 Les Moonves |
CBS is investigating claims of sexual misconduct by CEO Les Moonves following a story in the New Yorker by Ronan Farrow. While the story deals with CBS as a whole, Moonves is singled out as someone who is said to have been accused of sexual misconduct. CBS said in a statement that it is “committed to investigating claims that violate the Company’s clear policies.” The story hits as the legal fight between Moonves and CBS vice chair Shari Redstone intensifies. Redstone wants to merge CBS with Viacom, both of which she controls through voting shares in National Amusements, a Redstone-family owned trust. Moonves wants CBS to maintain its independence from Viacom. Before today's stock plunge, Moonves had piloted the company to a 1,200 percent increase in its share price over the past nine years, according to the Hollywood Reporter, and he recently told Wall Street to expect record financial results this year.
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Viacom has acquired youth-oriented digital media company AwesomenessTV, currently a joint venture of NBCUniversal's DreamWorks Animation, Hearst and Verizon. CNBC reports that Viacom will be paying around $300 million for the company—a steep discount from its 2016 valuation of $650 million. Viacom says that Awesomeness CEO Jordan Levin will depart after a transition period and that the company will integrate with Viacom Digital Studios. Viacom CEO Bob Bakish has been building out its digital footprint, picking up VidCon, an online video conference popular with teens, earlier this year.
 Paul Buccieri |
A+E Networks Group has named Paul Buccieri president. Buccieri, who was previously president of A+E Studios and A+E Networks, succeeds Nancy Dubuc, who left the company to become CEO of Vice Media in March. Before coming to A+E Networks, Buccieri was chairman of ITV Studios U.S. Group and ITV Studios Global Entertainment. He also previously served as president of programming, production and development at Fox Twentieth Television. In his new position, Buccieri will oversee all of the A+E Networks’ operations, including A&E, Lifetime, History, LMN, FYI and VICELAND, as well as A+E Studios and other properties.
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New York Daily News, which slashed its staff by 50 percent earlier this week, is now hiking the newsstand price of the paper—also by 50 percent. Beginning August 6, the cover price will rise from $1 to $1.50. According to the New York Post, the price of the Daily News Sunday edition will jump from $1.50 to $2. But the extra 50 cents might not be all that successful of a moneymaker: The Alliance for Audited Media reported that the paper’s daily circulation for the first quarter of the year was just 164,472. The cuts at the paper once called “New York’s Picture Newspaper” included the elimination of all staff photographers.
Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
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.
