Fox News will hold a quarterly address with employees this Wednesday, Mediaite has learned. The latest staff-wide meeting — a routine practice instituted by CEO Suzanne Scott and held every quarter — comes amid a time of recent changes for the network.
Last Friday, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs had his show canceled in a surprise move that sent shock waves around the cable-news industry. Dobbs was dropped from Fox Business the day after voting systems firm Smartmatic filed a massive $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox and hosts including Dobbs over false claims made about the election.
“We are proud of our 2020 election coverage and will vigorously defend against this meritless lawsuit in court,” Fox News said of the lawsuit in a statement.
Regarding the end of Lou Dobbs Tonight, the network said: “As we said in October, Fox News Media regularly considers programming changes and plans have been in place to launch new formats as appropriate post-election, including on Fox Business — this is part of those planned changes. A new 5 pm program will be announced
Like all cable news outlets built to track and cover the Trump administration, Fox News has been retooling their programming slate for a different political media landscape. Fox recently shifted talent around in an effort to clearly delineate their news-based programming from opinion-based shows. CNN has also shifted their programming slate as well.
Despite the turmoil, Fox News enjoyed a record year in revenue, according to industry trade outlet Kagan, in 2020. 2021 did open on a sour note as the once ratings-dominant cabler slipped to third place. Ratings are starting to normalize for Fox News, but like all cable outlets, a post-Trump era presents a different calculus that all media executives are still trying to solve.
Read the full memo below:
Dear colleagues,On Wednesday February 10th at 1:00 PM/ET, we will be conducting a company-wide address via audio Zoom as part of our quarterly town hall series. We will be updating everyone on various initiatives and sharing the good news taking place across our platforms.Please join the company address via [REDACTED]We look forward to connecting with everyone.Thank you,Suzanne