<section><section><section><section data-share-top="" aria-label="Share This Post" data-e2e-name="share-wrapper-top" data-track-page-area="Post Top"><div data-share-top-clip=""><div data-group-icons=""><span style="color: #222222;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Vice/Ben Pier</span></p><p class="caption">Broadly is one of Vice Media's sites.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Vice Media is feeling the heat.</span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marketers-say-vice-is-losing-its-cool-with-millennials-investors-2018-11#" target="_blank" title="Email" rel="noopener" data-email="" aria-label="Click to email" data-share-link="" data-flip-widget="" data-track-event-label="email" data-href-share="" data-e2e-name="share-link-email" data-utm-term="desktop"></a></div></div></section></section><section id="l-content" data-track-page-area="Post" data-post-content=""><section><article><section data-track-content="" data-post-type="post"><div data-piano-inline-content-wrapper=""><p>Former A&amp;E Networks exec Nancy Dubuc took over the reins of Vice Media as CEO in May, replacing cofounder Shane Smith amid a string of controversies and a rough market in the digital-media industry.</p><p>According to a report from<span> </span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/vice-media-to-shrink-workforce-by-as-much-as-15-as-growth-stalls-1541632597">The Wall Street Journal</a><span> </span>published on Wednesday,<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vice-media-layoffs-amid-lower-revenue-and-traffic-slump-2018-11">Vice Media's</a><span> </span>revenue is expected to be flat relative to last year, at $600 to $650 million. The report also outlined the company's dip in Comscore traffic and challenges growing its <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword> business, which relies on selling advertisers sponsored content that mimics editorial articles.</p><p>In short, living up to its eye-popping<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vice-raises-450-million-at-57-billion-valuation-from-tpg-2017-6">$5.7 billion valuation</a><span> </span>is proving to be a challenge for Vice. On Thursday, Disney, which is one of Vice's biggest backers, said it had taken a<span> </span><a href="https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/disney-writes-off-vice-stake-valuation-1203024272/">$157 million write-down </a>on its<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-disney-doubles-stake-in-vice-to-400-million-source-2015-12">original $400 million</a><span> </span>investment, equivalent to a 40% decline.</p><p><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marketers-say-vice-is-losing-its-cool-with-millennials-investors-2018-11">Click here</a> </strong>to read about what marketers are saying about Vice Media.</p></div></section></article></section></section></section></section><p><strong>In other news:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-says-price-hikes-may-be-coming-to-hulu-analysis-2018-11"><strong>'His comments are illogical': Analysts say Disney CEO Bob Iger's plan to raise Hulu prices is out of step with customer demand.</strong> </a>On Disney's fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday, CEO Bob Iger said he saw "price elasticity" around Hulu with Live TV, the company's digital-TV bundle. Analysts don't agree.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rokus-streaming-video-advertising-smart-tv-2018-11"><strong>Amazon's got its eyes set on yet another market - and one high-flying upstart should be worried.</strong></a> In the broader streaming-video market, Amazon is emerging as the chief rival to Roku, according to a note from Morgan Stanley.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-launched-tiktok-competitor-called-lasso-2018-11"><strong>Facebook just launched a standalone video app called Lasso and it's basically the exact same thing as TikTok.</strong></a> Lasso is a social video app that caps posts to 15 seconds and lets creators add their favorite songs to play in the background.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/victorias-secret-addresses-plus-size-problem-interview-2018-11"><strong>'We market to who we sell to, and we don't market to the whole world': Victoria's Secret fires back at critics who say it excludes plus-size shoppers.</strong></a> The brand has frequently come under fire for excluding plus-size customers from its ad campaigns and only featuring rail-thin models.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sap-acquires-qualtrics-2018-11"><strong>SAP is buying Utah-based startup Qualtrics for $8 billion - days before it's scheduled to IPO.</strong> </a>Qualtrics is a Utah-based startup that helps companies gather feedback and refine their products.</p><p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/fortune-magazine-to-be-sold-to-thai-businessman-for-150-million-1541772000"><strong>Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon has agreed to purchase Fortune magazine for $150 million in cash, reports the Wall Street Journal.</strong> </a>After selling Time to Salesforce cofounder Marc Benioff in September, Meredith still has Money and Sports Illustrated up for sale.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/einstein-reveals-manipulate-time-2016-3">This mind-melting thought experiment of Einstein's reveals how to manipulate time</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

What you need to know in advertising today

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Bryan Bedder/Getty Images" title_caption="CEO of A&amp;E Networks Nancy Dubuc." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/559fed3eeab8eadb69f7425b-960/nancy-dubuc-1.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-and-chief-executive-officer-of-a-e-networks-nancy-news-photo/488824087">Bryan Bedder/Getty Images</a></span></p><p class="caption">CEO of A&amp;E Networks Nancy Dubuc.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Nancy Dubuc, the CEO of A&amp;E Networks (that includes A&amp;E, Lifetime, and History, among others) appreciates the power of a good team.</p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"I've always hired people who are smarter than me," she says <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/business/nancy-dubuc-of-ae-mixing-doers-thinkers-and-feelers.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fcorner-office&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=business&amp;region=stream&amp;module=stream_unit&amp;contentPlacement=6&amp;pgtype=collection">in a recent interview</a> with Adam Bryant at the New York Times. "I rowed crew in college, and I'm always thinking in those terms - will they make the team better?"</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">But</span> there are a lot of smart people in the world, and there's more to building a powerhouse team than rounding up a bunch of high IQs and putting them in a room together. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"I'm a big believer in the idea that people tend to fall into one of three camps," she explains. "You're either a thinker, a doer, or a feeler." The secret for success is having the right mix.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"If you have all thinkers, nothing will get done," she tells Bryant. An all-think team will generate ideas, imagine various scenarios, anticipate problems, and, at the end of the day, begin considering the pros and cons of various dinner options - but alone, they won't make things happen.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Meanwhile, if you have all doers, Dubuc continues, "that can be really chaotic because you're not necessarily thinking about the consequences." </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">And an all-feeling team comes with problems of its own. "Feelers are important because they create energy" - and remember that, next time you're inclined to dismiss someone as "too sensitive" - but if you have too many of them, "they will just dramatize the moment," she says.</span></p><p>Hiring may be an art, not a science - but if it <em>were</em> a science, it might be chemistry. "<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">When you put the different kinds of people together in the right way, that can be very powerful," Dubuc observes. "You never want that out of balance."</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">As for her? "I'<span>m more of a doer. And when I have time, I think," she says. </span></span></p><p><strong><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/business/nancy-dubuc-of-ae-mixing-doers-thinkers-and-feelers.html"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Read the full New York Times interview here.</span></a></strong></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/worst-things-say-job-interview-career-2015-7">8 things you should never say in a job interview</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="NiZXU2bDpXI0xqlEPps9Dtf4p7q_OVA0" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The CEO of A&E Networks shares the 3 types of people you need on every team

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>YouTube/Samsung</span></p><p class="caption">Samsung's foldable phone.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Thursday.</p><ol><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-foldable-smartphone-with-inifinity-flex-display-how-it-works-2018-11">Samsung finally unveiled details about its foldable smartphone</a>.</strong> The "Infinity Flex" runs on a special version of Android developed in partnership with Google, which works around its foldable display. </li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/eric-schmidt-takes-responsibility-for-google-social-networking-problems-2018-11">Eric Schmidt took the blame for Google's social networking failures</a>.</strong> The former CEO admitted "I think it would be fair to say that the rise of Facebook... occurred on my watch," in a recent podcast interview.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vice-media-layoffs-amid-lower-revenue-and-traffic-slump-2018-11">Vice Media is cutting its staff by up to 15% amid missed revenue and a traffic slump</a>.</strong> Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc, who took over for Shane Smith in March, is overseeing the savings plan, The Wall Street Journal reports.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/riot-games-sexism-discrimination-lawsuit-2018-11">The company behind one of the biggest video games in the world was just slammed with a lawsuit alleging its "bro-culture" created a sexist workplace</a>.</strong> "League of Legends" developer Riot Games is facing a class-action lawsuit claiming the company harboured a sexist work environment with women suffering from unequal pay and harassment.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/linkedin-hit-hate-speech-trolls-after-facebook-twitter-crackdown-2018-11">Scorned Facebook and Twitter users are flocking to LinkedIn to spew hate speech, MAGA memes, and misinformation</a>.</strong> LinkedIn has become the social network to turn to for Donald Trump supporters who are being kicked off Facebook and Twitter for false and abusive posts, BuzzFeed reports.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/margrethe-vestager-preliminary-investigations-into-apple-2018-11">Europe's anti-monopoly chief conducted "very preliminary investigations" into Apple but decided it's "not a dominant company."</a> </strong>European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager told Web Summit that Apple is not under scrutiny for antitrust.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-board-held-marathon-meeting-about-saudi-investments-2018-11">Uber's board reportedly held a "marathon meeting" as it grapples with its ties to Saudi Arabia in the wake of Jamal Khashoggi's murder</a>.</strong> The kingdom now reportedly owns more than 10% of the ride-hailing firm, which is eyeing an IPO as valuable as $120 billion next year.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-delays-political-ads-transparency-tool-2018-11">Facebook delayed releasing a tool showing exactly who is paying for political ads after journalists "gamed" it to expose its flaws</a>.</strong> The ad library system was meant to launch on November 7 in the UK, but a flurry of investigations from Business Insider, Vice, and ProPublica showed it was far from foolproof.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marc-benioff-hails-victory-of-proposition-c-2018-11">Billionaire Marc Benioff celebrated after San Francisco voted for new tax that will take millions from big tech firms to solve the city's homelessness crisis</a>.</strong> Proposition C, a measure which will tax San Francisco's largest companies in order to combat homelessness, passed on Tuesday.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-plans-blockchain-utopian-village-in-nevada-desert-2018-11">A cryptocurrency millionaire is buying up land in Nevada's desert to build a utopian village run on Ethereum</a>.</strong> The New York Times reports that the man behind the project, Jeffrey Berns, is planning a city that would run entirely on blockchain.</li></ol><p>Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-expect-new-york-city-marathon-this-weekend-2016-11">A running coach explains how to get through the NYC marathon this weekend</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

