LOS ANGELES: Amazon said Friday it had appointed NBC’s entertainment president Jennifer Salke to head its movie and television studios following the resignation of Roy Price over allegations of sexual harassment.
Price quit in October after a producer for “The Man in the High Castle” — one of the studio’s highest-profile shows — said he had repeatedly propositioned her in 2015, making lewd suggestions during a taxi ride.
“I am both honored and emboldened by the opportunity to lead this extraordinary business,” the new head of Amazon Studios said in a statement, adding that moving on from NBC was “bittersweet.”
“It’s an exciting time to be a content creator, and I look forward to being on the front lines of an innovative business with storytelling at its heart,” she added.
Amazon said in a statement Salke had impressed executives through the “deep relationships she has nurtured” over a career that has also taken spells at 20th Century Fox and Aaron Spelling Productions.
“She’s built an impeccable reputation as a big leader who emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and teamwork,” Amazon added.
Price’s downfall came in the wake of dozens of sexual predation allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, sparked by investigations in The New York Times and The New Yorker.
The scandal touched off a deluge of accusations against powerful men in entertainment, politics and the media, forcing many industries to re-examine workplace policies.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office told AFP on Friday it was considering misconduct charges against actor and martial arts master Steven Seagal (“Under Siege“).
The former action star was accused by Portia de Rossi, the “Arrested Development” actress and wife of chat queen Ellen DeGeneres, in November of trying to expose himself to her during an audition.
Jenny McCarthy, who first accused Seagal in 1998, recently revisited her encounter with the actor when auditioning for his 1995 movie “Under Siege 2” when he allegedly asked her twice to lower her dress.
Prosecutors said Thursday they were also looking at three sexual assault cases forwarded by the LAPD against Weinstein, who faces parallel investigations in New York and London, but has repeatedly denied having non-consensual sex.
Harassment scandal-hit Amazon Studios to be led by woman
Harassment scandal-hit Amazon Studios to be led by woman
Semafor targets Gulf expansion after first profitable year
- Digital news brand generates $2m in earnings on $40m of revenue in 2025, and raises $30m in new financing
- Platform aims to be the ‘business and financial news brand of record for the Gulf,’ CEO says, and to ‘blanket the world’ within 2 years
DUBAI: Digital news platform Semafor generated $2 million in earnings in 2025 before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, on revenue of $40 million, marking its first year of profitability.
It also closed $30 million in new financing, which it plans to use to grow its editorial operations and live events business.
These achievements are particularly notable at a time when the global news industry is facing declining revenues and the erosion of audience trust, the company said.
Justin B. Smith, the company’s co-founder and CEO, told Arab News that Semafor’s model and approach is distinguished by several factors, which can be encapsulated by its vision of building a news product to “serve consumers that are increasingly not trusting news, but also designed with a business model that could deliver sustainable economic advantage.”
Following its first profitable year and armed with new funding, Semafor, founded in 2022, now plans an accelerated phase of global expansion with a focus on scaling editorial output and global convenings.
The company said it will broaden its publication schedule in the year ahead. Semafor Gulf and Semafor Business will become daily publications as the platform increases the frequency of its “first-read” services, which are daily briefings designed to showcase “front page” news and intended to serve as the “first read” for audiences, Smith said.
The Gulf edition of Semafor launched in September 2024, with former Dow Jones reporter Mohammed Sergie as editor. In 2025 Matthew Martin was appointed its Saudi Arabia bureau chief.
Semafor’s brand slogan is “intelligence for the new world economy” and “the Gulf is the epicenter of the new world economy,” Smith said. Currently, its Gulf operation employs eight journalists, based in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and as it moves to a daily publishing schedule it plans to significantly bolster its editorial team, both in existing markets and new ones, such as Qatar.
Semafor is “obsessed with the business, financial and economic story” in the region and aims to become “the business and financial news brand of record for the Gulf,” Smith said.
In the US, Semafor DC, currently published daily, will move to a twice-a-day format in March. In addition, the company’s flagship annual Semafor World Economy platform in Washington will expand this year from a three-day event to five days, with extended programming. The event, in April, is expected to attract more than 400 global CEOs, more than double the number that took part in 2025.
In addition to the US and the Gulf, Semafor currently operates in Africa. It held its first event in the Gulf region last month, during Abu Dhabi Finance Week, and said it is now looking to grow its events footprint across the Gulf, and into Asia. It will launch a China edition next month, its first foray into Asia, and plans to launch in Europe in 2027, followed eventually by Latin America.
Within the next two years, Semafor aims to have “blanketed the whole world” and become a mature, global intelligence and news brand competing with the “greatest legacy business and financial news brands in the world,” Smith said.
“Our goal is to become the leading global intelligence and news company for the world, founded on independent, high-quality content and convenings,” he added.
