11 Music to bolster its touring clientele (Red 11 focuses on Americana acts) amid the booming return of concertgoing since the COVID-19 era shutdowns.
On May 9, Endeavor disclosed its first quarter earnings, noting that revenue for its representation business (where WME and fashion-focused agency IMG are housed) declined year-to-year to $350 million, though that was due to the sale of production company Endeavor Content (now renamed as Fifth Season), which had been part of the unit in 2022. Year to date, Endeavor’s stock is up about 4 percent so far.
In joining WME, Ross and Yoon added: “Throughout our discussions with Jay, Christian and Richard, we came to realize that this was a compelling opportunity to help our clients build their careers in books and beyond.”
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