Jeff Collins: Last News

Trey Gargano has been promoted to executive vice president of as sales for all Fox News Media platforms.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Trey Gargano has been named executive vice president of ad sales, taking the reins of the outlet’s efforts to drive millions of dollars in advertising revenue at a time when Madison Avenue has seemed more ambivalent about news content. Additionally, Ryan Roelle has been promoted to senior vice president of national sales, and will focus on endemic and national advertising in addition to leading linear and digital sales across the country.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox Corp. is getting traditional for TV’s Upfront Week. After experimenting in the last few years with smaller venues for its annual upfront presentation, the company has chosen a more theatrical venue for its showcase.

Fox will hold its 2024 upfront event on Monday, May 13, returning to the Hammerstein Ballroom at The Manhattan Center, and hosted by president of Advertising Sales, Marketing and Brand Partnerships, Jeff Collins.

Fox News Media waved its banner during the Fox upfront Monday afternoon in New York, plugging a wide array of platforms but notably gliding past its main profit center in prime time.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Tucker Carlson is out at 8 p.m. on Fox News Channel, and the network hopes that a host of blue-chip advertisers that for years avoided his controversial hour will soon come back in. Since Carlson’s stunning exit last month, a timeslot that has been shunned by many Madison Avenue stalwarts seems as if it is being embraced. Procter & Gamble, one of the nation’s largest and most influential advertisers, has been running ads in “Fox News Tonight,” the network’s new 8 p.m. program, for female-skewing products like Venus razor blades by Gillette and Secret underarm deodorant. Also showing up in commercial breaks: Novo Nordisk’s trendy medication Ozempic, and Scotts Miracle-Gro.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox News Media, known best for shows led by Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, is placing new emphasis on programming that relies more heavily on Kevin Costner, weather emergencies and Greg Gutfeld. In a meeting with advertisers slated to be held Tuesday, executives at the Fox Corp.-backed operation, will spotlight a growing array of lifestyle content, while continuing to nod to the political programming that draws some of its networks’ biggest audiences. Among the Fox News Media executives scheduled to be on hand were Suzanne Scott, the CEO, and Jay Wallace, president and executive editor. “If you take a look at our overall audience across all of Fox News Media, 40% comes from lifestyle – sports, weather, entertainment offerings,” says Jeff Collins, executive vice president of advertsing sales for Fox News Media. “We just want to reiterate to our clients the depth and breadth of this type of content that we have outside of just hard news.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorStreaming outlet Fox Nation is already running the commercials its larger rivals say they want to sell.Big subscription-based streamers like Netflix and Disney+ have caught the attention of Madison Avenue with recent announcements about launching ad-supported tiers for their services. Fox Nation, a smaller streaming outlet that is part of Fox News Media, has quietly opened some of its selections for advertisers.Subscribers who recently streamed “Duck Family Treasure,” a new special that stars members of the Robertson family from the long-running series “Duck Dynasty,” likely saw something that people who binge-watch often don’t: commercials appearing in the bottom third of the screen while the action continued above them.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFox Corporation wants Madison Avenue to understand that Fox News doesn’t always mean hard-news content.As the company’s biggest generator of operating profit expands into weather news and lifestyle shows, its ad-tech division is offering new tools aimed at helping advertisers find the exact types of digital content they want to support. Fox Corp.

EXCLUSIVE: Laurieann Gibson, choreographer to stars such as Lady Gaga, Megan Thee Stallion and Britney Spears, has teamed up with Sky-backed producer Catalina Content to develop a new talent format.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFox News Channel will try its hand at sports this weekend when it presents a one-hour special led by veteran sportscaster Jim Gray.During the program, “Talking to GOATs with Jim Gray,” the sports journalist and “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade will talk about Gray’s more than 40 years in sports and present some of his interviews with sports giants like Tom Brady (pictured, above), Mike Tyson and Julius Erving.Fox News has in recent months placed some emphasis on developing programs not necessarily tied to the politics and hard news that fuel so much of its regular schedule.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorWhat will it take to get movie studios to start running TV ads again? Maybe the 2020 election.Big movie backers have in recent months largely stopped running their glitzy trailers on TV. Most significant releases have been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the Hollywood advertisers see little reason to bombard a national audience that may not be comfortable returning to theaters.Yet two studios will run ads for movies during Fox News’ coverage around the first presidential debate on September 29, according to Jeff Collins, executive vice president of ad sales at Fox News Media.

By Brian Steinberg

By Todd Spangler