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| Kevin Delaney |
Quartz editor-in-chief and co-CEO Kevin Delaney, one of the business news platform’s founders, is stepping down. His departure is part of an overall realignment of Quartz’s executive team. Co-CEO Jay Lauf will now serve as chairman of Quartz, while Zach Seward moves from chief product officer and executive to the CEO position. Chief commercial officer Katie Weber will be president. Quartz, founded in 2012 by Atlantic Media, was purchased last year by Japanese company Uzabase for between $75 million and $100 million, according to the New York Times. While Quartz says that it averages about 20 million unique views per month, that has not yet resulted in profits. The Times says that financial filings indicate that the platform has lost $16 million on nearly $12 million in revenue in the first six months of 2019. Delaney will remain at the company through the end of the month and subsequently become an adviser to the company. A replacement as editor-in-chief has yet to be named.
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Thomson Reuters is moving into the events sector with its acquisition of FC Business Intelligence. The London-based company will rebrand as Reuters Events and operate as part of the Reuters news division. FCBI, founded in 1990, is a global producer of exhibitions and conferences in such sectors as pharmaceuticals, energy, transport, insurance and technology. It has worked with such clients as MasterCard, Pfizer, Best Buy and Target. According to Reuters president Michael Friedenberg, FCBI has 130 employees and is growing at a rate above the industry average. He indicated that Reuters is open to other acquisitions in the events business, as well as pursuing organic growth by expanding into additional sectors.
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When Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+, makes its debut on Nov. 12, that debut may not include Amazon’s Fire TV streaming device. According to the Wall Street Journal, a battle over ads is a major reason why Amazon has yet to sign a deal to carry the new service. Amazon wants the right to sell what the Journal calls a “substantial percentage” of the ad space for the Disney apps that run on the platform. While Disney+ will not carry advertising, several of the other Disney apps currently available via the Amazon Fire TV device (including those for ABC, ESPN and the Disney Channel) do, and that could lead to a decision to ban all of the company’s apps from the device. Apple’s new entry, Apple TV+, which is set for a Nov. 1 release, hasn’t firmed up a deal to appear on Amazon’s device, either. According to Apple, Apple TV+ will appear on Amazon Fire TV, LG, Roku, Sony and VIZIO platforms “in the future.”
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.
