In the short term, though, Rolling Stone employees are just happy that things feel less bleak. Penske conducted individual meetings with every person on Wenner Media’s full-time and part-time staff of around 150, filling the pages of three blue notebooks. One long-serving Wenner employee cried during their tête-à-tête, telling Penske that in all her years at the company, she’d never met Jann, according to people familiar with the exchange. There’s also an office upgrade to look forward to. Rolling Stone’s headquarters at 1290 Avenue of the Americas is very 90s—curvy, pale blue textured walls; patterned carpet, etc. Penske is more of a marble, mid-century-modern type of guy, and he’s eager to get the staff into new digs, pending lease negotiations. In the meantime, he has at least stocked the place with snacks and a coffee machine, which was a hotly desired amenity under the previous regime. If Penske has succeeded in stoking optimism over the past couple of months, it’s unclear how long the honeymoon period will last. (Already, some Rolling Stone staffers are wondering what’s up with the $200 million minority stake that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has acquired in PMC.) But Penske does have a reputation for treating his employees well—ordering a car for someone if there’s an emergency, having food delivered to Finke when she was ill, and so on.

Jann has transitioned into more of an emeritus role—not that one can imagine that making him happy. The latter half of 2017 was a dark time for the 72-year-old mogul. Toward the end of the year, as the #MeToo movement was snowballing, two men went public with allegations of inappropriate sexual encounters initiated by Jann, who has had relationships with both men and women, and has been partnered with the fashion designer Matt Nye since 1995. (Of one of the accusers, Jann said, “I sincerely believed our relationship was totally mutual and consensual . . . I am saddened to hear this is his memory”; of the other: “I attempted to have a sexual liaison with him. He turned me down, which I respected.”) Jann also ended up despising a well-reviewed biography by Joe Hagan, whom he had personally commissioned to tell his life’s story. Hagan wrote an honest portrayal of a complex and flawed legend, as opposed to a hagiography. The two men had become friends over the course of Hagan’s reporting and research, but as the book was going to press in the fall, they had a very public falling out. Jann broke his hip playing tennis over the summer and had a heart attack that required triple bypass surgery, an ordeal from which he is still getting back on his feet, literally—he’d been using a wheelchair, but recently graduated to a cane. Insiders say he still comes into the office most days and is active on e-mail, but Penske, and to a lesser degree Gus, are running the show now.

As for the younger Wenner, who initially came on in 2012, his role as president and chief operating officer encompasses the continued expansion of Rolling Stone’s digital footprint, including a potential YouTube partnership that Gus has been working to solidify. (Gus had also previously played a role in selling off sister titles Men’s Journal and Us Weekly to National Enquirer owner and Trump pal David Pecker’s American Media Inc.) Insiders (and outsiders for that matter) will be keeping a close eye on the dynamic between Gus and Penske. Until now, Gus, who joined the family business when he was 22, has essentially never had a boss other than his father. A few days after the deal closed, Gus was supposed to get on a plane with Jann to spend Christmas vacation at Jann’s pad in Sun Valley. But at the last minute, with Penske hard at work even as the ink was still drying, Gus thought it better to stay behind and roll up his sleeves. Some Rolling Stone insiders are skeptical about how long Gus will be around, but I’ve learned that PMC has him on a contract that extends for several years. Gus wouldn’t comment on that, but in a phone conversation, he insisted to me that he was in it for the long hall. “It’s my dad’s legacy, and it’s my future,” he said. “I couldn’t even describe to you how much it means to me, and I’m deeply, deeply committed to it.”