Fox News May Tap Heat Street Editor for Website -- Sources
May 30 2017 - 07:40PM
Dow Jones News
By Lukas I. Alpert
21st Century Fox is looking to revamp Fox News's digital news
operation, and part of the solution could come from sister company
News Corp.
Discussions are under way for Noah Kotch, the editor of News
Corp's right-leaning news site Heat Street, to take the reins of
FoxNews.com, people familiar with the matter say.
The interest in Mr. Kotch comes after months of stop-and-go
talks in which Fox explored acquiring Heat Street, the people say.
Such a deal now appears unlikely.
Heat Street went live in April 2016, with the aim of being
"politically incorrect" to draw in younger libertarian and
center-right readers. It has focused heavily on stories critical of
social justice and freedom of speech issues on U.S. college
campuses and beyond.
It was led by Louise Mensch, a former Conservative Party MP in
the U.K, and Mr. Kotch, a former "Today Show" producer on NBC who
helped launch the site Vocativ, a site built around the premise of
using data-mining technology to generate story ideas. Ms. Mensch
departed earlier this year.
At the time of its launch, Ms. Mensch tweeted that the site will
be a place where "disagreement is encouraged," and used the word
"libertarian" while discussing Heat Street.
When launched, Heat Street was placed under the umbrella of News
Corp's then-newly created Dow Jones Media Group, which oversees
startup digital media ventures as well as existing brands like the
magazine Barron's and the websites MarketWatch and Mansion
Global.
Rupert Murdoch split his media empire in 2013, with the
entertainment properties going to 21st Century Fox while the
publishing assets, including The Wall Street Journal, went to News
Corp.
FoxNews.com is one of the largest news sites by traffic, with
86.8 million unique U.S. visitors in April, according to comScore
Inc. Heat Street is small by comparison, but has seen strong,
steady audience growth since its launch, drawing the attention of
some top 21st Century Fox executives, people familiar with its
performance say. Heat Street has audience overlap with Fox News and
its stories have appeared on FoxNews.com.
The Fox News site has been viewed internally as a property in
need of a revamp, in part because former Fox News chairman and
chief executive Roger Ailes largely viewed it as an afterthought,
the people familiar with the matter say.
Mr. Ailes exited last year after facing accusations that he
sexually harassed multiple women, which he denied. Since then, the
company has paid a number of settlements totaling tens of millions
of dollars. (Mr. Ailes died May 18.)
After Mr. Ailes's departure, Mr. Murdoch took over as chief
executive of Fox News, and his sons, James and Lachlan, pledged
their commitment "to maintaining a work environment based on trust
and respect."
Fox News has parted ways with top on-air personality Bill
O'Reilly, in the wake of sexual-harassment allegations, accusations
which he has denied, and with network co-president and long-time
executive Bill Shine.
Last week, FoxNews.com retracted a controversial story about the
murder last summer of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth
Rich. The story posited, based on unnamed sources, that his death
was orchestrated in retaliation for leaking damaging DNC emails to
WikiLeaks.
The story was seized upon in the conservative media world --
most notably by Fox News host Sean Hannity -- as evidence
countering the narrative of Russian political interference in the
2016 presidential election. Mr. Hannity didn't retract his
statements, but has said he won't discuss the matter further out of
respect for Mr. Rich's family.
Write to Lukas I. Alpert at lukas.alpert@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 30, 2017 20:25 ET (00:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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