 Les Moonves |
CBS is offering a buyout deal of $100 million in stock to CEO Les Moonves, according to report on CNBC. Under the terms of his contract, Moonves would get up to $180 million in severance, as well as a production deal with the company. The discrepancy between the $100 million and $180 million is due to the CBS board’s desire to hold onto $80 million to help pay compensation claims if the sexual harassment charges pending against Mooves are confirmed. Forbes says that there is talk of COO Joe Ianniello stepping into Moonves’ role as an interim replacement. Following the initial news of Moonves’ possible exit, CBS shares closed up 3.1 percent Thursday, to $54.62.
 Toby Harnden |
The Washington Examiner is bringing on Toby Harnden as managing editor, effective October 1. Harnden joins the paper from the Sunday Times, of London, where he was Washington bureau chief. Before that, he served as US editor for both the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph, where he was also Middle East corespondent. He is also the author of several books, including Dead Men Rise: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain’s War in Afghanistan. Harnden replaces Philip Klein, who has been the Examiner’s managing editor since 2015. Klein moves into the executive editor slot, and will mainly focus on writing.
 Zanny Minton Beddoes |
Steve Bannon may no longer be welcome at The New Yorker Festival, but he is still on the lineup for The Economist’s Open Future Festival on Sept. 15. Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes issued an open letter on Tuesday to explain her reasons for inviting Bannon, and for allowing that invitation to stand. “Mr. Bannon stands for a world view that is antithetical to the liberal values The Economist has always espoused,” Beddoes says in the letter. “We asked him to take part because his populist nationalism is of grave consequence in today’s politics.” She goes on to say that “the future of open societies will not be secured by like-minded people speaking to each other in an echo chamber, but by subjecting ideas and individuals from all sides to rigorous questioning and debate.” Beddoes will interview Bannon as part of what the festival is calling “A Debate on the Future of Liberalism.”
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
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