Warner Brothers Studio Chief Said to Be Weighing Exit

LOS ANGELES â€" The president of the Warner Brothers Pictures Group, Jeff Robinov, was in still-unresolved discussions to leave the studio late Thursday, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Jeff Robinov

News of Mr. Robinov’s impending exit, according to these people, who spoke on condition of anonymity, blindsided Warner executives, many of whom were still celebrating the studio’s box-office win last weekend with “Man of Steel.”

Mr. Robinov did not return calls. Warner representatives declined to comment.

For months, Hollywood has speculated that Mr. Robinov would not survive a broader leadership shake-up at the studio. A brooding, mercurial executive who has strong relationships with filmmakers, Mr. Robinov was publicly passed over in January for Warner’s top job; a two-year competition to replace Barry M. Meyer as chief executive ended with the selection of Kevin Tsujihara, the studio’s former home entertainment president.

Another spurned candidate for Mr. Meyer’s job, the TV executive Bruce Rosenblum, left Warner last month.

Mr. Robinov’s selection of movies often kept Warner in first place among Hollywood’s major studios. Last year, Warner’s films took in $1.7 billion at the North American box office, powered by hits like “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” Mr. Robinov was also behind the “Dark Knight” and “Hangover” franchises.

Warner’s “Argo” won best picture at the most recent Oscars.

But Mr. Robinov also failed to create a clear strategy for mining the studio’s DC Comics division, even as Marvel introduced one superhero smash hit after another. Disappointments included “Jack the Giant Slayer” and films from the Wachowski siblings, whom he once represented as an agent and to whom he remained loyal at Warner even after they delivered the 2008 misfire “Speed Racer.”

Mr. Robinov has also had a tense relationship with Legendary Pictures, a major financing and production partner. Legendary has said it may leave Warner when its contract expires later this year. “There is problem-solving going on,” Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner’s chief executive, told analysts in February when asked about tensions with Legendary, a comment interpreted in Hollywood as referring to Mr. Robinov.

With Mr. Robinov’s possible resignation, which was first reported by the trade news Web site Deadline.com, the upper reaches of Hollywood have definitively emerged from a period of stability. Studio chiefs like Ron Meyer at Universal and Amy Pascal at Sony Pictures have held their jobs for well over a decade, but other companies, including Disney and 20th Century Fox, have recently endured significant management changes.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 21, 2013, on page B6 of the New York edition with the headline: Warner Brothers Studio Chief Said to Be Weighing Exit.

Media Critic Howard Kurtz Leaves CNN for Fox News

Fox News said on Thursday that it had hired Howard Kurtz, the reporter who for 15 years has hosted the Sunday morning media criticism program “Reliable Sources” on a rival network, CNN.

The media critic Howard Kurtz is leaving CNN for Fox News.

Mr. Kurtz will take over “Fox News Watch,” the network’s media criticism program, which is broadcast on Saturday and bears some resemblance to “Reliable Sources.” Fox News said in a news release that the program would have “a new format.”

Mr. Kurtz said in a statement: “I’m excited to be bringing my independent brand of media criticism to Fox News. I want to thank CNN for giving me such a prime opportunity over the years and was tempted to continue, but the chance to create a revamped program and establish a strong online presence was too good to pass up.”

“Reliable Sources” and “Fox News Watch” are among the few regular televised forums for discussion and debate about news media practices. Mr. Kurtz will host “Reliable Sources” for two more weeks, then join Fox on July 1. CNN said in a statement that “Reliable Sources” would continue on Sunday mornings and would be “hosted by a variety of people in the coming months.”

The network switch came about six weeks after Mr. Kurtz left his other job at The Daily Beast and Newsweek, where he was the Washington bureau chief. His sudden departure was announced the same day that The Daily Beast retracted a blog post he had written about the basketball player Jason Collins, saying that “the piece contained several errors, resulting in a misleading characterization of N.B.A. player Collins and the story he co-wrote in Sports Illustrated in which he came out as gay.”

The seeds of his departure had been sown before that blog post, though; he was highly paid by The Daily Beast but was spending time writing and promoting a small, unaffiliated Web site called Daily Download, much to the chagrin of some of his colleagues.

