Media Moves

The Vice Chairman of Blackstone’s Private Wealth Solutions Group has agreed to deliver the opening keynote presentation concerning economic trends at Media Outlook 2019, set for the morning of September 12 in midtown Manhattan.

Cox Media Group has named Billy Farina as president of national ad platforms, effective Sept. 17. Farina will provide strategic, business, and operational direction and leadership to CMG’s national ad platforms, including CoxReps, Gamut, and Videa.

A television career spanning 48 years -- including nearly a quarter-century in St. Louis -- is drawing to a close. It's the end of an era, as Tribune Media's duopoly is saying goodbye to its "silver-haired, sharp-witted" GM.

In the Southwest Florida city of Estero, one of the big issues facing local residents is the plague of red tide that has led to the death of a wide array of sea life along the Gulf Coast. For one major publicly traded company based here, a sea change seen in the C-Suite is perhaps the bigger news of the week. A new CFO is set to start Sept. 10 at Hertz Global Holdings. Who is it? Look to Nielsen.

Pete Mihan is known for his leadership and sales experience earned at such companies as Microsoft and Ericsson. He also has video product experience from his time at Frontier Communications. Now, Mihan will align the sales organization around Zone·tv’s go-to-market strategy and target new growth opportunities.

The VP/GM for The E.W. Scripps Co.’s FOX-affiliated WSYM-47 in Lansing, Mich., has been elected Chairman of the Michigan Association of Broadcasters (MAB) Board of Directors. He succeeds outgoing Chairman Peter Tanz, SVP for Midwest Communications of Kalamazoo.

From 1990 through 2005, this individual became widely known across the radio industry for his role as VP/GM of WFAN-AM 660 in New York. More recently, he's been gaining attention as a co-founder of voice recognition tech tool SonicAi. Now, his career has come full circle, as he'll be connected with WFAN in at least one way thanks to a new role at Entercom.

The Media Financial Management Association (MFM) has turned to the CFO of the entity that is a majority owner of the highly troubled cinema subscription service MoviePass Inc. and the VP/Finance for Hearst Corporation in selecting its co-chairs for the Media Outlook 2019 conference.

A veteran corporate strategy leader most recently with Orlando Sentinel and Baltimore Sun owner Tronc has just taken the role of VP/Strategy, New Business and Corporate Development at a media company in the process of selling off all of its radio stations.

DISH Media Sales has a new leader. Who is it? The DBS provider and parent of Sling TV just hired the former Chief Revenue Officer of mobile advertising platform Verve.

Newly appointed Univision Communications CEO Vincent Sadusky has wasted no time putting his imprint on a swift plan of action to save what many market observers have labeled a sinking ship in a turbid Spanish-language media sea. Univision has a new President of Content Distribution and Partnerships.

In a surprise announcement, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises revealed that Hispanic media industry veteran Luis Silberwasser will be leaving the company on October 1. He's served as Telemundo Networks President for four years, and his exit comes amid widely reported turmoil at Telemundo's No. 1 competitor — Univision Communications. It also comes as Azteca América is gearing up for a massive relaunch.

Beasley Media Group has bumped up its Regional Engineering Director and Corporate Project Manager to the role of VP/Engineering. 

The ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital team is welcoming a Senior Digital Product Owner, Mobile and Emerging Platforms. In doing so, it lured an E.W. Scripps Co. employee who started as an on-air news reporter for KTTS-FM in Springfield, Mo.

Alpha Media will elect a new Chairman at their next scheduled board meeting, the company said in a release distributed at 10pm Pacific Sunday. Why? The Portland, Ore.-based company isn't talking, but others are.