t's Official: Roger Ailes Resigns From Fox News

Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations Rupert Murdoch steps in as chairman and acting CEO 
By Jason Lynch, Chris Ariens

Roger Ailes, who co-founded Fox News in 1996, is leaving the network.

After a flurry of bizarre reports earlier this week, confirmed then quickly denied, about Roger Ailes' exit from Fox News, it's now official: The chairman and CEO is departing the top-ranked cable news network he co-founded in 1996.

Ailes has resigned, effective immediately, 21st Century Fox announced. Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, will take over as chairman and acting CEO of Fox News and Fox Business Network.

"Roger Ailes has made a remarkable contribution to our company and our country. Roger shared my vision of a great and independent television organization and executed it brilliantly over 20 great years," said Murdoch in a statement. "I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice. Our nation needs a robust Fox News to resonate from every corner of the country.

"To ensure continuity of all that is best about Fox News and what it stands for, I will take over as chairman and acting CEO, with the support of our existing management team under Bill Shine, Jay Wallace and Mark Kranz."

The official confirmation of Ailes' departure follows a wild turn of events on Tuesday afternoon, when Drudge Report posted and then deleted the news that Ailes would be leaving the company after receiving a buyout from Fox News of at least $40 million.

At the same time, Matt Drudge also tweeted, then deleted, what seemed to be a separation agreement between Ailes and Fox News, which listed his final day at the company as July 22.

Ailes' exit comes two weeks after he was sued for sexual harassment by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, whose 11-year employment at the network ended June 23. The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey in Bergen County on July 6, claimed Ailes called Carlson a "man hater" and "injected sexual and/or sexist comments and innuendo into their conversations."

In letter from Ailes to Murdoch, obtained by the Drudge Report, Ailes said, "With your support, I am proud that we have built Fox News and Fox Business Channels into powerful and lucrative news organizations that inform our audience and reward our shareholders. I take particular pride in the role that I have played advancing the careers of the many women I have promoted to executive and on-air positions."

Ailes added, "Having spent 20 years building this historic business, I will not allow my presence to become a distraction from the work that must be done every day to ensure that Fox News and Fox Business continue to lead our industry. ... I am proud of our accomplishments and look forward to continuing to work with you as an adviser in building 21st Century Fox."

Murdoch held a series of meetings this afternoon with Fox News staffers, to let everyone know that he is now in charge. "He thanked us for all the work we were doing. And he said it's been a difficult 10 days or so, and he said, 'I'm here and I'm in charge,'" Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren told Adweek and TVNewser not long after the news broke.

Other than Ailes leaving the channel he co-founded nearly 20 years ago, Van Susteren said Murdoch told staffers, "he will be keeping things status quo. There's no change, except that Roger won't be there."

Fox News' chief news anchor Shepard Smith declined to comment about Ailes' departure when approached by Adweek today at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, shortly after the news broke. Smith would only say, "It's very nice to see you."

While Fox News and Fox Business anchors like Greta Van Susteren, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Maria Bartiromo publicly supported Ailes, other former Fox News staffers anonymously told CNNMoney that they had also been harassed by Ailes but were reluctant to speak out due to nondisparagement clauses.

Meanwhile, the network's star anchor, Megyn Kelly, had remained conspicuously silent about the allegations. Then on Tuesday, New York magazine reported that Kelly told 21st Century Fox's investigators that Ailes made unwanted sexual advances toward her 10 years ago when she was at Fox News.

That news seemed to have been the last straw for News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch and his sons, 21st Century Fox co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch and CEO James Murdoch. According to the New York report, 21st Century Fox lawyers had given Ailes a deadline of Aug. 1 to either resign or potentially be fired for cause.

Soon after, the news of Ailes' departure briefly appeared on the Drudge Report, setting off a surreal chain of events in which some outlets "confirmed" Ailes' exit while his spokesperson, Irena Briganti (who could also be on the way out, New York reported earlier today), told Adweek and other outlets that the news was "completely wrong." Those "confirmations" were later walked back by the network, as negotiations continued to finalize the terms of Ailes' departure.

Carlson, who joined Fox News in 2005 and was co-anchor of the network's top-rated morning show, Fox & Friends, for more than seven years before she was replaced by Elisabeth Hasselbeck, claimed that things came to a head in September when she met with Ailes, whom she said told her, "I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago."