10 things in tech you need to know today

<p>Hello!</p><p>The coronavirus has affected everything, from how we work and take care of one another, to how we shop, pay, and entertain ourselves.</p><p>To understand how the pandemic is transforming business, we recently asked 200 CEOs from a variety of industries in the US and beyond a three-part question:</p><p>How will the way you operate change because of the coronavirus? How will your industry change? And how will the world change?</p><p>You can read responses from the CEOs of companies like Walmart, Pfizer, Zoom, Man Group, and ViacomCBS right here:</p><p><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-next-ceos-future-business-leaders-covid-19-2020-5">WHAT'S NEXT: 200 CEOs look into the future of business</a></strong></p><p>I want to highlight three themes that appeared in many of the answer we received.</p><h2>The future of work</h2><p>Chief executives say the pandemic has pointed the way toward a near future of flexible work, a more relaxed work-life balance, and more inclusive cultures, Allana Akhtar reported. </p><p>"It's difficult to draw many positives from a crisis that has had such a significant human cost and that has created such dire economic circumstances for so many families," Lee Olesky, CEO of the financial-services company Tradeweb, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ceos-share-their-thoughts-on-the-future-of-work-2020-4">told Business Insider</a>. "I hope we'll use it as an opportunity to ask some tough questions: Do we need to adjust the work-life balance? How can we make sure the most vulnerable are better protected? Are we really getting healthcare right?"</p><p>From her story:</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Aaron Levie, CEO of the cloud-content-management company Box, said the company would "absolutely" shift to a more "dynamic, real-time" work style, defined by working from home and flexible work hours. Todd McKinnon, the CEO of the software company Okta, said the future of work would likely enable employees to work anywhere without sacrificing benefits like healthcare and volunteer opportunities.</em></p><p>You can read the full story here:</p><p><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ceos-share-their-thoughts-on-the-future-of-work-2020-4">Your job is never going to be the same again</a></strong></p><p><strong><div type="image" title="gensler architecture diagrams" height="1500" width="2000" msid="75791381" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><h2>The changing shape of the <keyword id="23557" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="office">office</keyword></h2><p>Alex Nicoll reported that because <keyword id="1591611" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="remote-work">remote work</keyword> will become more common than ever, fewer people will head to the office. </p><p>"We used to joke about meetings that could have been emails, but now we'll wonder why we can't just do them in our pajamas with our pets on video conference," Nancy Dubuc, Vice Media Group CEO, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-pandemic-wont-kill-office-but-it-will-change-forever-2020-4">told Business Insider</a>. "There's a balance of course because some work is actually more productive and better done in person, but it will never need to be 5 days a week, all day every day again."</p><p>As Alex reports, when companies begin to shift their business models to accommodate remote work, the office will change. They may cut back on individual workspaces and increase investment in collaborative spaces, turning the office into a cultural and training hub.</p><p>"This (more remote work) means adapting some of the office structure to help this way of working succeed, with even more video facilities and more flexible group spaces for brainstorming sessions," Luke Ellis, CEO of investment manager Man Group, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/man-group-ceo-luke-ellis-says-many-employees-will-be-working-from-home-2020-4">told Business Insider</a>. </p><p>You can read the full story here:</p><p><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-pandemic-wont-kill-office-but-it-will-change-forever-2020-4">The office as we knew it is dead</a></strong></p><p><strong><div type="image" title="jetblue airport terminal empty plane" height="1900" width="2559" msid="75791383" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><h2>The end of <keyword id="52765" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="business-travel">business travel</keyword></h2><p>Madeline Stone reported that many executives are reevaluating business travel amid the coronavirus pandemic. </p><p>"I think we're seeing that you can do a lot [via] video conferencing, and that's going to have a big impact on how often people travel for work," Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/business-travel-less-common-after-coronavirus-ceos-say-2020-5">told Business Insider</a>. "Business travel isn't going to go away, but I think it's going to look very different in the future."</p><p>From her story:</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>"It may be the case that we can do less travel, but we can get more done, that we're more thoughtful about what the live meetings need to be," said Doug Ingram, CEO of Sarepta Therapeutics, a medical research company based in Massachusetts. </em></p><p>You can read the full story here:</p><p><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/business-travel-less-common-after-coronavirus-ceos-say-2020-5">Business trips could become a thing of the past as the pandemic pushes CEOs to ask themselves what warrants a flight and what could've been a Zoom call</a></strong></p><p>I'd love to hear from you. Do you agree? How will the way you operate change because of the coronavirus? How will your industry change? Let me know.</p><p>Below are headlines on some of the stories you might have missed from the past week. Stay safe, everyone. </p><p>-- Matt</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-streets-top-distressed-credit-and-debt-traders-2020-5">Power brokers of distressed credit: Meet 11 Wall Street stars trading busted bonds, bankruptcy claims, and other fire-sale securities</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-colleges-higher-education-financial-struggles-pandemic-online-classes-2020-5">The finances of America's universities have long been a time bomb — and if schools can't prove the real worth of their hefty price tags, they might just implode</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/employees-lament-the-open-culture-that-made-google-famous-2020-5">Google employees say the company culture that made it famous has almost entirely vanished, as it continues to be less transparent and more 'corporate'</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-amazons-s-team-ceo-jeff-bezoss-top-lieutenants-2020-5">Amazon has an elite group of execs who are guiding the company through the coronavirus chaos. Here are the 23 members of Jeff Bezos' 'S-team.'</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-glossier-email-hints-at-furloughs-and-layoffs-2020-5">Leaked email reveals that Glossier has continued to pay its retail employees through the shutdown, but hints at threat of layoffs at the end of May</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/weber-shandwick-began-furloughs-and-layoffs-read-internal-memo-2020-5">Top PR firm Weber Shandwick started furloughs and layoffs as clients like Royal Caribbean and AB InBev cut spending — read the CEO's internal memo</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/newsletter-startup-theskimm-faces-questions-after-layoffs-and-pay-cuts-2020-5">After failed acquisition attempts, deep layoffs and executive pay cuts, newsletter company TheSkimm hangs in the balance</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/united-memo-free-flights-buyouts-layoffs-coronavirus-2020-5">Leaked memo shows United is trying to convince some workers to quit ahead of layoffs, and it's offering up to 5 years of free flights as an incentive</a></p>Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-business-news-future-of-work-office-business-travel-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

The future of work, the changing shape of the office, and the end of business travel

