LionTree CEO Aryeh Bourkoff is a master dealmaker.

But the prominent investment banker isn’t content to simply facilitate M&a transactions. His loftier goal is to help rewrite the narrative for Big Media at a time of massive transition in the industry.

As Bourkoff explains on the latest episode of the Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” the key to LionTree’s success since its launch in 2012 has been its work with media moguls and investors alike to consider strategic alternatives to the status quo.

The big question at present is “how do you take segments of the media industry and reorient them to a better narrative that has strategic value that unlocks upside and minimizes downside to create a more defensible asset mix,” Bourkoff says.

Indeed, every major media conglomerate is sizing up its holdings, and there has been a push to streamline and divest non-core assets at AT&T, Disney,...