After the suit was filed, Ailes called the allegations "false," "defamatory" and "wholly without merit."

In a lengthy interview with Adweek last November, when he was named Adweek Media Visionary for 2015, Ailes said his relationship with James and Lachlan Murdoch was "very good."

"I don't think they knew, and I don't think I knew, how it was going to work," he said at the time. "It's not contentious in any way."

It remains to be seen who will replace Ailes at Fox News and whether any of his most loyal staffers will follow him out the door. Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Van Susteren have clauses in their contracts that allow them to leave the network in the event that Ailes leaves, according to the Financial Times.

Shortly before Carlson filed her lawsuit, O'Reilly, who is going to be 67 this year, told Adweek he's not sure how much longer he wants to continue doing his show.

"I don't know," he said. "I go day to day. I don't want to work this hard much longer. I know that."

Ailes will remain as a 21st Century adviser to Murdoch for the time being, as he plans his next move. When asked by Adweek last November what else he hoped to accomplish, Ailes said, "I don't feel any different in my brain than when I was 30 years old. I have the same sort of reaction to new ideas and new things as I did then. I realize I look bad, but I don't feel bad. I'm constantly trying to invent different ways to do things. If you're going to be a television executive, you have to change with the times."

New York’s $8 Billion Airport Still Won’t Get You to L.A.

The cost of LaGuardia’s overhaul doubled, and Delta is stepping up with the cash. What will it get in return?

As with any major revamp of a big airport, the cost of dragging LaGuardia Airport into the modern era is measured in billions of dollars. It started at $3.6 billion, but that was just for a three-story terminal to replace a 1964-era shell that leaks water, squeezes travelers, and inspired U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to dub the runt of New York’s three main airports a “third world” facility.

The refit of the central terminal, also called Terminal B, rose to $4 billion with the later addition of a “Great Hall” entry to connect the 35-gate structure with Terminal C. The entire project also seeks to expand onto real estate now allocated to parking, hard up against the traffic-clogged Grand Central Parkway. The planning and design work alone got $1 billion back in 2004.

Major infrastructure projects in New York City rarely come in under budget or without surprises along the way. The total cost of LaGuardia’s rebirth has been dribbling out slowly, with each increase noted in an obscure press release or at a meeting of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. Commissioners even disagree about what to include in the price, and whether past funds should be included to offset it. And there may indeed be some surprises before it’s done. That doesn’t sit well with public interest watchdogs.

“It’s time now for partners to bring greater transparency to the overhaul and build confidence in the project by posting clear budgets and timelines to the project website,” said Joseph Sitt, chairman of New York infrastructure advocacy group Global Gateway Alliance, in an email.

LaGuardia Gateway Partners

LaGuardia Gateway Partners, the winning consortium for the project, took over management and operations at Terminal B last month. The partnership consists of Vancouver-based Vantage Airport Group Ltd., Swedish construction firm Skanska AB, and Paris-based Meridiam SAS. Terminal B, which houses eight carriers, including American Airlines Group Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., and United Continental Holdings Inc., was designed to handle 8 million annual passengers. Last year, it hosted 14.3 million. By 2030, it’s expected to handle 17.5 million per year. The Federal Aviation Administration restricts LaGuardia operations with landing slots due to congestion, as the agency does at John F. Kennedy International and Washington-Reagan National.

All told, the airport’s total projected cost including work at Terminals C and D, redesign of roads, parking structures, and other infrastructure, is likely to run as much as $8 billion.

One of the project’s big funding sources is Delta Air Lines Inc., LaGuardia’s largest operator by passenger share and arguably the most aggressive in terms of trying to become the New York metropolitan area’s “hometown airline.”

“This doesn’t happen without Delta Air Lines,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a July 2015 speech.

On Thursday, the Port Authority will debate whether to spend $600 million to complement the money Delta will spend to revamp Terminals C and D. The Atlanta-based airline won’t say how much it plans to spend for the new 37-gate dual terminal. The Port Authority’s agenda says “approximately $4 billion for design and construction work,” subject to commissioners approving a new lease with Delta, “as well as other agreements relating to the project.” Under the deal, Delta would pay no rent on the terminal and would get a new lease, through 2050, to match the length of the lease granted LaGuardia Gateway Partners for Terminal B. In 2012, Delta began a more than $100 million improvement project at Terminals C and D, to add larger clubs, new dining options, and a bridge that connects the terminals.