<p><em>Hello everyone! Welcome to this weekly roundup of Business Insider stories from co-Editor in Chief Matt Turner. </em><strong><a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/insider-weekly"><em>Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Sunday.</em></a></strong></p><p><em>Read on for more on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/yachting-sexual-harassment-abuse-investigation-2020-10">dark secret at the heart of the yachting industry</a>, a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/profile-of-rolling-stone-magazine-owner-jay-penske-2020-10">profile of playboy turned pragmatic media mogul Jay Penske,</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nxivm-survivor-india-oxenberg-on-keith-raniere-mlm-style-tactics-2020-10">an interview with Nxivm survivor India Oxenberg</a>. </em></p><p>Hello!</p><p>I want to start by highlighting three in-depth stories we published in the past 24 hours. </p><ul><li>Rob Price, Meghan Morris, and Becky Peterson described the 199 days that doomed Quibi, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-quibis-175-billion-rise-and-six-month-fall-2020-10">explain how $1.75 billion couldn't save the most hyped app of the year from a pandemic and apathetic users</a>.</li><li>Patrick Coffee and Tanya Dua published the inside story on the biggest independent ad agency, The Richards Group, where <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/old-school-advertising-agency-richards-group-faces-claims-racism-sexism-2020-10">some say an old-school culture that included all-male retreats fueled racism and sexism</a>.</li><li>Melia Russell and Dan DeFrancesco talked to insiders at Coinbase, who <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coinbase-brian-armstrong-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-profile-2020-10">detailed the communication quirks of controversial CEO Brian Armstrong that contributed to an employee exodus. </a></li></ul><h2><strong>Yacht crew members describe rampant <keyword id="6367610" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="harassment">harassment</keyword></strong></h2><p>From Hillary Hoffower:</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>At the core of the <keyword id="154770" type="SPORT" weightage="60" keywordseo="yachting">yachting</keyword> industry, which portrays a glamorous lifestyle of working in paradise on multimillion-dollar vessels, may be a dark secret: a rampant sexual-harassment problem.</em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>About 65% of yacht crew members who responded to a 2018 survey by the Professional Yachting Association said they had witnessed or been aware of an incident of physical or verbal sexual harassment on board. Nearly 40% of the 870 respondents in the survey — whose findings were presented at the Monaco Yacht Show — said they had experienced unwanted physical contact, and half said they had received unwanted sexual or sexist comments.</em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Only 22% of respondents who said they experienced sexual harassment also said they reported it.</em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Business Insider spoke with 15 current or former yacht crew members. Of those, 11 came forward with firsthand allegations of sexual harassment while on board. Many asked to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions within the industry. Another four former and current crew members told Business Insider that they experienced verbal abuse, bullying, and discrimination on board.</em></p><p>Read the full story here:</p><ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/yachting-sexual-harassment-abuse-investigation-2020-10">Superyachts, night shifts, and nowhere to hide: 15 current and former yacht crew members describe rampant harassment in one of the world's most seemingly glamorous industries</a></strong></li></ul><h2>From playboy to pragmatic media mogul</h2><div type="image" title="Media mogul, Jay Penske (right), pictured with his wife, Elaine Irwin." height="1453" width="1938" msid="78861371" hostid="261"></div><p>From Julia Black:</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>He has movie-star good looks, a former Victoria's Secret model wife, and a billionaire father.</em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Now Jay Penske can lay claim to the second-largest audience in digital publishing in the US.</em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>On September 23, Penske Media Corporation, or PMC, which owns Rolling Stone, Variety, and Women's Wear Daily, announced it would take control of The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, and Vibe as part of a joint venture with the entertainment company MRC. The new entity will be called PMRC. The move will create a near-monopoly on Hollywood industry <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="news">news</keyword> — and put PMC ahead of publishers like Meredith, Condé Nast, and BuzzFeed, with a <a href="https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Rankings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Comscore ranking</a> second only to Hearst's.</em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Business Insider interviewed more than 30 of Penske's current and former executives, editorial staffers, and media industry peers about the press-shy CEO. Many requested to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions from the company. These conversations revealed an eccentric and dynamic entrepreneur determined to defy the odds in publishing and to prove himself outside of his family name.</em></p><p>You can read the full story here:</p><ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/profile-of-rolling-stone-magazine-owner-jay-penske-2020-10">Jay Penske, owner of Rolling Stone magazine, has transformed from playboy to pragmatic media mogul</a></strong></li></ul><p>Also read:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kushner-talking-up-trump-branded-media-outlet-gop-sources-say-2020-10">Jared Kushner floating launch of a new Trump-branded media outlet, GOP sources say. It's another sign of a looming 2020 defeat.</a></li></ul><h2>India Oxenberg speaks out</h2><div type="image" title="India Oxenberg courtesy of STARZ" height="1845" width="2461" msid="78861374" hostid="261"></div><p>From Melkorka Licea:</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>When India Oxenberg dropped out of college at 19, she had dreams of starting her own catering company in Los Angeles. </em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>But despite her passion for the culinary arts, she felt she was lacking a kind of business acumen. </em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>"I felt like I was missing a lot of skills," Oxenberg, now 29, told Business Insider. "And I felt like I was missing the confidence that I needed to even just pursue something like that ... Something entrepreneurial is hard regardless, let alone being 19." </em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Oxenberg's ears perked up at a business opportunity raised by her mother, the former "Dynasty" star Catherine Oxenberg. It was a new training program called the Executive Success Program, run by a group called Nxivm. The pair soon attended an in-person introduction put on by the group.</em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Little did she know, it would launch her on a seven-year journey into one of the most notorious cults in American history, where she said she was psychologically and physically tortured and abused, and even branded with another human being's initials.</em></p><ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nxivm-survivor-india-oxenberg-on-keith-raniere-mlm-style-tactics-2020-10">Nxivm cult leader Keith Raniere used 'multilevel marketing' tactics to lure members who eventually became branded 'slaves,' according to survivor India Oxenberg</a></strong></li></ul><h2>Hear from the CEOs of Netflix, Nasdaq, Mastercard, Lululemon, Vice, and more</h2><p>The <a href="https://trendsfestival.com/">Business Insider Global Trends</a> event took place last week, bringing together speakers from Asia, Europe, and North America for a five day digital event. Here are some of the highlights:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-reed-hastings-interview-on-co-ceo-model-competition-covid-2020-10">Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings compares the company's new dual leadership model to a family with 2 parents: 'It can be incredibly powerful'</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasdaq-ceo-adena-friedman-public-cloud-trading-venues-adoption-interview-2020-10">Nasdaq's CEO says the cloud is the 'future of the industry' and the tech could be used to conduct actual trading within the next decade</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mastercard-incoming-ceo-michael-meibach-payments-economic-recovery-2020-10">Mastercard's incoming CEO explains how the card giant is trying to level the playing field for SMBs competing with big-box retailers</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/4-ways-lululemon-thrived-during-the-pandemic-according-to-ceo-2020-10">4 ways Lululemon outsmarted a potential pandemic downfall and kept business booming while other retailers struggled to stay afloat, according to CEO Calvin McDonald</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vices-nancy-dubuc-talks-about-platforms-revenue-diversification-2020-2020-10">Vice Media's Nancy Dubuc explains why publishers should be wary of Google and Facebook's news-funding efforts</a></li></ul><p>Here are some headlines from the past week you might have missed. </p><p>— Matt</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apparel-workers-forced-return-to-office-face-firing-pay-cuts-2020-10">'We're terrified': The company that makes Calvin Klein and Guess jeans is forcing workers to head back into a full-capacity office or be fired</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twilio-salaries-revealed-engineers-product-managers-2020-10">Twilio salaries revealed: Here's how much engineers, product managers, and more make at the $48 billion cloud communications company that's skyrocketed amid the pandemic</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/headhunters-technology-industry-ceo-board-c-level-2020-10">Meet 9 headhunters that top technology companies turn to when they need to hire a new CEO or board member</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackstone-careers-hiring-process-interview-questions-analyst-recruiting-how-to-2020-10">Blackstone president Jon Gray reveals how to stand out to land a job at the ultra-competitive firm, which hired just 0.5% of applicants for 2020 analyst jobs</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/founder-wrote-a-blunt-email-to-investor-when-cutting-ties-2020-10">A founder wrote a brutally honest email to one of his VCs when he severed the relationship, and Silicon Valley can't stop talking about it</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/expensify-ceo-david-barrett-vote-against-biden-vote-against-democracy-2020-10">'Anything less than a vote for Biden is a vote against democracy': Expensify's CEO tells us why the company emailed 10 million customers urging them to vote for Biden</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennium-israel-izzy-englander-network-family-tree-alumni-hedge-fund-2020-10">Inside the alumni network of billionaire Israel Englander, the founder of $46 billion hedge-fund behemoth Millennium</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-deck-thirty-madison-earns-47-million-investment-from-jj-2020-10">How 2 former Googlers convinced Johnson &amp; Johnson to bet on the hottest part of healthcare and raised $47 million in the process</a></p>

15 current and former yacht crew members describe rampant harassment in one of the world's most glamorous industries

