21st Century Fox Inc. named Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine as co-presidents of the Fox News Channel and Fox Business, choosing longtime company veterans to fill the leadership void created when Roger Ailes stepped down amid a sex-harassment scandal.
The company also said in a statement Friday that Mark Kranz will retire as chief financial officer of the cable news network. Suzanne Scott was promoted to executive vice president, overseeing prime-time and daytime opinion shows, and will lead development of new programming.
The move puts two senior executives atop 21st Century Fox's most profitable TV network, dividing responsibilities that were previously all under Ailes, the chairman and co-founder of Fox News. Both will report to Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, who became chairman of Fox News after Ailes's departure and continues to lead the network.
"The company had an opportunity to bring in some new blood, but it appears that they want to stay with a proven playbook," said Paul Sweeney, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Abernethy, who will continue to lead Fox's TV stations, will oversee all business components of FNC and FBN, including finance, advertising sales and distribution units. Shine will run all programming and news functions of each network, the company said.
Shine, 53, joined Fox News in 1996, the year it was launched, as the producer of Hannity & Colmes and rose through the ranks to oversee the network's entire programming slate. Abernethy, 60, also joined the network in 1996, and was once its CFO. Scott, who has been senior vice president of programming and development since 2009, joined Fox News at its inception as a programming assistant.
Ailes stepped down as head of Fox News in late July after an investigation of sexual harassment accusations in a suit by former anchor Gretchen Carlson. Ailes has denied those claims. Since then, other women have come forward with similar claims, including one who received a $3.15 million settlement, according to New York Magazine. 21st Century Fox said it only recently learned of that case.
Some of the women say they told Shine about Ailes' alleged harassment, a claim that Shine has denied.
Richard Greenfield, analyst at BTIG LLC, said the channel had preserved "the status quo" with Friday's appointments, and that "Fox News was bigger than any one individual."
Business on 08/13/2016