One question that arises is what Delta may want in return for its magnanimity. Aside from its role in the renovation, Delta has also been seeking to have the Port Authority scrap a regulation limiting flights at the airport to 1,500 miles. The “perimeter rule” has been a critical factor in how airlines have structured their schedules at the other two city airports, Newark Liberty International, a United hub, and JFK, the primary home of JetBlue Airways Inc. as well as a Delta stronghold. 

“American and Delta would serve the local, New York-to-Los Angeles, and beyond markets from LaGuardia, assuming [they] had the terminal facilities to accompany a high-yield service,” says Robert Mann, an aviation consultant in Long Island and former American executive. “United Airlines is placing its bets on Newark alone.”

In the past, carriers such as American and JetBlue have argued that LaGuardia, in its current state, isn’t prepared for long-haul flights. Sitt, the alliance chairman, said the Port Authority should consider scrapping the rule to boost competition among area airports.

Delta “looks forward to taking the next steps” on its LaGuardia work, a spokeswoman said, declining further comment. A Port Authority spokeswoman referred questions about the project to the agenda for the July 21 meeting, declining further comment.

The full project is expected to finish in 2022. As part of it, LaGuardia may well have a new feature the Port Authority isn’t ready to discuss: nonstop flights to the West Coast.

AICO Newsletter

AICO y CIAC suscriben acuerdo de cooperación el marco de la III Cumbre Empresarial de la Alianza del Pacífico Considerando que al momento de hacer negocios e invertir en un país un elemento clave a considerar es contar con un mecanismo de resolución de conflictos en el lugar donde se celebra el contrato, los Centros de Arbitraje de la Alianza del Pacífico (Bogotá, Lima, México y Santiago), la Comisión Interamericana de Arbitraje Comercial (CIAC) y la Asociación Iberoamericana de Cámara de Comercio (AICO), suscribieron un acuerdo en el marco de la III Cumbre Empresarial de la Alianza del Pacífico. La Secretaría Ejecutiva para impulsar el Acuerdo estará a cargo, durante los primeros dos años, del Centro de Arbitraje y Mediación de la CCS. Leer +

La CAC y Google brindaron herramientas a emprendedores para potenciar la comunicación Continuando con las acciones que desde el área de Capacitación Continua de la Cámara Argentina de Comercio y Servicios (CAC) se realizan para capacitar emprendedores a través del programa CAC Emprende, el último martes 5 de julio la Entidad llevó a cabo junto a Google la charla “Potenciá tu estrategia de comunicación”. Leer + EXTENDA colabora con la Cámara de Comercio de Sevilla para impulsar el I Congreso Iberoamericano de Emprendimiento Extenda-Agencia Andaluza de promoción Exterior colaborará con la Cámara de Comercio, Industria y Navegación para impulsar la celebración ‘XLIII Asamblea General de la Asociación Iberoamericana de Cámaras de Comercio (AICO)’, que organizará la entidad cameral en la capital andaluza el próximo mes de noviembre. Leer + CCS propone Plan de Facilitación del Comercio de Servicios Para el presidente de la CCS, Peter Hill "nuestra apuesta debe continuar siendo una estrategia de crecimiento hacia afuera, pero enfatizando la agregación de valor, con una PYME más globalizada e integrada a las grandes cadenas mundiales de producción y consumo". Leer +

Is This What You Had in Mind for Retirement?

Here’s What Actual Retirees Found Out

Pre-retirees expect inheritances and income from selling a home to play bigger roles in retirement than they do now, a poll finds.

Retirement can seem like an abstract idea until we're alarmingly close to it. It's a little like dying—inevitable, but who wants to think about it. For that reason, many of us put off important moves that could make old age easier for us and our heirs, such as estate planning and writing living wills.

When pre-retirees do contemplate retirement today, a new survey (PDF) by HSBC Group suggests, we're either working off a new model of funding it or we're out of touch with where our money actually goes in retirement, as the chart below shows. 

The way retirees today fund their spending differs from what pre-retirees expect for their future, according to results from more than 1,000 Americans surveyed. Their responses were part of a larger effort in which more than 18,000 working and retired people in 17 countries were polled on retirement issues.1

The survey found that Americans, on average, spend five more years in the working world than their global peers, for a total of 35 years. Also, today's pre-retirees expect to save for seven more years than current retirees did. That makes sense since Americans lack much of the mandated level of savings and social services that are the norm in many other developed countries.