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Confirming months of speculation, Vice Media is acquiring Refinery29 for mostly stock.</li><li>It's part of a consolidation trend in venture-funded digital media that's seen companies close or sell at a fraction of their presumed value.</li><li>The deal is expected to help Vice Media plug holes in its business and throw Refinery29 a lifeline.</li><li>Some observers question how much stronger the new company will really be, though.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>.</li></ul><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vice-media-buys-refinery29-after-months-of-talks-and-speculation-2019-10">Vice Media is acquiring Refinery29</a>, confirming<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/refinery29-and-vice-media-in-talks-to-merge-sources-2019-7"> months of speculation</a>.</p><p>The deal is expected to help Vice Media plug holes in its business, specifically giving it a female audience and events business. But it may do little to help the company long-term or the many investors who poured more than $1 billion combined into both companies, people familiar with both businesses said.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vice-media-agency-announces-new-leadership-as-key-exec-exits-2019-8">Vice Media shuffles leadership at its agency as another key exec heads for the exit</a></em></p><p>Neither Vice or Refinery is profitable. The <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4adccda4-e518-11e9-9743-db5a370481bc">Financial Times pegged</a> the valuation of the combined company at $4 billion, which is down from Vice's last reported valuation of $5.7 billion in 2017.</p><p>The deal is part of a consolidation trend in venture-funded digital media that's seen businesses shut down or sell for a fraction of their once presumed values. Just last week, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-benefits-of-vox-media-buying-new-york-magazine-2019-9">New York magazine sold</a> to Vox Media in a deal that saw <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-media-valued-at-about-105-million-in-vox-media-merger-11569452124">Vox's valuation decline</a> to $750 million from $1 billion.</p><p>Women-aimed Refinery29 started in 2005 and has raised $133 million from investors including WPP, Turner, and Scripps. It was last valued at $500 million and made around $100 million in revenue last year.</p><p>Vice is one of the most heavily VC-funded media companies. Founded in 1994, it's reportedly raised $1.4 billion in funding. But this year it had to raise $250 million in debt. Disney, <a href="https://fortune.com/2017/05/12/vice-funding-ipo/">with 20% of the company</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-writes-off-353-million-of-its-stake-in-vice-2019-5">wrote down its stake this year</a>, appearing to be valuing its stake at virtually nothing.</p><p>Vice has 11 investors including TPG, Soros Fund Management, 21st Century Fox, and Disney. Refinery has 14 including WPP, Stripes Group, Scripps Networks, and Turner Broadcasting.</p><h2>Investors have seen their stakes in digital media dwindle</h2><p>Few details are widely known, but the deal was reported as being mostly stock. That reflects the fact that Vice isn't profitable, which limits a company's ability to raise money for a deal, M&amp;A sources said. People familiar with Refinery29's finances said that without other cash buyers lining up, Refinery would have little choice than to take Vice stock that might not be worth much but lets it keep going as a company.</p><p>In a stock deal, all the investors would likely see their stakes stay the same or decline because they now own a smaller part of a bigger company.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/refinery29-and-vice-media-in-talks-to-merge-sources-2019-7">Refinery29's finances are getting tight, and it's urgently trying to close a deal with Vice Media, sources say</a></em></p><p>Any cash that's part of the deal could benefit those investors that have a preference or be paid to Refinery29 managers as an incentive to stay on with the new company. But the cash is likely to be small compared to the amount of money raised. </p><p>"Nobody's getting rich on this deal," said one media operator with M&amp;A experience.</p><p>Another part of the fallout is for Vice employees who got company shares or options over the years. Some people who got those benefits have said they believed they would be essentially worthless and impossible to sell.</p><p>The proposed deal wouldn't be without some merits. Short term, the idea is that Vice would use Refinery's audience and 29Rooms events business to complement its male-skewing and video-focused business. Vice said its online audience would increase 17 percent with the acquisition.</p><h2>Vice was eager to add Refinery's female audience and events</h2><p>Vice's other area of focus is its creative agency, Virtue Worldwide, and the hope is that Refinery's data on female readers can help Virtue pitch clients' business.</p><p>"They bring a killer experiential arm and expertise in spaces we weren't tapping," a Vice insider said.</p><p>Some think having Refinery in its portfolio can help Vice's image. Vice insiders were told that Refinery would maintain its editorial integrity and autonomy.</p><p>But inside Refinery, people are jittery about how the progressive female brand will live at Vice Media, with has been fighting to improve its reputation after #MeToo problems.</p><p>There's also the question of whether an acquisition will materially change Vice's business. </p><p>Along with its reputational problem, Vice's digital traffic has declined, giving some advertisers pause. Both brands used to be seen as ways for advertisers to reach elusive millennials, but that's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marketers-say-vice-is-losing-its-cool-with-millennials-investors-2018-11">lost its appeal</a> as copycat sites have sprung up and advertisers heavy up on performance-driven spending.</p><p>Chief executive Nancy Dubuc is betting heavily on winning in the competitive video arena, and some Vice insiders think the Refinery deal is just part one, with Vice Media itself expected to try to sell itself to a bigger company down the road.</p>

Vice Media finally acquired Refinery29, and industry insiders are already wondering how the combined business will be stronger

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Vice <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">Media</keyword> CEO Shane Smith.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Vice Media has lost four top execs at its ad agency in the past few months. </li><li>The exits come as the venture-backed youth-focused media company is looking to its agency, Virtue Worldwide, to help it get to profitability.</li><li>They also come at a time of unease at the company, as it tries to repair its reputation and culture after reports of mistreatment toward female employees. </li><li>Overall, Vice has shed 10% of its staff, raised $250 million in debt, and had its value written down this year by Disney.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Vice Media has lost four top execs at its ad agency, Virtue Worldwide, in the past few months - just as it's counting on the agency to help it get to profitability.</p><p>They are:</p><ul><li>Cameron Farrelly, who was Virtue Worldwide's chief creative officer, a role he was <a href="https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/01/07/virtue-names-new-cco-vice-continues-focus-resources-its-ad-agency">promoted to in January</a> from group creative director. Six months later, he landed at <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8518567/spotify-cameron-farrelly-vice-media-exec-global-creative-director">Spotify as creative director</a>. Insiders said Farrelly helped launch Virtue Worldwide and was a key figure in nearly all the deals Virtue did, including with clients Google Chrome, Lululemon, and Dove.</li><li>Heather Pieske was group creative director at Virtue until she left after a little more than two years for a role at Vox Media, where she started in May, according to her LinkedIn page.</li><li>RG Logan, who was head of strategy at Virtue for two years and left in May. He's now SVP Strategy at Truth Initiative, according to his LinkedIn profile.</li><li><span style="color: #222222;">Alice Kimberley, who was group strategy director at Virtue, has left as well, according to knowledgeable sources.</span></li></ul><p>Outside of Virtue, there have been other notable business-side departures in recent months at Vice.</p><ul><li>Meghan Kirsch, who was at Vice Media for three years, most recently as SVP of marketing and creative at Vice Media, is <a href="https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/thrillist-meghan-kirsch-chief-content-officer-1203260938/">heading to Group Nine Media's Thrillist</a><span style="color: #222222;"> to be its chief content officer. </span></li><li><span style="color: #222222;">Donna Lamar, group creative director at Vice Media, <a href="https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/twitter-donna-lamar-creative-director-vice-1203159226/">left in March to return to Twitter</a>. </span></li></ul><p>The company has also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/business/media/vice-shakeup-editors-exit.htm">shed a number of editorial higher-ups and lost its HBO show</a> earlier this year. It's also brought on others, including chief digital officer Cory Haik, global news and entertainment president Jesse Angelo, and digital svp Katie Drummond.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/refinery29-and-vice-media-in-talks-to-merge-sources-2019-7">Refinery29 is in talks to combine with Vice Media. Sources say its finances are so tight it needs to do a deal soon.</a></em></p><p>Asked for comment about the departures, a Vice spokesperson emailed a statement that read:</p><p>"Everyone who has walked through the doors of Virtue has contributed to, in just a few short years, creating an award-winning global agency, working with today's most powerful consumer brands. Virtue is growing at an incredible rate, having now expanded into 20 markets around the world and with 26 new clients in North America this last year alone. We're proud of the career growth that employees find, inside and outside of Vice, and we'll soon have announcements about new Virtue leaders joining us in the coming weeks."</p><p>Virtue was founded in 2005 as a creative agency and is one of just a handful of publisher-owned ad agencies. In 2017, Vice Media combined it with other standalone agency-like businesses to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/vice-encroaches-on-ad-agency-business-with-creation-of-virtue-worldwide-1485428401">make a full-service agency called Virtue Worldwide</a>. </p><p>The Virtue exits come as Vice Media is putting more resources behind the agency after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-writes-off-353-million-of-its-stake-in-vice-2019-5">taking a write-down in value by Disney</a> and laying off 10% of its staff as it strives to get to profitability. </p><p>It's also an uneasy time for Vice Media as it's been taking steps to repair its reputation after <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/23/business/media/vice-sexual-harassment.html">reports</a> of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vices-media-carrot-insiders-describe-a-culture-of-hostility-to-women-2018-2">mistreatment of women</a> at the company, which caused some advertisers to stop spending with the company and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vice-media-has-fired-carrot-creative-cofounder-and-ceo-mike-germano-2018-1">led to the firing</a> of the head of Vice Media's former creative agency, Carrot Creative.</p><p>The exits also come as Vice chief executive Nancy Dubuc, who took over in March 2018, has been trying to tie the companies' units together under a new phrase, "One Vice." Virtue has historically operated independently, most of its work being direct with clients and not tied to Vice Media properties, and some there have felt that the separation insulated them from cultural problems at other parts of the company.</p><p>Founded in 1994 as a culture magazine, youth culture-focused Vice Media raised a <a href="https://variety.com/2019/biz/uncategorized/vice-200-million-funding-1203161748/">reported</a> $1.4 billion on the belief that its edgy, unconventional editorial approach would appeal to a new generation of consumers. It's among a handful of heavily venture-funded media companies that have not achieved profitability and whose growth has slowed, leading them to pursue mergers and trim staff.</p><p><em>Have a tip about this story? Contact me at lmoses@businessinsider.com or securely on Signal at 917-209-8549.</em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/burger-king-cmo-fernando-machado-shares-his-secrets-to-success-2019-7">Burger King's CMO explains why the biggest risk in marketing is not taking one</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

