If you frequent this blog, you’ve probably read up on Walter Elias Disney, Michael Eisner, and Bob Iger and know some interesting stories about those men and their personalities. Portfolio.com has a long and interesting piece by Lloyd Grove on Sumner Redstone, the octogenarian who… Read More »Sumner Redstone Profile
Randy Lewis, in the Los Angeles Times, checks up on how the new CBS Records is doing. With Sony’s music arm in control of old corporate sibling Columbia Records and with the Viacom/CBS split settling ever deeper in, the young CBS Records was launched to provide and… Read More »Music Labels and Television Partner Up
A couple years back, Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements split Viacom (parent company of Paramount Pictures) from CBS. Now it looks like Viacom and CBS will compete in one more area. Kenneth LiMon reports for Reuters/Nielsen. Sumner Redstone’s Viacom Inc will launch a premium TV and… Read More »Viacom Takes the Lead in Planning a New Pay TV Channel
It’s not a good time for journalists, or to be a terrestrial radio personality. As newspapers merge and cut back and radio stations cut back, ABC competitor CBS is cutting back the news staff at the network and its stations. Jacob Adelman has the story for the Associated Press.
CBS-owned TV stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago are reducing their news staffs. The cuts include two well-known anchors in Los Angeles, five on-air veterans in San Francisco and one of Chicago’s highest-paid anchors.
About a dozen news staffers will depart KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV in Los Angeles, according to a person who works at one of the CBS-owned stations and requested anonymity because policy prohibits disclosing personnel matters.
KCBS and KCAL (formerly owned by The Walt Disney Company) are both owned by CBS, with KCBS carrying the network programming and with the stations sharing a newsroom and personnel. CBS also owns Los Angeles news radio stations KFWB AM 980 and KNX AM 1070, and there is further crossover with them.
The person told The Associated Press on Tuesday that longtime anchors Ann Martin and Harold Greene will leave when their contracts expire in May. Others, including reporters Jennifer Sabih and Jennifer Davis, were laid off Monday.
Technical staff was also trimmed, the person said.
More details about who is getting cut where is at the link.
Georg Szalai and Kimberly Nordyke have the Reuters/Hollywood Reporter take. My thoughts are after the jump.
John Eggerton and Jim Benson of Broadcasting & Cable report that CBS has hired former Paramount executive Bruce Tobey as Chief Operating Officer of their feature film start-up, CBS Feature Films. Since Viacom (parent of Paramount Pictures) and CBS split over a year ago, CBS has been looking to grow into areas where it will… Read More »CBS Get COO For New Film Division
Thomas S. Mulligan, Charles Duhigg and Claudia Eller of the Los Angeles Times profile Viacom (Paramount) and CBS Chairman Sumner Redstone and News Corp (Fox) Chairman Rupert Murdock. With institutional shareholders – who are often disinterested in the particulars of content and day to day studio operations – in charge of most of the big… Read More »Two Men Who Wield Studio Power Like Walt
A verdict in the shareholder lawsuit against the Walt Disney Company, its board of directors, and Michael Ovitz (ex-uber agent and ignored visionairy) is expected tomorrow. In an earlier post it was hypothisized that the shareholders would lose due to Delaware’s lax laws of corporate governence. According to a story at CBS Marketwatch: Law professors… Read More »Decision in Ovitz case expected tomorrow
Disney War by James Stewart, the book that fires the heavy artillery at Michael Eisner, Bob Iger, and their co-conspirators in the fiscal mishandling of the Disney Brand, has been released and the reviews are in. I have not yet gotten my hands on a… Read More »Disney War: Book Reviews are in