Suzanne Scott Named Chief Exec For Fox News

Suzanne Scott

The Murdochs named Suzanne Scott the new chief executive of Fox News on Thursday, making her the first woman to lead the cable news network even as her appointment signaled the elevation of an executive closely tied with the old regime that was largely ousted in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal.

The NYTimes is reporting Scott, who joined Fox News at its inception in 1996, rose through the ranks over the years to work in several programming, production and creative positions. Last year, she was appointed president of programming and development amid an executive shake-up that followed the firing of the network’s founding chairman, Roger Ailes.

In her new role, Ms. Scott will oversee both Fox News and its sister network Fox Business. She will report to Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch, the top executives at 21st Century Fox who also will run the “proposed new Fox,” the slimmed-down media conglomerate focused on news and sports that will remain after the proposed sale of most of 21st Century’s entertainment assets to the Walt Disney Company.

The appointment makes Scott the only woman in charge of a major cable news network or broadcast news division. The post of chief executive, previously held by Ailes, had been vacant since his departure.

Yet Scott’s promotion means that a top executive during the Ailes era remains in charge at the network.

Scott had been cited in lawsuits against the network as a figure who enabled and concealed Mr. Ailes’s behavior. She has denied any wrongdoing, and many of those disputes have since settled, including a $10 million settlement reached this week to resolve a group of racial and gender discrimination lawsuits.

But with the Murdoch empire contracting with the jettisoning of Fox’s entertainment arm, the estimated billion dollars in revenue that Fox News reels in annually is that much more important to the family’s bottom line.