Former Newsweek Editor to Oversee Newsgathering
Mark Whitaker, former editor of Newsweek and a veteran journalist of nearly three decades, will join NBC News as senior vice president, NBC announced on Tuesday.
|
|
|
|
“Whitaker will serve as the second-in-command within NBC News and have oversight of NBC News’ daily editorial and newsgathering efforts worldwide. He will provide continuity between newsgathering operations and individual broadcasts and new media,” the announcement said. “He will also be responsible for NBC News division-wide editorial specials and will help develop online content for MSNBC.com.”
The announcement was made by NBC News President Steve Capus, who said in the release, “This is yet another terrific announcement for NBC News and our front office team. Mark’s talents as a journalist are unparalleled virtually anywhere in the business. He brings not only a keen sensibility for the news, but also a real expertise in digital and online ventures. He’s exactly the type of person I’ve been looking for to bolster our executive ranks.” Whitaker, 49, will report to Capus.
At Newsweek, Whitaker became the first African American to edit a major newsmagazine. The Washington Post Co., which owns the magazine, announced in September that after eight years as editor, Whitaker would move to a new role as vice president and editor-in-chief of new ventures of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, the Post company’s digital division.
He “will take charge of developing a range of new Washington Post Company Web sites. Whitaker will also hold the title of Corporate Editor of Newsweek, where he will continue a number of initiatives he has started with Newsweek.com,” the Post Co. announcement said.
The Whitaker appointment marks the second for an African American at the networks’ vice presidential level in less than a week. Lyne Pitts was named one of five NBC News vice presidents last Thursday, with oversight of the news division’s strategic partnerships and managing production.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
It’s Official: Black Family Channel Moving to Web
“Making it official, Black Family Channel closed its deal to cease operations as a linear cable channel, shifting its distribution slots to Gospel Music Channel,” Linda Moss reported on Tuesday for Multichannel News.
|
|
|
|
“As a result of the agreement between the two networks and a number of cable operators, Gospel replaced BFC in a majority of its markets, including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, St. Louis and San Francisco.
“Gospel is gaining carriage on nearly 275 systems from Bright House Networks, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable.
“BFC is expected to move its programming onto the Internet.
“We are thrilled with the endorsement from BFC and the cable industry,” Gospel founder and president Charles Humbard said in a prepared statement. “With Gospel Music Channel in so many new markets, millions of new subscribers can now enjoy our inspirational, family-friendly music entertainment.”
Black Family Channel had its own spin, announcing:
“Black Family Channel’s slate of original, must-see, award-winning programs will soon be available free as a brand new, feature-rich broadband TV service.
“‘The cable network known for its family-friendly fare targeting African-Americans and urban communities will now be available to Black families world-wide without gatekeepers and barriers,’ said Rick Newberger, President and CEO of Black Family Channel. Anyone who has access to a broadband connection at home, at school, or at work will be able to get Black Family Channel. The broadband service is launching soon under the leadership of Hollywood actor and director Robert Townsend and Mr. Newberger.
“In tandem with the launch of the broadband service, Black Family Channel announced a cable partnership with Gospel Music Channel, the nation’s first and only 24-hour music television entertainment network dedicated to all styles of Gospel and Christian music. ‘Gospel Music Channel embodies the same traditional values that Black Family Channel set forth,’ stated Chairman Willie Gary. ‘Our mission is the same. Together we will empower and uplift families from all the negative imagery on television. My partners and I believe that expanding into Broadband and joining our cable subscribers together with Gospel Music Channel is a more strategic approach in reaching and serving our audience,’ continued Gary.”
Gary said in the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post last week that millions of dollars are changing hands as part of the arrangement, Eve Samples reported, but she said Gary would not reveal the specific terms. Some of the Black Family Channel’s employees may move to the Gospel Music Channel, Samples wrote.
An operator at the channel said Ray Metoyer, executive producer, news, was no longer employed by the channel. Veteran broadcast journalist Greg Morrison, who had produced a newscast for 20 months, left last fall, and recently joined the national assignment desk full-time at CNN.
In addition to financial problems, the channel was facing a dispute among the founders. Kathy Chaney reported in the Chicago Defender in October that James & Jackson LLC, founders of MBC Gospel Network, later changed to the Black Family Channel, filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against their partners in the venture, who include Gary, boxer Evander Holyfield and former baseball star Cecil Fielder.
