 Suzanne Scott |
Suzanne Scott has been promoted from president of programming to chief executive officer of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network. Scott has been with the network for 22 years, coming from CNBC in 1996. Jack Abernethy, who has served as co-president of Fox News since August 2016, will remain CEO of Fox Television Stations and will be based in Los Angeles. Jay Wallace, who had been Fox News Channel president of news, has been upped to serve as president. Scott will report jointly to 21st Century Fox executive chairman Rupert Murdoch and to recently appointed “New Fox” chairman and CEO Lachlan Murdoch. “Suzanne has been instrumental in the success of Fox News, and she has now made history as its first female CEO,” Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement.
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The Wall Street Journal and National Geographic are collaborating on Far & Away, a new publication geared toward business travelers. “The editors have approached business travel hubs as launch points for personal travel, aligning with the current travel trend of combining business and leisure trips into one,” said National Geographic magazine editor in chief Susan Goldberg. The first edition of the publication will appear in the May 19 edition of the newspaper, with a second issue set to appear in the fourth quarter. The publication’s content will also be available through National Geographic’s social channels and its website. National Geographic Partners is a joint venture between the National Geographic Society and 21st Century Fox.
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The largest U.S. pay-TV providers continued to lose subscribers during the first quarter of 2018, but the rate of flight is slowing down a bit, according to a study released this week by Leichtman Research Group. The main reason for the slowdown is the growth recorded by internet-delivered services Sling TV and DIRECTV NOW. LRG’s study says that the top pay-TV services now account for 91.9 million subscribers, a drop of 305,00 from the first quarter of 2017. The drop from 1Q 2016 to 1Q 2017 was 515,000 subscribers. However, while the internet-delivered sector is on the rise (up 405,000 to 3.8 million subscribers), it is still dwarfed by cable (47.8 million), satellite (31.1 million) and services delievered by telephone companies (9.2 million).
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
Boston Globe Media acquires InstaTrac, a company that provides subscription-based services aimed at making government information easier to find, track, and understand... AARP names former New Republic CEO and publisher Michael Caruso as its SVP and chief content officer, unifying the organization's portfolio of media, live events and digital platforms... The Fund for American Studies, an educational nonprofit, awards its inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellowships.
