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| Col Allan |
The New York Post, as well as owner News Corp., ex-editor Col Allan and current editor Keith Poole, are facing a sexual harassment lawsuit from Michelle Gotthelf, a 20-year employee of the paper who most recently served as its digital editor. Gotthelf was fired by Poole on Jan. 12 following what she charges are several instances of sexual harassment and verbal abuse. She also says that Allan, who has been as an advisor at the Post since 2019 after having retired as editor in 2016, demanded that she remove a story about writer E. Jean Carroll’s rape accusations against former president Trump from the Post’s website. The suit claims that Allan “delighted in degrading Ms. Gotthelf, and women generally, in front of her mostly male peers.” Gotthelf is being represented by New York legal firm Wigdor, which the New York Times says previously won a $10 million settlement on behalf of 18 plaintiffs who filed a discrimination suit against News Corp’s Fox News.
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| Joe Earley |
Disney names Joe Earley president of Hulu, part of an ongoing reorganization of Disney’s executive suite. Earley shifts to Hulu from Disney+, where he was executive vp marketing and operations. He succeeds former Hulu chief Kelly Campbell, who left the company in October to become the president of NBCUniversal’s Peacock. Earley will report to Michael Paull, who will now oversee Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and Star+ as president of Disney Streaming. Disney is also creating a hub for international content creation, which will be run by Rebecca Campbell as chairman, international content and operations. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Disney is preparing to buy out Comcast’s minority stake in the streamer for more than $13 billion sometime in the next few years.
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NBCU Academy, NBCU News Group’s multi-platform journalism training and development program, adds 13 higher education institutions to the program, bringing the total of participants to 30 institutions. The new members include the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, Howard University, Montclair State University and the University of Texas at Arlington. Launched in January 2021, NBCU Academy offers free online instruction and digital content for students at participating institutions. “Through NBCU Academy, we’re forging a generation of diverse journalists that are ahead of the curve on media technologies and have a deep understanding of a range of industries,” said NBCU News Group senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion Yvette Miley.
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.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
