Posted on 01/29/2016 9:20:33 PM PST by drewh
Kraig Kitchin will stay with the company, but resigned from the top job after friction with fellow Beck executive Jonathan Schreiber. A âmass exodusâ of staff may follow.
In what knowledgeable observers say is a sign of increasing turmoil in Glenn Beckâs troubled media empire, Beckâs longtime mentor and corporate executive, Kraig Kitchin, has quit as CEO of The Blaze.
Kitchinâs replacement, Stewart Padveen, a digital startup entrepreneur who joined Beckâs company last summer, will be the fourth leader of The Blaze since late 2014.
Kitchin, 54, who took over operations of Beckâs conservative-leaning subscription digital and cable television enterprise last Juneâafter two previous CEOs abruptly left in the space of six monthsâis resigning along with two other senior executives: Jeremy Price, director of advertising sales, and Liz Julis, director of marketing.
Both are based in New York, 1,500 miles removed from corporate headquarters in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.
Several other key employees, including at least two senior producers based in The Blazeâs shrinking New York operation, are expected to follow them out the door.
A source close to the situation predicted a âmass exodusâ from the New York studios, which are housed in a largely unoccupied 35,000 square-foot space at Midtown Manhattanâs Bryant Park, previously rented by Yahoo, under a 10-year lease costing Beckâs privately held company an estimated $2 million a year.
Kitchinâwho co-founded Premiere Radio Networks three decades ago and has worked with personalities as diverse as Rush Limbaugh, Ryan Seacrest, Whoopi Goldberg, and Beckâtried to put the best face on his resignation in a company-wide email sent out Thursday night.
He described his apparently self-imposed demotion as a result of outside business obligations.
âOur organization--The Blaze--deserves and needs an exclusively focused leader and thatâs something I cannot provide, given existing commitments I choose to honor,â Kitchin wrote, adding that âIâm not leaving this company. Iâll stay with The Blaze, working every day as the Interim Head of Sales with a focus on finding the right person for that position, assisting in the transition, on advertiser growth, program development, and industry relations.â
“monthly traffic for TheBlaze.com had dropped to 16.4 million unique visitors”
that’s probably because that website is so overloaded with massive ad-crap that it instantly crashes ordinary browsers and freezes browsers that have every ad-blocker known to mankind.
I used to try to go there to post comments, but finally have just given up completely.
Bookmark
I was just watching Glenn Beck on Megyn Kelly show suggesting that Trumpâs supporters, who dehumanize anyone who disagrees with them by calling them pigs, slobs, losers, and whatever else, are edging towards violence
How 0bamaesque.
Sounds like more trouble in Beck’s open-borders paradise ..
LOL.. gotta have the Goldline..
$5 million in debt. TheBlaze traffic cut in half in just one year (11/14-11/15). A majority owner who is certifiably nuts. THIS is who Ted Cruz heralds as his big endorsement?
Our local radio station recently rescheduled their program lineup and put the Glenn Beck show on after Rush. To be blunt, it’s unlistenable garbage, and Beck is a friggen loon.
I can’t even listen to Beck on the radio. All he and his buddies do is gossip about Trump. They’re like teenaged girls complaining about the pretty girl at school. “Oh Trump thinks he’s so hot but I know he has herpes”. “Oh did you see Trump at the movies...what a total phony.” Oh Trump stole my boyfriend last semester...I hate him so much...”
I rarely have gone to the site due to the junky ads... You are not the first to mention it.
Uh oh. He’d better protect himself by buying GOLD today! Glenn, if you use promo code: mmich you’ll receive free shipping as well!
Maybe Trump will buy the channel for OANN so us conservatives has a Fox News alternative that favors kicking the illegals out, building the wall, and minimal H1b visas.
Boycott Fox, send Murdoch packing back where he came from
Wait until silly season is over. Conservatives can be quite stubborn during political years.
Operations, Sales, & Marketing leads all quit. An entrepreneur is not the skillset required right now. This org needs a disciplined, systematic leader who can stabilize and rebuild. Look for continued struggles here.
I believe the Cruz campaign has gifted Rubio 2nd place in Iowa with crazed Beck and this——http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/01/30/unbelievable-ted-cruz-campaign-sends-out-personal-shaming-letters-to-iowa-voters/
He set aside whatever his usual radio jock shtick was, that day.
I know that, because I turned the radio on after the first tower was hit, along with going from internet site to site seeking news.I spent most of the day listening to him try to put into words what was going on. I appreciated him searching for news to relay, and his very human reactions on air.
He started losing his mind several years ago.
Prior to his FOX gig, he had already lost much of his credibility as a semi-serious entertainer, IMHO.
I would pray for him, but for the fact he has openly mocked various Judeo/Christian theologies, and I wouldn't want to offend his sincerely held beliefs in...whatever he says he believes in today.(I stopped keeping up with his new shticks) I hope he gets some kind of professional mental help, but I'm not sure he is open to seeking it, or if it even exists for him to find, since he has spent the last decade pretending to be on some sort of public spiritual journey, while mocking spirituality. Just a wild guess, but I can imagine he has suddenly decided to explore Islam, as his next new guiding "faith". Whatever. Cruz sure does know how to pick 'em!
There is certainly a market for a conservative channel after the crap fauxsnooze pulled.They will never get it backif they ever had it to begin with.
Are you serious about the the seance, because I could totally see him doing something nutty like that.
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