VH1

Will an Ad Recovery Pass Viacom By?

Peter Kafka in Media on August 25, 2009 at 6:24 am PT

Hard to tell how much of the modest ad recovery we’re hearing about is real versus hoped for. But analyst Richard Greenfield says that either way, Viacom won’t be getting a boost.

Project Playlist Names Former MTV Exec Sykes as CEO, Replacing Van Natta

Kara Swisher in News on April 24, 2009 at 9:09 am PT

Legendary former MTV Networks exec and co-founder John Sykes will replace outgoing CEO Owen Van Natta as CEO of the controversial music-sharing site, Project Playlist. He is a high-profile choice to take over for Van Natta, who was officially named CEO of MySpace this morning by News Corp. Sykes is well regarded in the music industry, an important criterion since Playlist has been dealing with legal attacks from some music labels. Settling with them will be key to the start-up’s survival.