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TV Guide CEO resigns
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June 10, 1999: 9:46 a.m. ET
Anthea Disney rejoins News Corp. after four months with magazine
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - TV Guide Inc. chairwoman and CEO Anthea Disney resigned Thursday -- less than four months after joining the company's top ranks -- to rejoin her former employer, News Corp.
Disney was immediately replaced by Joe Kiener, the company's current president and chairman of the TV Guide Magazine Group. Peter Boylan III, a TV Guide Inc. executive vice president, was promoted to president and chief operating officer.
Disney, who was pivotal in expanding TV Guide from a consumer entertainment magazine into a multimedia operation including television, print and the Internet, is expected to rejoin Rupert Murdoch's worldwide media company as a developer of multimedia content and brands.
She had previously served as chairwoman and chief executive officer of News Corp.'s News America Publishing Group - which included HarperCollins Publishers, TV Guide and The Weekly Standard - but agreed to oversee the company's $800 million sale of TV Guide to Tulsa, Okla.-based United Video Satellite Group last year.
When the sale was completed in March, Disney - who is no relation to animation pioneer Walt Disney, the namesake of a News Corp. rival -- was named chairwoman and CEO of the newly combined entity, which was renamed TV Guide Inc.
During her short tenure, she oversaw the company's expansion onto TV screens through the takeover of United Video's Prevue channel, and onto the Internet through TV Guide Interactive, which surpassed 2 million subscribers and was adding new homes at a clip of 5,000 per day.
But the longtime Murdoch protégé, who rapidly worked her way up the News Corp. management ladder after joining the company in 1990, was reportedly itching to get out of management and return to content development.
TV Guide's (TVGIA) stock rose 15/16 to 42-15/16 in trading Wednesday.
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