James & Jackson LLC, whose partners include Marlon Jackson, a member of the Jackson 5, claimed the other Black Family Channel partners tried to squeeze it out of its share of interest.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
TV One CEO Says Family Channel Was Disrespected
Johnathan Rodgers, CEO of TV One, the cable channel that says it targets African American adults, said the demise of Black Family Channel as a cable entity “leaves a void in the . . . concept of programming specifically for black families,” but it was not surprising because operators took advantage of the network by not paying it what it was owed.
|
|
|
|
For African Americans, “the nature of the cable business is such that the cable and satellite operators don’t give you the distribution, or if they do, they don’t want to pay you,” Rodgers told Journal-isms.
“A lot of African Americans are so eager to create a situation where we control our own images that we create bad deals,” he said. “Despite Willie Gary’s great intentions . . . there’s only so much you can bear,” Rodgers said.
“Now, there is only one viable” cable station “owned and controlled by African Americans — TV One,” Rodgers said. TV One, launched on Martin Luther King Day, 2003, is a partnership between Comcast and Radio One, which is publicly traded. Rodgers said advertisers and cable operators consider it black-owned. Black Entertainment Television is owned by Viacom.
Rodgers, who came to TV One after working at CBS and the Discovery Channel, had praise for BET, which some in the media have portrayed as a rival. “It has really improved” under CEO Debra Lee and Reginald Hudlin, BET’s president of entertainment, he said, adding they are “doing an outstanding job in bringing quality television to the screen.”
While the loss of Black Family Channel’s cable presence leaves a void in programming for black families, Rodgers said, but television programming for children is the one area “where multiculturalism lives. There are significant choices for African Americans who will see themselves” on such networks as Nickelodeon, Public Broadcasting Service and ABC Family. “That is not the case with African American adults, where they are marginalized,” Rodgers said.
Jeanine Liburd, senior vice president for communications at BET, did not respond to a request for comment.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
5 of Color Selected as Michigan, Stanford Fellows
Five U.S. journalists of color are among the 2007-08 classes announced on Tuesday by the journalism fellowship programs at Stanford University and the University of Michigan, programs designed to give mid-career journalists a subsidized break. Recruitment efforts yielded an increase in applicants of color, spokesmen said.
The John S. Knight Fellowships at Stanford went to Andrea Lewis, co-host/producer, “The Morning Show,” KPFA Radio/Pacifica Radio Network, Berkeley, Calif., who is African American; Elizabeth Dalziel, staff photographer in Beijing for the Associated Press, who is Latina; and Helen Ubiñas, columnist for the Hartford Courant, who is also Latina, James G. Bettinger, program director, told Journal-isms.
Lewis plans to study “the role of alternative journalism in contemporary American culture and democracy,” Dalziel, the intersection of art and news photography; and Ubiñas, “the disparate effects of poverty, race and family dynamics on individual outcomes.”
At Michigan, Knight-Wallace Fellowships went to Jamaal Abdul-Alim, an education reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who is African American, and Rochelle Riley, a columnist for the Detroit Free Press who is also African American.
Abdul-Alim plans to study the impact of incentives on student achievement and Riley, “how multimedia empires are built.”
Birgit Rieck, program manager at Michigan, said 20 percent of the applicants this year were African American, which she attributed to recruitment of applicants at the journalist of color conventions by administrators of the various programs, who successfully lobbied for panel discussions on fellowships there and brought along fellowship program graduates of color.
“I have a bachelor’s degree in Latin American history and a master’s in African history. I’m very interested in this,” Rieck said. “We worked our behinds off.” Michigan picks a class of 13 U.S. fellows.
Three years ago, the Nieman fellowship program at Harvard University, which is due to announce its selections later in the month, announced a class with no African Americans. Curator Bob Giles said then, “the lack of strong U.S. African American candidates is a continuing disappointment to us.”
By last year, the Niemans had five journalists of color, likely its most diverse class ever.
At Stanford, the 12 U.S. fellows and eight international winners pursue independent courses of study and participate in special seminars. “We had 23 applications from journalists of color, constituting 28 percent of the total applicants. In the past four years the range has been from 25 to 28 percent,” Bettinger said of the U.S. applicants.
“Our applications from journalists of color have increased in the past few years after being quite a bit lower (as low as 11 percent). We’ve worked really hard to make sure that journalists of color know about the opportunities of a Knight Fellowship, because we think that’s an important group for us to reach.”
