More hot gossip from Ned Brainard's poison pen
Besieged ABC News mandarin Roone Arledge's problems may only be getting worse. The latest edition of Fortune offers a dim view of Arledge's struggles to save his job as ABC News president in the face of a ratings nosedive at several of his division's key programs, including World News Tonight and Good Morning America; among the solutions Arledge is apparently counting on to resurrect his fallen stature is the coming launch of an ABC News Web site that will go head-to-head with MSNBC and CNN on the Net. But word out of the Pacific Northwest is that with the launch still months away, ABC and partner Starwave are locked in a tussle for ultimate control of the service. Starwave, of course, has earned its props with ABC owner Disney through the runaway success of its joint venture with ESPN - a venture where insiders say Starwave is clearly the leader, while ESPN supplies its brand name and its own air talent for promotion. But the crusty journalists at ABC News aren't quite so willing to give the same level of control to Starwave as their cohorts over in the sports division. A Starwave win over Arledge in this battle, friends close to ABC News tell us, could be the ultimate humiliation before he's booted upstairs to the largely ceremonial position of ABC News chairman.
Pity poor Tom Rielly. As we told you last week, the founder of PlanetOut has regained control of the popular gay and lesbian online service he founded, in a bloodless coup d'état that deposed CEO John Huggett and bought out venture investors Sequoia Capital. Unfortunately, things haven't gone so swimmingly for Rielly in the few days since he resumed command at PlanetOut. Among those slated to rejoin Rielly's senior staff was former executive producer Karen Wickre, whose installation as editor of a new PlanetOut book division was announced in the same press release that trumpeted Rielly's restoration. But shortly after, Wickre issued a correction - she would, in fact, not be rejoining the company because, in her own words, "Tom and I could not come to a satisfactory agreement about my role or relationship to the company." We might have chalked all of this up to the normal course of business at PlanetOut - after all, we've all had professional differences inside the office at one time or another - except for one thing: Wickre and Rielly are not only colleagues, they're roommates. It seems Tom has been bedding on Wickre's couch for many a month now, leading friends to suggest that this very '90s edition of The Odd Couple may simply be spending too much time together. Apparently, Rielly thinks so too. Friends say he plans to move out of Wickre's digs, although the two are said to still be on friendly terms.