Other survey highlights: 

• Pre-retirees in the U.S. are more likely than current U.S. retirees to expect future retirement income from selling property, either by downsizing or selling a primary or secondary home—17 percent vs. 10 percent. Among the 17 countries surveyed, that compared with 26 percent for Australian pre-retirees, 9 percent for workers in Mexico, and 4 percent for pre-retirees in Egypt.
• 
  
• A higher percentage of pre-retirees with children expect to feel happy in retirement than do childless workers—71 percent of working adults with kids, compared with 66 percent of those without children. 
• 
  
• Cash is what 52 percent of retirees are using to fund their retirement, followed by stocks (38 percent), mutual funds (32 percent), and a spouse or partner's income (29 percent). The average across 17 countries is 41 percent, and the U.S. is topped only by Hong Kong, at 62 percent, and Singapore, at 59 percent.

The Energy “Death List”:

Who’s On It and Who’s Next? *

In June, Warren Resources filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Houston-based company was just another one added to the group of 150 North American industry filings over the last year and a half since the oil decline started.

Warren Resources could also be found in the 2015 publication of an “oil company death list” put out by Oxford Club investors’ network out of Baltimore. 19 companies were accused of “toxic” debt-to-equity ratios on the list. Since it was published, eight of the companies on the list have filed for protection, another was purchased at a low price, and few still are trying to keep their head above water.

Out of the eight companies that filed for bankruptcy, seven have headquarters located in Houston: Energy XXI Ltd., Goodrich Petroleum, Halcón Resources, Hercules Offshore, Linn Energy, and Vantage Drilling, and of course, Warren Resources. The remaining company that filed, Magnum Hunter Resources, had relocated to Irving from Houston just before filing.

Both Magnum and Hercules recently surfaced from under the shadow of bankruptcy, but Hercules quickly had to file for Chapter 11 again.

LRR Energy, one of the companies on the death list, was recently purchased by Vanguard Natural Resources, another Houston-based company that was also listed. By the middle of Friday, the firm was trading treacherously low, just under $1.40 per share on the Nasdaq.

Other listed companies trading close to $1 per share include Midland’s Legacy Reserves, EXCO Resources out of Dallas, and the Pennsylvania-based Rex Energy. Houston’s EV Energy Partners, which is handled by EnerVest, is seeing prices barely over $2 per unit. Another company, Exterran Partners out of Houston, was recently renewed into Archrock Partners.

Three out of the four companies left on the death list are still alive:

Houston-based Sanchez Energy Corporation, Tetra Technologies Inc. out of The Woodlands, and Denver’s Antero Resources. The remaining company on the list out of the original 19 is Midland’s Parsley Energy and is said to be “thriving.”

Gone are the days of $100 per barrel oil after mid-2014. In February, prices dropped down to almost $25 per barrel before jumping back to over $45 per barrel on Friday.

Haynes and Boone has followed 157 North American energy firms that have filed for protection since the start of 2015 through June of this year. 82 of them, over half of the original number, are based out of Texas.

Besides the companies on the death list, some of the largest filings include Berry Petroleum, Breitburn Energy Partners, Midstates Petroleum, Paragon Offshore, Quicksilver Resources, Sabine Oil & Gas, Samson Resources, Sandridge Energy, Seventy Seven Energy, Swift Energy, and Ultra Petroleum.

Houston’s C&J Energy Services and Frisco’s Comstock Resources are just some of the companies trading for less than a dollar per share on the stock exchanges.

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* Houston Energy Insider, Article written by HEI contributor Briana Steptoe.

How to: Download Movies/TV Shows to watch when there is not Internet connection

How to Download Movies and TV Shows to Watch Them on an Airplane (or Anywhere Else Offline)

Solid Internet connections aren’t available everywhere. If you want to watch streaming movies and TV shows on an airplane, on the subway, or somewhere out in the wilderness away from cellular towers, you can download them ahead of time.

Not every service offers a download feature, but quite a few services allow you to download videos ahead of time so you can take them with you. This could save lots of valuable cellular data, too, especially if you’re roaming internationally. Let’s take a look at some of your options.

