Vice Media Names Two Co-CEOs After Nancy Dubuc’s Exit

Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes sent a message to his former Sporting Lisbon teammates after they defeated Arsenal to progress to the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Emmett Shear, longtime CEO of video game-centric livestreaming platform Twitch, announced that he’s leaving effectively immediately. Dan Clancy, currently Twitch’s president, will succeed Shear as CEO, effective immediately. In a blog post Thursday announcing the decision, Shear said he will continue to work at Twitch in an advisory role. Shear said he was stepping down as Twitch CEO following the birth of his first child. “With my first child just born, I’ve been reflecting on my future with Twitch. Twitch often feels to me like a child I’ve been raising as well,” Shear wrote. “And while I will always want to be there if Twitch needs me, at 16 years old it feels to me Twitch is ready to move out of the house and venture alone. So it is with great poignancy that I share my decision to resign from Twitch as CEO. I want to be fully there for my son as he enters this world and I feel ready for this change to tackle new challenges.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala have been on the job for less than two weeks as co-CEOs of Vice Media Group. But despite the newness of their current roles, Lokhandwala and Dixon are already well versed in the inner workings of the Brooklyn-based company, having served for several years in senior roles under recently exited CEO Nancy Dubuc. Lokhandwala has been chief strategy officer at VMG since October 2018, and Dixon has held the position of CFO since 2021 and was previously CFO of Vice Studios. Both were brought in by Dubuc — who departed the company Feb. 24 after nearly five years as CEO — and now seek to follow in her footsteps while shaping the future of Vice, a company that has been seeking a buyer over the past year.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is pink-slipping another 10,000 employees, coming on the heels of laying off 11,000 last fall. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s co-founder and CEO, announced the planned cuts in a memo to employees Tuesday as an “update on our Year of Efficiency.” The 10,000 layoffs represent 11.6% of the 86,482 full-time employees Meta reported as of the end of 2022. Zuckerberg said Meta also is instituting a hiring freeze, canceling about 5,000 open job positions. “Overall, we expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired,” Zuckerberg wrote in the memo (read it below).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Sarah Rosen, who left Twitter last year shortly after Elon Musk’s takeover over the social network, has joined Reddit as senior director of content partnerships. At Twitter, Rosen most recently was head of North America content partnerships, leading all efforts in the region across entertainment, news and sports. After eight and a half years at Twitter, Rosen quit in November, less than a month after Musk closed the $44 billion acquisition. In her new role at Reddit, Rosen will oversee the content partnerships team focused on media, sports, gaming and entertainment verticals. According to Reddit, in the last year, the content partnerships team has expanded collaborations with organizations including the NFL (for the Super Bowl), Netflix (for “Stranger Things”), Lionsgate (“John Wick 4”), HBO (“The House of the Dragon”), Amazon’s Prime Video (“The Lord of the Rights: The Rings of Power”) and the Washington Post.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, said it is considering launching a new Twitter-like social network. “We’re exploring a standalone, decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. The rep said the company had no additional info on the prospective social network to share. News site Moneycontrol first reported on the potential Meta service, which is code-named “P92.” The new Meta app would be based on — and interoperable with — the framework that powers Mastodon, a Twitter-like service that launched in 2016 and has seen a surge in popularity since Musk’s takeover of Twitter last October.

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount+ is developing Vice City (working title), a new original series from Lionsgate Television, Paramount Television Studios, and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson‘s G-Unit Film & Television, Deadline has learned.

New day, new ‘do! Chrissy Teigen unveiled a major hair transformation. 

Just the beginning? Brandon Routh weighed in on whether Quantum Leap viewers can hold out hope for a potential return from Addison’s (Caitlin Bassett) father, Alexander.

US actor Tom Sizemore, known for roles in films including Point Break and Natural Born Killers, has died at the age of 61. Sizemore had been placed into a coma in intensive care since suffering a brain aneurysm and collapsing at his Los Angeles home on February 18. He died in his sleep on Friday at a hospital in Burbank, California, his manager Charles Lago confirmed to the AP news agency.

Jake Quickenden has revealed that he sweetly reached out to Carley Stenson's husband, Danny Mac, to send his support to the star after her shock Dancing On Ice elimination on Sunday night. The I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! runner-up, 34, who soared to fame on The X Factor in 2012, is "gutted" about Carley's, 40, elimination after finding herself in the dreaded skate-off.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Ozy Media has closed its doors after Carlos Watson, the digital media and entertainment company’s founder and CEO, was arrested and indicted on federal fraud charges. ⁦‪”In light of its current operational and legal challenges, the Ozy board has determined that it’s in the best interests of its stakeholders to suspend operations immediately,” the company said on its Twitter account Wednesday. The company’s website, ozy.com, was unreachable as of Wednesday evening. On Feb. 23, Watson was arrested in Manhattan and charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in what the Justice Department alleged was a scheme to defraud Ozy’s investors and lenders. Watson was also charged with “aggravated identity theft” for his role in the impersonation of “multiple media company executives” in communications with Ozy’s lenders and prospective investors in furtherance of the fraud schemes, federal prosecutors said.

email to staff. “Having been a journalist and media operator at large companies for my whole career, it’s time for me to strike out on my own, hang out a shingle, and start my own company.”Checker Media aims to create and invest in news, documentary and non-fiction projects and products.“Checker will develop and fund original Intellectual Property, as well as consult with companies and brands that have factual story-telling in their DNA,” Angelo’s release says.Angelo is the latest top executive to leave the media company, following former CEO Nancy Dubuc.

Nancy Dubuc revealed on Friday she was leaving Vice Media Group as CEO after five years. She will be replaced by Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Scott Adams’ racist rant has resulted in the “Dilbert” cartoonist losing his deal with syndication partner Andrews McMeel Universal. In a statement late Sunday, Andrews McMeel said it was “severing our relationship” with Adams, which the company originally struck in 2011, including “all areas of our business with Adams and the ‘Dilbert’ comic strip.” “As a media and communications company, AMU values free speech,” the statement from chairman Hugh Andrews and president/CEO Andy Sareyan said. “But we will never support any commentary rooted in discrimination or hate. Recent comments by Scott Adams regarding race and race relations do not align with our core values as a company.”

Bosses behind The Botanist's south Manchester venue have announced that it is closing its doors for good after six years.

Deadline reported.“Nancy joined Vice at a pivotal time and put in place an exceptional team that has positioned the company for long-term success,” the company’s board of directors said in a statement obtained by Deadline. “We thank Nancy for her many contributions and will soon announce new leadership to guide Vice.

EXCLUSIVE: Nancy Dubuc is leaving Vice Media Group where she was CEO for the past five years. She just announced her decision to her staff in a memo (you can read it below.) It comes as the board has launched a process to sell — an acquisition of the whole company, a strategic recapitalization, or other transactions involving individual assets — under the oversight of a Special Board Committee. According to sources, Dubuc was at the end of her contract and decided it was time to move on.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Nancy Dubuc announced in a memo to Vice Media Group staff Friday that she is leaving as CEO of the media company. Dubuc, who was previously CEO of A+E Networks and spent nearly 20 years at the cable programmer, was hired as chief exec of Vice Media in 2018, when company co-founder Shane Smith shifting to a new role as executive chairman. “It’s been an exhilarating five years since joining you at Vice, and I am incredibly proud of the important and long-lasting accomplishments we have made together,” Dubuc wrote in her farewell email. “[A]s the anniversary of my tenure approaches, it is so difficult to share that I have made the decision to move onto the next chapter.” (Read the full memo below)