Word: paleys
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Stanton should know. The first of Paley's presumed corporate heirs, he joined CBS in 1935, became president in 1946, and always expected to take over when the chairman reached retirement age of 65. But when that date finally arrived in 1966, Paley announced that he would not step down after all; it was Stanton who retired at 65. His successor was Charles T. Ireland, a financial expert hired away from International Telephone & Telegraph in 1971 to guide an ambitious acquisitions program. When Ireland died of a heart attack the next year, another outsider with financial savvy was brought...
...Paley had more tangible reasons to be upset. This year CBS is having trouble coming up with big new TV shows. For the first time since the 1950s, the company is behind ABC and NBC in the audience ratings. Since programming is not a direct responsibility of CBS's president, Taylor might seem to be free of responsibility for the plunge in ratings or the consequent six-point drop in CBS stock since the new TV season began last month. But Paley, some insiders believe, blamed Taylor. He invented the industry's new "family viewing hour"-the sanitized...
King's Wrath. Another apparent irritant to Paley came in 1973 when Taylor hired an International Paper executive, presumably to fill his shoes when he stepped into Paley's. Says former CBS Programming Chief Michael Dann: "There is no such thing as power politics at CBS. Power rests with the throne and Mr. Paley is the king." Adds Dann: "When the old man gets mad, he gets mad. And when he gets mad, he lets go his wrath." A board member puts it another way: "CBS is the house that Paley built, and he simply didn...
...Whether Paley will want to entrust it to John Backe (pronounced Backey) remains to be seen. Backe is also an outsider. The son of an employee of B.F. Goodrich in Akron, he went to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, served in the Air Force, then joined General Electric and studied at Cincinnati's Xavier University for a degree in business administration. In 1966 Backe moved to Silver Burdett, the publishing arm of General Learning Corp., a joint venture of GE and Time Inc. By 1969 he had become president of General Learning, leaving it in 1973 to head...
...Madison Avenue-and he will have to learn fast about the rest of the company, particularly its broadcasting area. He will get help, of course, from the man who likes being needed-and plans to keep on filling that key role at CBS as long as possible-William S. Paley...