4 top execs have left Vice Media's ad agency in the past few months

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Craig Barritt/Getty Images for VICE <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">Media</keyword></span></p><p class="caption">VICE Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Shane Smith (L) and VICE CEO Nancy Dubuc.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Refinery29 is in talks to combine with Vice Media as its financial situation gets increasingly tight, according to a report and sources close to the companies.</li><li>A merger could help the two big venture-backed but money-losing digital media companies get to profitability.</li><li>Refinery29 has been in a tight financial situation and urgently seeking to find a merger partner, knowledgeable sources said.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Refinery29 is reportedly in talks to combine with Vice Media as its financial situation gets tighter - and it could leave a third digital media company, Group Nine Media, without a merger partner.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/vice-media-in-talks-to-buy-refinery29-11564182979?mod=djemCMOToday">Wall Street Journal report</a> and sources close to the companies said a deal was in the works. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/a-group-nine-and-refinery29-merger-would-face-big-challenges-2019-6">Such deals are complicated</a> and a merger may end up not happening. </p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/group-nine-media-is-losing-top-executive-todd-anderman-2019-7">Group Nine Media is shaking up its sales leadership to jumpstart its revenue</a></em></p><p>There's been lots of speculation about mergers between venture-funded digital media outlets over the past few months, as several of them have experienced slowing growth with Google and Facebook increasingly dominating digital <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword>. Many VC-backed media companies have failed to maintain investors' growth expectations, leading some to sell, lay off staff, or shut down.</p><p>Women-aimed Refinery29 started in 2005 and has raised $125 million from investors including WPP, Turner and Scripps. Refinery29 has been in a tight financial situation and urgently seeking to find a merger partner, according to three people with direct knowledge of the company's finances.</p><p>Sources said variously that at one point this year, the company was on track to either break even or run out of money by the end of the year. Refinery29's revenue, at $100 million last year, has been growing but slowly, said a knowledgeable source. The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/womens-publisher-refinery29-thinks-it-can-double-revenue-to-200-million-2019-5">company has been diversifying its revenue</a> with live events and licensing its video to streaming platforms.</p><p>Reps from both companies wouldn't comment for this story.</p><h2>Both companies raised debt this year</h2><p>Driving a potential merger is that both Refinery29 and Vice Media aren't profitable yet. Both laid off 10% of their workforce in the past year and both have raised debt this year, Vice Media raising $250 million earlier this year and Refinery29 raising $8 million. Insiders say companies often raise debt as a last resort when they can't get anyone to give them more capital.</p><p>For its part, Vice Media, started in 1994, has reportedly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vice-media-reportedly-raises-250-million-in-debt-2019-5">raised $1.4 billion</a> in funding. </p><p>Vice Media's revenue was reportedly flat at about $625 million in 2018 versus 2017, and leadership said in November that the company was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/business/dealbook/vice-dubuc-dealbook-conference.html">on track to be profitable</a> in its next fiscal year. Vice Media has been focusing on adapting its web properties to film, TV production, and branded content.</p><p>A merger of the two companies could bring a few benefits, according to insiders familiar with both companies. Refinery29 has a mostly female audience that would complement Vice Media's male-leaning audience. Refinery29 has live events, a digital media ad business, and ad-friendly editorial content that could complement Vice Media's agency and video business and edgy editorial content that many advertisers want to steer clear of.</p><p>The cynical view is that combining with Refinery29 would give a reputational boost to Vice Media, whose image has been tarnished by #MeToo problems. <span style="font-weight: 400;">It's trying to improve its workplace culture after </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/23/business/media/vice-sexual-harassment.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">reports</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vices-media-carrot-insiders-describe-a-culture-of-hostility-to-women-2018-2">mistreatment</a> of and hostility to women at the company - </span>but because of that problematic history, a merger also might put off Refinery29 employees.</p><h2>WPP is a backer of both companies</h2><p>Another factor is WPP. The ad agency holding company giant is an investor in both media companies, and as such, WPP has insight into each company's internal workings. When two money-losing companies combine, a logical outcome is to combine in a stock deal where no money changes hands, M&amp;A insiders said. That enables all parties involved to save face because they won't have to state a valuation for either company and therefore can avoid acknowledging that the companies aren't worth what they once thought they were, insiders said.</p><p>Of course, if the deal goes through, that would mean no deal for another millennial-aimed, VC-backed media company, Group Nine Media. Earlier this year, three sources close to the companies told Business Insider <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/digital-media-companies-group-nine-media-and-refinery29-are-said-to-be-in-talks-to-merge-2019-3">those two companies were in merger talks</a>. Group Nine, which is backed by Discovery Communications, declined to comment.</p>     <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/burger-king-cmo-fernando-machado-shares-his-secrets-to-success-2019-7">Burger King's CMO explains why the biggest risk in marketing is not taking one</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Refinery29 is in talks to combine with Vice Media. Sources say its finances are so tight it needs to do a deal soon.

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Scientology wasn't very happy that Leah Remini had been booked on TBS's "Conan," according to its host Conan O'Brien.<p>In recent years, Remini has become one of the most outspoken public figures on the church. Having grown up as a Scientologist, she left the church in 2013. Since then, she has&#xa0;written a book, done several high-profile interviews, and now has a show on A&amp;E, "Scientology and the Aftermath," all sharing stories of alleged abuses, harassment, and dirty business policies of the church.</p><p>Remini appeared on TBS's "Conan" on Wednesday to promote her eye-opening&#xa0;show and O'Brien&#xa0;explained how surprised he was to get a statement from Scientology trashing his guest.</p><p>"We were contacted by the Church of Scientology," the host said. "Today, they sent us a statement. They're obviously not happy you're on the show and they said in their statement that Leah Remini is doing this because she wants the fame, she wants the money, and she wants the attention. I was thinking today that it was very strange. I don't think I've ever had a document sent to me like that before and I've been doing this over 24 years."</p><p>Anyone who has watched Remini's show would know that the church <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/scientology-website-leah-remini-ae-show-2016-11" target="_blank">has been making these claims</a>&#xa0;about her for a while. Remini said she has a simple answer to Scientology's&#xa0;pushback.</p><p>"Yes, I do want to bring attention," the former "King of Queens" star said. "I am blessed to have had a successful series. Most actors work their whole careers in hopes that that happens once in their career. So I'm good. I don't need to work, I want to work, but I do want to bring attention to these abuses. That is true."</p><p>Remini <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leah-remini-demands-15m-from-scientology-in-war-over-ae-series-2016-11" target="_blank">had previously demanded</a> that Scientology pay her $1.5 million in damages for trying to kill&#xa0;the A&amp;E show and ruin her reputation in Hollywood. Recently, <span>A+E Networks President and CEO Nancy Dubuc said that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ae-boss-says-scientology-is-harassing-her-over-leah-reminis-tv-show-2017-1" target="_blank">Scientology has been harassing her </a>on social media about the show.</span></p><p><span>Scientology didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.</span></p><p><strong>Watch Remini's "Conan" interview below:</strong></p><div></div><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/7-famous-scientologists-tom-cruise-john-travolta-scientology-2015-4">7 famous people reveal why they are Scientologists</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="0wdDFndDp9OPqfML8f8d27IgRKre_dAb" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Conan O'Brien says Scientology is 'not happy' about his revealing Leah Remini interview