Amazon Prime

The Amazon Video app available for iPhones and iPads, Android devices, and Amazon’s own Kindle Fires allows you to download videos to your device so you can watch them offline.

Just download the app and sign in with your Amazon account. Find the movie or TV show you want to watch and tap the “Download” button to the right of it. Downloaded videos will appear in the “Downloads” section of the app later, so you can open the app and watch them–even without an Internet connection.

This feature is only available in the Amazon Video apps for iOS, Android, and Amazon’s Fire OS. You can’t do this from the website, so you can’t do it on a laptop. You need a smartphone or a tablet–and not a Windows tablet.

YouTube Red

YouTube offers this feature, but only if you pay for YouTube Red (which actually isn’t a bad deal if you use Google Play Music, which is included–you get both Google Play Music’s music library as well as YouTube Red for the same price you’d pay for Spotify or Apple Music.)

To download a video, open the YouTube app on an iPhone, iPad, or Android device and tap the menu button next to a video. Tap “Save Offline” and you’ll be prompted to choose which resolution you want to download the video in. Higher resolutions offer a better quality video, but take more space on your device.

You’ll find the videos you saved for offline use under the profile tab. Tap “Offline Videos” and you’ll see a list of videos you can watch offline.

This feature is only available in the YouTube app for iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. You can’t do this from the YouTube website, so you can’t do it on a laptop.

Video Rentals and Purchases

Amazon and YouTube both offer this feature as part of their streaming plans, which is convenient. However, you can gain access to a much wider selection of videos if you’re willing to pay per video–either as a temporary rental or as a purchase you can watch as much as you want.

This is also convenient because some of these services allow you to download videos to a Windows PC, Mac, or Chromebook. You can save videos and watch them on a laptop or a Windows tablet, while Amazon and YouTube only offer this feature in their mobile apps.

You have quite a few options here, including:

• iTunes (Windows, Mac, iOS): Apple’s iTunes is available for Windows and included on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It allows you to rent movies, purchase individual episodes or entire seasons of TV shows, or purchase movies. If you choose to rent a movie, you’ll have thirty days to start watching it. After you start watching it, you’ll have 24 hours to finish. if you plan on going for a trip, you can rent several movies from iTunes, download them to your Windows PC, Mac, iPhone, or iPad and get around to watching them any time within 30 days without an Internet connection. If you purchase an episode of a TV show or entire movie, you can download it and watch it whenever you want with no expiration.

• Amazon Video (iOS, Android, Kindle Fire): In addition to the library of free videos available with Amazon Prime, Amazon allows you to rent and purchase individual movies and TV show episodes. However, you can’t download purchased videos to your computer for offline watching–you can only download them to the Amazon Video app on iOS, Android, or Kindle Fire.

• VUDU (iOS, Android): Walmart’s VUDU also allows you to rent and purchase movies and TV shows as well, but videos can only be downloaded to iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. Laptop users are out of luck.

• Microsoft Windows Store (Windows 10): Windows 10 includes the Windows Store, and the Windows Store includes an entire “Movies & TV” section offering video rentals and purchases. Videos you pay for can then be watched in the Movies & TV app included with Windows 10. This is the main alternative to iTunes for purchasing and watching videos offline on a Windows PC.

• Google Play Movies & TV (Android, iOS, Chrome OS): On Android devices, the Google Play Movies & TV app provides rentals of movie and TV shows. The Google Play Movies & TV app is also available oniPhone and iPad, and both platforms allow you to download videos offline and watch them in the app. Google offers a Google Play Movies & TV Chrome app that allows you to download and watch videos offline, but this feature only works on Chromebooks. It’s the only option for Chrome OS devices.

Rip Your Own DVDs or Blu-rays

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Lastly, if you have movies or TV shows on physical DVD or Blu-ray discs, you can “rip” them to digital video files you can more easily take with you. Store these files on a laptop, smartphone, or tablet and you can watch them without taking the disc with you.

You can rip DVDs and Blu-rays with a variety of programs, but we particularly like Handbrake–it’s free, and contains presets for ripping files compatible with iPhone, iPad, Android, and more.

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Netflix doesn’t yet offer this feature, but rumors suggest Netflix is working on it. If and when Netflix does offer this feature, it will likely work in a similar way to the Amazon Video and YouTube apps.