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 ‘mass exodus’ of staff may follow.
In what knowledgeable observers say is a sign of increasing turmoil in Glenn Beck’s troubled media empire, Beck’s longtime mentor and corporate executive, Kraig Kitchin, has quit as CEO of The Blaze.
Kitchin’s replacement, Stewart Padveen, a digital startup entrepreneur who joined Beck’s company last summer, will be the fourth leader of The Blaze since late 2014.
Kitchin, 54, who took over operations of Beck’s conservative-leaning subscription digital and cable television enterprise last June—after two previous CEOs abruptly left in the space of six months—is 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 Blaze’s shrinking New York operation, are expected to follow them out the door.
A source close to the situation predicted a “mass exodus†from the New York studios, which are housed in a largely unoccupied 35,000 square-foot space at Midtown Manhattan’s Bryant Park, previously rented by Yahoo, under a 10-year lease costing Beck’s privately held company an estimated $2 million a year.
Kitchin—who co-founded Premiere Radio Networks three decades ago and has worked with personalities as diverse as Rush Limbaugh, Ryan Seacrest, Whoopi Goldberg, and Beck—tried 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.
“Our organization--The Blaze--deserves and needs an exclusively focused leader and that’s something I cannot provide, given existing commitments I choose to honor,†Kitchin wrote, adding that “I’m not leaving this company. I’ll 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€
I don't listen to him now and never go to his site, but I've listened in the past...
we needed warriors along the way and he has been one...
Who said there was only bad news?
Pray America wakes
Turd Blossom? I thought he was Mr. Toe Sucker?
But that’s superior judgment! Don’t you understand? He’s the Second Coming of Christ! Just ask his supporters.
Perhaps he is suffering from PTSD
Had to see that coming. He was okay in his early days, but he jumped the shark. Sad that these news media folks let their egos get the best of them.
D. Loesch will fold when he does. I’m tired of these arrogant BS’ers blowing their smoke and acting like the American people are supposed to believe every word of it.
Hume, Krauthammer, Kelly, NRO. They aren’t interested in the people in this country who are looking for jobs and hurting. It’s all an ego trip for them...
Good riddance!
He’s from Jersey. They play rough in Jersey. LOL
This guy didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.
Trump is the real deal. Make way...
The troubles go back to basically 5 months after the The Blaze. Tv began. Not hard to see that their were problems. People with the channel or online venture kept quitting, getting fired or shows being cut. Tomi Lahren quit OANN and starts Monday on The Blaze. But it seems the problems now aren’t about money, which Beck said was an issue in past, but direction. I guess Trump followed enough to see the issues The Blaze Tv has had.
Dang. I knew I wouldn't be in time to post: "In before the deranged, rabid, thread hijacking, Cruz bashing, Trump supporter."
Nothing deranged about the facts.
Wow, thanks for sharing. Teddy is truly becoming unhinged. Too much Beck in his life.
I watched Beck on Fox a while, until the connect the strings insanity looked more like the wall of the Mel Gibson character in CONSPIRACY THEORY.
Last time I listened on the radio it was Beck with two suck ups laughing at each other’s unfunny comments for the entire show. Just turned it off. A month later I listened again and it was the same thing.
Then the rue “Jump the Shark” moment for Beck. Bringing Teddy Bears to the border to welcome our new invaders.
And the whiner intro music... Gahhhh!
The full article mentions Beck has been getting advice from some guy who relocated from Israel to NYC, and talked his way into Beck’s inner circle as an expert/consultant.
Employees are complaining that the guy doesn’t know what he’s doing & sticks his nose into areas of the company he’s not qualified to manage - all with Beck’s knowledge & support.
Sinking ship.
ps: I would love nothing better than to see Loesch go down with that ship. But she’ll likely survive the sinking, as she’s spent so much time cultivating a network of people to help her climb the ladder of success, she’ll surely land somewhere. She excels at self-promotion+sucking up to the right people.
That’s some wickedly brilliant wit, but I still think that Beck is well intended.
He and probably Pat as well are in a lot of pain. Their loyalty to Cruz has nothing to do with money — to them it’s a quest. I hope that Stew [sic?] can talk some sense in them.
They need to downsize — put that leased NY building to work by letting some other business use it and cover the rent. NY is too expensive anyway. It’s their HUMOR that builds audience. They need to get back to that.
FRegards ....
‘Last time I listened on the radio it was Beck with two suck ups laughing at each other’s unfunny comments for the entire show.’
It’s a stale old humor trick — ‘hyping it up’.
Pat and Stew are really funny when green-lighted to. They can make poliical points in a hilarious way. But Beck is on a quest, and I believe his plans run counter to God’s plans.
Cruz is very religious and dovetails nicely with guys who keep seeking signs of end-times and an anti-christ around every corner.
I went through a doomsday Christian phase myself in the 80s. It turns an otherwise normal person into a flake.
It’s got to be difficult working for an unstable personality like Glenn Beck. I get the impression he’s a bit of a control freak. Quick to tantrum when he doesn’t get his way at that very moment. “Do you even know who I am? Don’t you see how lucky you are to work for me?”
To Glenn Beck, Pat, and Stew ...
I was only hard on you guys because I see so much good and potential in all three of you.
Please, run a google on me with ‘Glenn Beck’ and ‘humor’. Been trying to help you fellows for years!
Downsize. Let others pay rent for leases you don’t need.
Go back to humor.
Quit feeling like a crusader all the time. Survive and enjoy life. Wait for signs from God — don’t force them.
Quit trying to depress your audience to sell gold, etc. Sell it with humor, mock-fear, etc.
And for goodness sake — hype laughter does more harm than good. Subdue your ‘canned laughter’ moments. Don’t fake humor — find the humor. Devote yourselves to it as a political weapon.
If you can survive this financial hurdle, the world’s your oyster! If you go bankrupt, start from scratch — try to model yourselves after the way Savage started — be independent and small-scale.
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