<p class="source"><span>Craig Barritt/Getty Images for VICE Media</span></p><p class="caption">Vice co-founder Shane Smith and Vice CEO Nancy Dubuc attend Vice NewFronts 2019 in New York City.</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Digital media went through a bloodbath in 2019, with investors seeing billions in theoretical value wiped out and scores of people losing their jobs.</li><li>Some venture capital funding continued to pour into media companies, but many journalism upstarts didn't meet aggressive growth expectations, which forced them to look for buyers and sell for less than their onetime private market value.</li><li>Observers predict more firesales and consolidations in 2020 as there are still many small, independent digital outlets facing an unfriendly business climate.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summarymarymaryhttps://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summarymarymary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>. </li></ul><p>2019 has been one of the most difficult years for the media industry in history.</p><p>More than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2019-media-layoffs-job-cuts-at-buzzfeed-huffpost-vice-details-2019-2">7,200 jobs were lost </a>in the first nine months of the year<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2019-media-layoffs-job-cuts-at-buzzfeed-huffpost-vice-details-2019-2">,</a> compared to an estimated 5,000 between 2014 and 2017. That's approaching the recession high, when <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-01/journalism-layoffs-are-at-the-highest-level-since-last-recession">more than 7,000 journalism jobs were lost</a> during the first five months of 2009.</p><p>Investors who poured millions into digital media upstarts earlier in the decade saw billions in estimated value disappear as those companies missed growth targets and were forced into downrounds, firesales, head-scratching mergers, and shutdowns.  </p><p>In the one of the year's biggest deals, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-refinery29-ended-up-selling-to-vice-media-2019-10">Vice Media acquired Refinery29</a>, a company that had raised $133 million, for mostly stock. Group Nine Media also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/business/popsugar-group-nine-deal.html">acquired fellow millennial media company Pop Sugar</a> in a stock deal.</p><p>A third major tie-up saw Vox Media acquire New York Media, with the goal of future proofing both businesses.</p><p>"We've observed a spate of mergers and acquisitions in our sector and have often been struck by their lackluster rationales and ambitions," Vox CEO Jim Bankoff and New York Media owner Pam Wasserstein said at the time.  "Too many deals are done to buy some time or quickly change a narrative if a company has failed to innovate. By contrast, this combination is solely about leadership, growth, and opportunity." </p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bustle-digital-group-acquires-inverse-staffers-laid-off-2019-7">Bustle Digital Group emerged as a buyer of last resort</a>, acquiring a string of sites including Inverse, Gawker, and The Outline, often at bargain-basement prices. </p><p><em><strong>Read: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bustle-digital-group-staff-cuts-diversity-bryan-goldberg-2019-10">Insiders say morale at Bustle Digital Group is cratering as it quietly axes staff and loses focus</a></strong></em></p><p>In most of those deals, the acquired companies lost a hefty chunk of their onetime valuations, signaling a sort of private-market correction.</p><p>Nicole Quinn, a partner at Lightspeed which <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cheddars-jon-steinberg-says-ignoring-conventional-wisdom-led-him-to-a-200-million-exit-2019-4">made bets on Jon Steinberg's Cheddar</a> (a successful $200 million cash acquisition) and Mic <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mic-sold-to-bustle-2018-12">(a flop)</a>, said watching media business models over-rely on digital advertising has sharpened the firm's investing criteria. "It has made us more focused on companies that are capital-efficient and profitable," she said.</p><p>Observers predict more such deals in 2020 as there are still many small, independent digital outlets facing an unfriendly business climate. There are also still funders and buyers for digital startups that aren't wholly dependent on ad revenue, like The Athletic and Food52; niche sites like Byrdie, which sold to IAC; and older digital sites like BabyCenter, which sold this year to J2, a portfolio of internet media and services companies.</p><p>"I'm looking for digital brands that have durability, that have been able to sustain all the changes," said Vivek Shah, CEO of J2. "I will always value those that can stand the test of time."</p><p>The Athletic, the breakout media startup of the year, made waves by amassing a huge subscriber base of more than 600,000 sports fans. But the subscription revenue approach didn't work for every publisher. <span style="color: #000000;">Take <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/business-publisher-quartzs-membership-strategy-struggles-2019-9">Quartz, which struggled</a> to turn its free distribution, ad-based business model into a membership one. </span></p><p>Still, there are some signals that digital media will turn a corner in 2020. Fred Wilson, a partner at <a href="https://businessinsider.com/investor-fred-wilson-talks-media-direct-listings-startup-disasters-2019-11">Union Square Ventures who has a knack for nailing startup trends,</a> thinks now could be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/venture-capitalist-fred-wilson-explains-investment-in-the-recount-2019-11">the perfect time to invest in media</a> companies.</p><p>Digital media investment peaked in 2014, when venture capitalists invested $1.1 billion into 82 digital media startups - three times what they invested the year prior, <a href="https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/vox-media-to-buy-new-york-magazine-in-vc-backed-takeover">according to Pitchbook</a>. By 2018, that figure had fallen to $237 million, though it has rebounded to more than $537 million in 2019.</p><p>"We're intrigued about what looks like a little bit of a vacuum now in media," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/venture-capitalist-fred-wilson-explains-investment-in-the-recount-2019-11">Wilson told Business Insider</a> in a recent interview. "I like to zig when other people zag. I like to get to things before people get into them or when other people have gotten out of them. Those are generally the good time to invest in companies."</p><p>So far, the size of Wilson's bets are relatively small as he tests the waters. He recently <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/venture-capitalist-fred-wilson-explains-investment-in-the-recount-2019-11">invested $5 million in video news startup on The Recount</a>, not $50 million like in digital media's heyday.</p><p>GroupNine CEO Ben Lerer believes some of the tough decisions made this year will result in longer-term success.</p><p>"We went from the perception that it was an industry without a plan or a path to one where there's a much clearer set of winners," he told Business Insider.</p><p>"There was a destruction of value from a perceived value standpoint. I do think there was a creation or meaningful value protection with some of the combinations that happened. We all have a lot of work to do. But we are coming out of 2019 so much stronger than we were."</p><p><em>Go deeper into recent digital media trends:</em></p><ul><li>The implosion of digital media has led some to criticize venture capital as harmful to publishers. Read: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-vc-billions-fueled-the-rise-of-digital-media-2018-12">Billions from VC companies like Lerer Hippeau and Lightspeed fueled the rise of digital media and stoked crazy expectations for growth - here's why insiders say that approach is killing companies</a></li><li>Employees of digital media companies not only suffered layoffs. Many who received stock options found their hopeful windfalls had become worthless. Read: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/employees-of-digital-media-outlets-worry-stock-options-are-worthless-2019-10">Employees at companies like Vice and BuzzFeed are worried their equity is worthless as digital media's fortunes fade</a></li><li>There are still digital media companies that are finding success by diversifying or avoiding reliance on the VC playbook. At a time when many people are trapped in ideological bubbles, Ozy has built a company focused on serving curious people interested in change and big ideas. Read: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ozy-media-raised-35-million-to-grow-tv-events-businesses-2019-10">Ozy Media's CEO describes how he diversified into TV and events, landing $35 million in fresh funding and getting on track for profitability in 2020</a></li><li>Another positive digital media case is IAC's Dotdash, which this past year bought Byrdie, along with Brides, to build a beauty media business to take on Condé Nast and Hearst. Read: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/iacs-dotdash-is-launching-a-big-expansion-into-beauty-2019-9">IAC's Dotdash got profitable by shunning the sexier parts of digital media, and now it's applying that playbook to online beauty</a></li><li>Youth-aimed Complex Networks built a profitable company that was on track to do $200 million in revenue this year by eschewing much of the digital media playbook. Read how CEO Rich Antoniello diversified the business: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/complex-networks-is-on-track-to-exceed-200-million-this-year-profitably-2019-4">'We're an anomaly': Complex Networks ignored the digital-media playbook, and now it's set to have another profitable year, with at least $200 million in revenue</a></li></ul>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-colossal-media-makes-150000-hyperrealistic-murals-in-nyc-2019-11">How $150,000 hyperrealistic murals come to life</a></h3>

