The Wall Street Journal has another “exclusive” on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, following WSJ breaking the news on the end of their Spotify contract and WSJ’s bizarre exclusive on the podcast ideas Harry pitched to Spotify. Given this new story and the previous exclusives, several things are clear. One, Spotify has an ax to grind with Harry & Meghan and they’re grinding that ax publicly, with a Spotify executive smearing them and various Spotify people openly speaking to WSJ. Two, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is far-reaching and extremely focused on the Sussexes ahead of Prince Harry’s eventual civil trial against the Sun/News Group Newspapers in the UK. Both things are true in this case – NGN is going after the Sussexes in a huge way, and there’s no love lost between the Sussexes and Spotify. Behold, some highlights from WSJ’s “Harry and Meghan Produce a Hollywood Flop: Themselves.”

Last year, the Sussexes pitched a documentary idea to Netflix: The subject of endless rumors and gossip, the couple felt qualified to tackle the thorny topic of misinformation. A documentary would cement Harry and Meghan as serious creative types and help shed their reputation as exiles from the House of Windsor trading family dirt for eyeballs. A team assigned to the job at the pair’s Los Angeles-based production company, Archewell, had questions for “H” and “M,” as the Sussexes are known to their employees. Would the misinformation project be a feature film or a series? Who would host it? Would it be historical or contemporary? Would Harry or Meghan appear in it? Would Meghan discuss her bitter history with British tabloids—and if not, who would want to watch? The couple had few answers, according to people familiar with the inner-workings of Archewell and Harry and Meghan’s deals with streamers. The misinformation documentary soon met the fate of other Archewell projects, and faded away.

Will Netflix renew their deal in 2025? The graveyard of video projects they hoped to make includes an animated children’s show called “Pearl” that was canceled by Netflix, as well as at least two TV ideas that the streaming service rejected within the past year, people familiar with Harry and Meghan’s projects said. Netflix is unlikely to renew the couple’s deal, which runs through 2025, the people said… People who have worked with the pair say their Sussex-upon-Sunset outpost was undermined by their inexperience as producers and trouble finding material consistent with their brand, as well as problems beyond their control, including a retrenchment in the entertainment and podcasting businesses.

Archewell spoke to WSJ: An Archewell spokeswoman said, “New companies often make changes in their start up phase, both with people and strategy, and we are no exception. We’re more equipped, focused and energized than ever before.” She said the company recently hired a new head of scripted content, actress and producer Tracy Ryerson.

Netflix spoke to the WSJ: A Netflix spokeswoman said the company valued its Archewell partnership, and noted that “Harry & Meghan” was its biggest documentary debut. “We’ll continue to work together on a number of projects,” she said.

A changing business landscape: Today, streaming boom times have given way to an era of slower growth and unpredictability. Both Netflix and Spotify have cut shows and movies to trim costs. Both have been underwhelmed by the lack of productivity by the Sussexes, people familiar with their perspectives say. “Once you’ve launched your bombshell, what’s next?” said Andrew Morton, the longtime chronicler of the royal family. Archewell employees and associates say the company often lacks direction, and that its founders at times seem surprised by the work required to finish entertainment projects. Most potential initiatives, they said, follow a similar route: Big idea, subpar execution.

Is Netflix actually mad? Executives at Netflix have groused about Archewell’s output, according to people familiar with the matter, and feel that the success of the “Harry & Meghan” documentary is all the company has to show for the deal. Today, one Archewell project is nearing completion at Netflix: a documentary series on the Invictus Games, a tournament Harry founded for wounded veterans after serving two tours with the British Army in Afghanistan. Harry and Meghan are also developing a TV show for Netflix called “Bad Manners” based on Miss Havisham, a Charles Dickens character from “Great Expectations.” The prequel would recast the lonely spinster as a strong woman living in a patriarchal society, though it is unclear whether the show will get a green light from Netflix.

Archetypes’ rocky road: Meghan’s media productivity has largely been concentrated at Spotify, and the road to getting “Archetypes” on the air was rocky. When the Duchess first began working with the audio service, Archewell didn’t have an employee focused on audio projects, and instead, a public-relations representative initially led Archewell’s work with Spotify, people familiar with the company said. The audio company’s executives grew frustrated with the amount of time it took Archewell to conceptualize an idea for Meghan’s podcast and assemble a production team.

Ah, this explains WSJ’s exclusives: Ultimately, Archewell hired a head of audio, who worked in concert with members of Spotify’s Gimlet unit on podcasting ideas. The Gimlet team helped Meghan compile a list of potential guests, and Spotify helped build a podcast studio in the couple’s mansion, said people familiar with the situation. ( News Corp’s Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has a content partnership with Spotify’s Gimlet Media unit.)

Meghan wrote to Taylor Swift? Choosing the right kind of guest was often fraught. Meghan wrote Taylor Swift a personal letter asking her to come on the podcast. The pop star declined, through a representative. Meghan would often ask for changes late in the editing process, at times recruiting senior Spotify executives, including then-Chief Content Officer Dawn Ostroff, to call producers and push them to make changes.

Harry’s podcast ideas: He explored a podcast on veterans but couldn’t find a compelling way to tackle the subject in podcast form. He tossed around subjects such as misinformation and his point of view as someone new to living in America, and at one point considered co-hosting a show with comedian Hasan Minhaj.

[From WSJ]

So, with Netflix, it sounds like they signed a five-year producing-and-development deal and three years into the deal, they’ve had one very successful docu-series and they’ll have a second docu-series coming out this summer, plus they’ve made several pitches which have been rejected by Netflix, and then Netflix turns around and complains of their low productivity? I mean, again – I think it’s fair to say that Harry and Meghan should have been more productive in the past three years. Like, we can say “but Spare was a bestseller” and “the docuseries was a huge success” and that’s all true, but it’s also true that they simply should have been more productive (Harry especially).

It’s also fair to say that a good chunk of this was out of their hands. Some of these ideas sound interesting and worthy of exploration – a podcast about an outsider’s perspective of America and American culture? A podcast about fatherhood or childhood trauma? A docuseries about misinformation & the insidiousness of, say, something like News Group Newspapers? All of that sounds really interesting, so why were these pitches rejected by Netflix and Spotify insiders who are now publicly trashing them? It’s so weird. And WTF is that Taylor Swift story – like, OMG, Taylor Swift didn’t want to do a pod interview, it’s a signal that the Sussexes are a flop! GMAFB.

Photos courtesy of Netflix.