Mr. Kurtz subsequently apologized for the errors in the blog post about Mr. Collins and said that the Daily Download had “always been a limited venture for me,” mainly consisting of Web video appearances.

Since the scrutiny that flared up in early May, Mr. Kurtz has not made any Web videos for Daily Download or promoted it on Twitter. While he has continued to host “Reliable Sources,” he has not been under a long-term contract; CNN executives have said that they were not interested in signing him up for another term. They wouldn’t say that publicly, however, lest they anger someone who, as a media reporter, covers CNN and other television networks.

In a statement on Thursday, a CNN spokeswoman said: “Howie Kurtz has served as host of ‘Reliable Sources’ for 15 years, developing it into a leading source for commentary and critique on the media. We thank him for all his contributions to CNN, and wish him all the best in this new opportunity.”

Along with his “Fox News Watch” duties, Mr. Kurtz will appear on other Fox News programs and write a column for its Web site.

Michael Clemente, the executive vice president of news at Fox News, said in a statement: “Howie is the most accomplished media reporter in the country. He’s also a master of social media trends, information good and bad, and a veteran political reporter. Altogether, he will add even greater depth to a very accomplished team of reporters and anchors.”

G.O.P. Looks for New Frontier in Data Analytics

At the Obama 2012 headquarters in Chicago, inside a room nicknamed “the Cave,” a team of data analytics experts helped President Obama build the most technologically advanced campaign in American history. And in the election’s aftermath, Republican leaders and strategists vowed to hone their high-tech skills for future Election Days.

This is the new electioneering. Campaigns analyze reams of data â€" like voter files and buying habits â€" to pinpoint potential supporters, donors and volunteers, and, crucially, to marshal votes.

In a special section in The Times on the business and culture of big data, Big Data 2013, FiveThirtyEight’s Micah Cohen finds that part of this new world is unfolding in Blue Bell, Pa., near Philadelphia, where a small company called BehaviorMatrix is hoping to sharpen the Republican Party’s technial prowess by gathering and trying to quantify and measure voter emotion and opinion online. Read more.

G.O.P. Looks for New Frontier in Data Analytics

At the Obama 2012 headquarters in Chicago, inside a room nicknamed “the Cave,” a team of data analytics experts helped President Obama build the most technologically advanced campaign in American history. And in the election’s aftermath, Republican leaders and strategists vowed to hone their high-tech skills for future Election Days.

This is the new electioneering. Campaigns analyze reams of data â€" like voter files and buying habits â€" to pinpoint potential supporters, donors and volunteers, and, crucially, to marshal votes.

In a special section in The Times on the business and culture of big data, Big Data 2013, FiveThirtyEight’s Micah Cohen finds that part of this new world is unfolding in Blue Bell, Pa., near Philadelphia, where a small company called BehaviorMatrix is hoping to sharpen the Republican Party’s technial prowess by gathering and trying to quantify and measure voter emotion and opinion online. Read more.

New Pay Model for Times Apps

The New York Times Company said Thursday it would begin a new metered pay model for its mobile apps and charge readers for articles, as it does on its Web site.

On June 27, the company will start charging nonsubscribers who want to read more than three articles a day on The New York Times apps for mobile devices. Until now, readers using the apps were able to access 10 to 15 stories a day exclusively from its Top News section without paying for content. Subscribers are able to access articles, blog items and slide shows from all sections of The Times.

After readers click through three articles, nonsubscribers will be able to browse section fronts and get article summaries. But they will have to become subscribers to read more than three articles. Web subscriptions that include mobile apps range from $15 to $20 every four weeks.

To encourage more readers to pay for the app, the company said it is also introducing a seven-day free trial.

Denise F. Warren, an executive vice president of the company, said that The Times had been planning for a long time to charge for content on its apps because readers had access to so many more articles there than they did on the Web site.

“We always knew there was an imbalance,” said Ms. Warren in an interview. “We wanted to restore that balance between the Web site and the apps.”

Since April 2011, when the company introduced a metered pay model on its Web site, The Times and The International Herald Tribune have attracted 676,000 paid digital subscribers. On the Web site, nonsubscribers can access 10 free articles a month.