Inside one of the worst years in media history, where 7,200 jobs were axed and billions in value have been shed

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Chief executives say the pandemic era has pointed the way toward a near-future of flexible work, a more relaxed work-life balance, and more inclusive cultures.</li><li>Once the US emerges from its socially distanced cocoon, the new workplace could address longstanding issues ranging from overwork to lack of paid leave.</li><li>This feature is part of a series based on conversations with more than 200 CEOs on how business will be transformed by the coronavirus. To read more, click <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/whats-next-ceos-on-how-their-business-will-be-transformed-by-the-covid-19-pandemic">here</a>. </li></ul><p>When the coronavirus pandemic arrived in the US and disrupted the world of work, it threw millions into a strange new, entirely remote world. CEOs included.</p><p>For many of those still working amid a historic wave of layoffs, an online workplace culture has emerged, one with entirely new strengths, giving executives a valuable opportunity to rethink their operations.</p><p>It made work more flexible because it had to be, and that flexibility might just stick.</p><p>Business Insider recently asked more than 200 chief executive officers at some of the world's largest companies how business will be transformed by the coronavirus. Many described a future where some workers can pick when and where they want to clock in; where online tools lead to creative solutions; and where the climate encourages personal lives to be shared with colleagues. </p><p>"It's difficult to draw many positives from a crisis that has had such a significant human cost, and that has created such dire economic circumstances for so many families," Lee Olesky, CEO of financial services company Tradeweb, told Business Insider. "I hope we'll use it as an opportunity to ask some tough questions: do we need to adjust the work-life balance? How can we make sure the most vulnerable are better protected? Are we really getting healthcare right?"</p><p>The post-pandemic workplace could address issues that were quietly mounting for years. Burnout, or work-induced stress and anxiety, became a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/burnout-is-now-a-clinical-syndrome-2019-5">clinical syndrome</a> in 2019, and more than half of American workers say their job has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/half-of-american-employees-say-work-impacts-mental-health">negatively impacted their mental health</a>. </p><p>Indeed, Americans <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/unhealthy-american-work-habits-2017-11#they-hardly-ever-go-on-vacation-2">work longer hours</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-workers-suffer-burnout-when-colleagues-on-vacation-2019-7">take less vacation</a> than workers in nearly any other industrial country. And the US is the only developed country without <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-03-13/179-countries-have-paid-sick-leave-not-us">guaranteed paid leave for illness and vacation</a>, with a federal minimum wage unchanged since the Great Recession. </p><p>Then the pandemic hit, wiping out millions of jobs, particularly those in hospitality and restaurants. </p><p>And to be sure, the benefits these CEOs described are likely to primarily extend to workers in office settings, whose jobs can easily be made virtual. </p><p>For these white-collar professionals, work may never be the same again. </p><h2><strong>The flexible work revolution is here</strong></h2><p>The conversation around increasing work-life balance has, before now, largely centered around the four-day workweek. And that has had some glimmers of success, as when Microsoft cut one day at a Japanese subsidiary and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-4-day-work-week-boosts-productivity-2019-11">saw a 40% boost in productivity</a>. But executives said a separate breakthrough is emerging from the fog of the pandemic: flexible work.</p><p>Flexible work allows employees to choose times and locations that suit their personal and familial needs. The CEOs polled by Business Insider were consistent in acknowledging that they see flexible work redefining their workforces after the pandemic.</p><p>Aaron Levie, CEO of cloud content management company Box, said the company will "absolutely" shift to a more "dynamic, real-time" work style, defined by working from home and flexible work hours. Todd McKinnon, chief executive of software company Okta, said the future of work will likely enable employees to work anywhere, without sacrificing benefits like healthcare and volunteer opportunities. </p><p>"We used to joke about meetings that could have been emails," said Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc, "but now we'll wonder why we can't just do them in our pajamas with our pets on video conference."</p><p>Jeff Lawson, CEO of cloud communications platform Twilio, added that "the virtual model of flexibility will always persist. It's up to teams to decide how they persist if they prefer to work remotely or cohabitate in an office." When people do return to offices, Lawson said, "we'll see a lot fewer people five days a week and more people who will work from home one to two days a week."</p><p>Arthur Sadoun, CEO of advertising holding company Publicis, agreed, saying that "today, no one cares if the work is in London and the talent that can take it on is in Chicago – everyone is working remotely."</p><p>The new flexibility "will benefit employees and leaders alike by boosting team morale," according to Carolyn Childers, CEO of Chief, a private network for female professionals. She noted that remote work is a widely sought-after employee benefit.  According to a February 2020 survey of <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/workplace-flexibility-survey.html?nc=1">1,000 US professionals conducted by Deloitte</a>, 94% of employees indicated that they would "benefit from flexible work options." </p><p>It could help companies save on travel costs and potentially rent, Childers said, and increase access to new, diverse talent pools beyond the city in which any company is based, potentially transforming the jobs market in rural areas.</p><p>Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who encouraged employees to work remotely in early March, made the policy permanent in early May, <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alexkantrowitz/twitter-will-allow-employees-to-work-at-home-forever">Buzzfeed reported</a> this week. The policy applies to all jobs that don't require physical presence, such as server maintenance. </p><h2>Tech could overhaul b<strong>rainstorming and communication</strong></h2><p>A potential downside to a majority-remote workforce could be a kind of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/zoom-fatigue-is-real-11587652460">"Zoom fatigue,"</a> or overexposure to videoconferencing. But online meetings might also benefit employers — with the right technology.</p><p>"We used to think that idea-making — to get to the creative part of the business — idea-making had to have a human touch," said Gail Heimann, the CEO of PR firm Weber Shandwick. "You had to be in the room, you had to be kicking it around. You have to be throwing stuff at each other and eating pizza. But idea-making can completely thrive in this virtualized world."<strong style="background-color: #ffff00;"><br /></strong></p><p>Joe Lusardi, CEO of Curaleaf, a cannabis company, said going forward there would need to be "good justification" for taking business trips for meetings that could have been done on Zoom.</p><p>Some research suggests brainstorming online might be more effective than booking a conference room and ordering lunch. One <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563205000506">2007 meta-analysis</a> found 70% of participants came up with more creative ideas when brainstorming virtually than in person. </p><p><a href="https://hbr.org/2015/04/why-brainstorming-works-better-online">Harvard Business Review's Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic</a> has found that while traditional meetings typically have a couple extroverts dominating the conversation, online meetings gives participants a sense of anonymity that allows for more balanced conversations.</p><p>"The shift to a more personal way of using digital communications, face to face video and information sharing will definitely continue to be more prevalent," said Martin Fritsches, the CEO of Rolls-Royce North America. </p><p>But a lot is lost in video calls too: as teams rely on chatrooms for day-to-day communication, they can lose nonverbal cues that establish tone and urgency. Clear communication will be one of the hallmarks of a successful organization "now more than ever," said WW CEO Mindy Grossman.</p><p>"No question about it, streaming video works — but it is not the same; the experience is different, and for certain functions and activities it does not produce the chemistry and energy that a person-to-person interaction does," David Brickman, CEO of Freddie Mac, said. </p><h2><strong>Videoconferencing could usher in a new wave of company inclusivity — and </strong>allow you <strong>to bring your whole self to work</strong></h2><p>Videoconferencing enables colleagues to peak into one another's homes to discover what kind of books decorate their shelves and how they communicate with their loved ones. Coworkers can see each other's more personal sides, which has already shown signs of enabling them to bring their whole selves to work in ways that weren't possible before. </p><p>Katia Beauchamp, founder and CEO of Birchbox, a beauty subscription service, said that allowing colleagues to invite each other into their homes (albeit virtually) has brought depth to relationships at work "that would take months or years to create."</p><p>Jenny Johnson, CEO of investment manager Franklin Templeton, said "video calls have naturally become more personal as kids and pets weave in and out of the frame," and the technology is actually an improvement on much of what came before.</p><p>Childers said she has been pleasantly surprised, because her prediction that remote work would negatively impact company culture and connectedness "has not manifested. Many teams are growing closer while working remotely — virtually building relationships with one another's children, removing the corporate facade, and honestly discussing mental health, uncertainty, and coping. Her team even created something called "Camp Chief," where teammates "virtually babysit" their colleagues' children.</p><p>Many diversity experts said allowing employees to feel like they can bring their whole selves to work aids allows for greater <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/execs-fortune-500-companies-talk-biggest-diversity-inclusion-trends#sheri-bronstein-chief-human-resources-officer-at-bank-of-america-2">inclusion</a> and <a href="https://www.talentinnovation.org/yb2019/">belonging</a>.</p><p>White-collar workforces in the US are still essentially homogenous: men and women of color respectively make up 16% and 18% of entry-level roles at 590 major US corporations, per <a href="https://womenintheworkplace.com/">McKinsey</a>, and the ratio diminishes further up the management ladder. A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/glassdoor-42-of-us-employees-have-witnessed-or-experienced-racism-2019-10">Glassdoor</a> survey of working professionals revealed that 42% of American workers said they have experienced or seen racism at work, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gay-lesbian-trans-lgbt-employees-work-discrimination-2019-6">half of LGBTQ employees</a> reported verbal discrimination.</p><p>A more diverse workforce is good for business, too. Evidence indicates that non-diverse companies are <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter">less innovative</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/benefits-of-diverse-companies-2017-3">less profitable</a>. </p><p>The pandemic that brought colleagues into each other's living rooms could be the catalyst that makes this diversity a fact of life.</p><p>"Meetings that were once routine are now happening in makeshift offices, surrounded by family photos, interrupted by energetic kids and pets, and opening up a much deeper level of personal connection," said Lawrence Raffone, CEO of Edelman Financial Engines. "I'm seeing more people be vulnerable and sharing how this crisis has impacted their lives, each in different ways."</p>Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ceos-share-their-thoughts-on-the-future-of-work-2020-4">Business Insider</a>

