Here's Levinsohn's full note:
Jon Stewart stepping down as host of The Daily Show is paramount to Walter Cronkite stepping down from CBS News.
He is to a generation, the oracle of truth. While certainly left leaning, he always exposed fraud for fraud and called out those who needed it most, with a wry smile and raised eyebrow.
He is complicated - a genius and the best communicator of his generation and I for one will miss him nightly.
That said, he HAS to do a new version of his show for this generation the way it could and should be done -- direct to consumers. He could raise any amount of money to do it and it would be an historic movement, in the way Howard Stern moving to Sirius was a decade ago.
Stewart has the following to shape an industry and I sure hope he pushes the envelope. He's too big a talent to sit on the sidelines too long and he can make an industry change.
I'd pay him $100m a year to go direct and give him equity in his own version of what Viacom is today.
Anyone with me??
The direct-to-consumer works for media stars who are bigger brands than the networks. In 2011, comedian Louis CK sold access to an hour-long special for $5 and generated revenues of over $1 million in 12 days. Political commentator and author Glenn Beck quit Fox News and launched his own network, The Blaze. He reportedly generates revenues between $35 million and $45 million per year.