Tronc: Ross is A-OK
Exec vindicated after harass probe
LOS
Angeles Times Publisher Ross Levinsohn, who has been on leave without pay for the past three weeks, has been cleared of sexual harassment claims, Tronc announced on Thursday.
Levinsohn will take a new role with the publisher — CEO of Tribune Interactive.
The move was revealed by Tronc shortly after it announced it has entered into an agreement to sell its California News Group — which includes the LA Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune and smaller weekly papers — to billionaire Dr. Patrick SoonShiong for $500 million. Also tossed a Tronc lifeline was Lewis D’Vorkin, who was ousted in January as editor-in-chief of the LA Times after two months on the job. He will be the new chief content officer of Tribune Interactive.
Soon-Shiong — who is a big shareholder in Tronc and had tried several times in the past to buy the LA broadsheet — is the LAbased chief executive of NantHealth and is estimated to have a net worth of $7.8 billion.
Levinsohn was only tapped as publisher in September and in November recruited old pal D’Vorkin — who had been the chief product officer at Forbes — to be the new EIC.
Levinsohn was forced to take a voluntary leave of absence without pay on Jan. 19, when NPR unearthed what it claimed was a past history of sexual harassment and frat-house behavior in previous media jobs — including being named as a defendant in two lawsuits.
But Tronc CEO Michael Ferro, after looking into the matter, has given him the all clear.
“Following an independent investigation and a report to the board of directors finding no wrongdoing on the part of Mr. Levinsohn, the board determined to reinstate Mr. Levinsohn and appoint him chief executive officer of Tribune Interactive,” Tronc said in a statement.
D’Vorkin had rankled journalists at the LA Times from Day 1 with his plans to shake things up.
Los Angeles Times journalists rebelled and voted overwhelmingly to unionize with the NewsGuild in re- sults that were unveiled on Jan. 19.
700 pink slips
Less than a week after taking over Time Inc., Meredith is planning to ax 700 people in its Tampa, Fla., Time Customer Service center, Media Ink has learned.
Time Inc. tried unsuccessfully to sell it last year.
Meredith plans to phase out operations over the next year and transfer the work to an outside firm — CDS, owned by Hearst Corp.
The service center processes subscription renewals and direct mail for all Time titles, including Time, People, InStyle and Sports Illustrated — plus handled a limited number of outside clients, like Rolling Stone, National Geographic and Playboy.
“The anger here is beyond seething,” said one Tampa source, who said that after months of efforts, Time last year was closing in on a deal — when Meredith stepped into the picture in September with an offer to buy all of Time Inc. for $2.8 billion.
A Meredith spokesman confirmed the shutdown of the TCS center. “Simply, after careful evaluation, we thought it was in our best interests to move the acquired Time Inc titles to CDS Global, Meredith’s current fulfillment provider. We are pleased with CDS’ performance and will see significant savings.”
Meredith did not say how many people would lose their jobs — but Media Inkk sources put the number at 700.
Ad woes
Troubles at Newsweek are now spreading to the ad side.
Brandzooka, a self-service programmatic video platform, said it will stop sending its advertising clients to Newsweek’s site.
“You lied, you cheated, and you destroyed the trust that your organization held in all of our eyes. Worse yet, your actions dragged everyone else into the mud with you,” Brandzooka said in a statement Thursday.
“That’s why as of [Thursday] morning, we have blocked Newsweek from our platform and will no longer serve any of our 22,000 users ads on the site.
“Deceit, lying, and cheating have no place in our industry or in the modern ad world,” the statement said.
Earlier this week, BuzzFeed, citing a report from Russia-based Social Puncher, claimed Newsweek Media Group had fraudulently misstated its ad traffic by using non-human bots and buying traffic from pirate Web sites in non-English-speaking countries.
NMG conceded it buys some traffic but denied it engaged in ad fraud. Ed Harrigan, the chief sales officer at NMG, who had joined the company only four months ago, turned in his resignation earlier this week. “I can confirm I resigned on Feb. 6,” he said via e-mail.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office raided Newsweek offices Jan. 18, and is said to be probing money ties between Olivet University and NMG. Olivet has denied any financial links between the two.