Your job is never going to be the same again

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> crisis has proved that companies can remain productive over Zoom. </li><li><keyword id="1591611" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="remote-work">Remote work</keyword> will become more common than ever, which will mean fewer people head to the <keyword id="23557" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="office">office</keyword>. </li><li>Office designs will change to be centered around collaborative work, and there could be a revival of the suburban office. </li><li>To read more stories on the future of the office, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-offices-and-remote-work-will-be-transformed-by-coronavirus-2020-5">click here.</a></li></ul><p>Coronavirus has changed the office forever.</p><p>The dense, urban, open-floor plan office has been the defining feature of offices over the last 20 years, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-flexible-office-after-a-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-4">with tightly packed flexible-office and coworking locations from companies like WeWork the biggest exemplars of the trend</a>. A recent report by JLL found that up to 70% of all office spaces in the first quarter of 2020 were mostly or partially open floor offices. </p><p>These sorts of offices are nightmares for the transmission of a virus that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-does-new-york-have-so-many-cases-of-coronavirus-2020-4">feeds on density,</a> and they may end up as artifacts of the pre-pandemic start of the 21st century. Remote work, rumored to be waiting in the wings to kill the traditional office since the invention of the fax machine, has finally had its day. </p><p>CEOs, like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-ceo-gorman-timeline-for-returning-to-offices-2020-4">James Gorman at Morgan Stanley</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/barclays-ceo-crowded-offices-a-thing-of-the-past-coronavirus-2020-4">Jes Staley at Barclays</a>, have questioned the need for their pre-virus office square footage. They've had success running their businesses totally remotely, so why not save a couple of bucks on one of their biggest costs.</p><p>But the office won't die altogether. Instead, as the workplace has countless times before, it will evolve.</p><p><div type="image" title="Typist with medical mask, 1918 flu" height="675" width="900" msid="75647444" hostid="261"></div>The evolution will begin with the short-term solutions that will <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/when-businesses-will-reopen-offices-how-go-back-to-work-2020-4">make offices safe before a coronavirus vaccine</a>. These changes will act like a bridge to the future of the workplace: some of these short-term changes will stick and some will eventually look as quaint <a href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/records-list.html">as this photo of a masked-typist clacking away on a typewriter during the Spanish Influenza epidemic.</a> </p><p>The long-term evolution of the office will be decided in the coming months and years, as companies rethink their business plans to be flexible and resilient to retain productivity in a crisis.</p><p>While the loss of life and psychological pain of the pandemic, and the economic crisis following in its wake, are staggering, businesses are seeing it as an opportunity to make foundational changes to how and where they operate.</p><p>The choices that companies make now will decide what the office looks like in five years.  </p><p><em><strong>Read more: </strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-flexible-office-after-a-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-4">The coronavirus is a 'nuclear bomb' for companies like WeWork. 10 real-estate insiders lay out the future of flex-office, and how employers are preparing now.</a></em></p><h2><strong>Remote work is here to stay</strong></h2><p><strong><div type="image" title="wall street 2030 wealth management 4x3" height="601" width="1201" msid="75647449" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><p>We're in the midst of the largest work-from-home experiment ever, which will likely be the beginning of a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-coronavirus-could-usher-in-new-paradigm-for-remote-work-2020-3">"paradigm shift" towards remote work</a>. Executives and workers alike have seen first hand that business operations can continue online. </p><p>A recent Colliers survey found that 4 in 5 employees hope to work remotely at least once a week after the coronavirus crisis ends. A Gartner survey this March found that 74% of 317 CFOs, half of which oversee the financials of companies with revenue above $1 billion, plan on shifting some employees to permanent remote work. </p><p>Some organizations have already changed their remote work guidelines: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zillow-allows-employees-to-work-from-home-for-rest-of-year-2020-4">Zillow's 5,000 employees will be able to work remotely at their discretion through the end of the year</a>. Others, like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/refinitiv-coronavirus-policies-wall-street-data-2020-3">Refinitiv</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tradeweb-ceo-talks-working-remotely-because-coronavirus-2020-3">Tradeweb</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-nationwides-ceo-sees-digital-innovation-as-critical-post-pandemic-2020-4">Nationwide</a>, and the aforementioned Barclays and Morgan Stanley, are signaling that their guidelines will also change. </p><p>"We used to joke about meetings that could have been emails, but now we'll wonder why we can't just do them in our pajamas with our pets on video conference," Nancy Dubuc, Vice Media Group CEO, told Business Insider. "There's a balance of course because some work is actually more productive and better done in person, but it will never need to be 5 days a week, all day every day again."</p><p><div type="image" title="shane smith nancy dubuc vice media" height="1998" width="2664" msid="75647452" hostid="261"></div></p><p>When these companies begin to shift their business models to accommodate remote work, the office will change. They may cut back on individual workspaces and increase investment in collaborative spaces, turning the office into a cultural and training hub.</p><p>"This (more remote work) means adapting some of the office structure to help this way of working succeed, with even more video facilities and more flexible group spaces for brainstorming sessions," Luke Ellis, CEO of investment manager Man Group, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/man-group-ceo-luke-ellis-says-many-employees-will-be-working-from-home-2020-4">told Business Insider</a>. </p><p>Most leaders aren't considering going fully remote.<strong style="color: #ff0000;"> </strong>Instead, they're going to use office space differently, and could potentially even cut back on space. PR giant <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-bcw-global-is-navigating-coronavirus-headwinds-2020-4">BCW Global's CEO Donna Imperato is considering taking less office space as more employees work remotely,</a> for example.</p><p>"I'm not sure we'll go back to office seating," she said. "We won't need as much <keyword id="6354553" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="real-estate">real estate</keyword> because more people will start working from home. That's a cost saving, and they become more productive." </p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-bcw-global-is-navigating-coronavirus-headwinds-2020-4">The CEO of the third-biggest PR firm BCW lays out how the company will outperform its peers in a tough year</a></em></p><p>Arnold Levin, director of <keyword id="6363690" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Strategy">strategy</keyword> for the southwest at leading architecture and design firm Gensler, told Business Insider about one health insurance client that had been looking to cut down on their 500,000 square foot office portfolio before the pandemic. Levin produced a plan that utilized desk-hoteling to cut the footprint down to 320,000 square feet, and presented it over a video chat in the midst of the lockdown. </p><p>The CEO told Levin that their workforce had been so effective at working remotely that they actually would prefer to cut back on an all individual workspace in their offices. They're now planning to operate in one 80,000 square foot office building, using it for training, large meetings, and to entertain clients. </p><p><div type="image" title="gensler architecture diagrams" height="1500" width="2000" msid="75647456" hostid="261"></div></p><p><em><strong>Read more: </strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/when-businesses-will-reopen-offices-how-go-back-to-work-2020-4">What to expect when you're back in the office: 7 real-estate experts break down what the transition will look like, and why the workplace may never be the same</a></em></p><h2><strong>Why remote work won't kill the office completely</strong></h2><p>If every company were to shrink their footprint as drastically as Levin's client, the commercial office market would crumble. This is unlikely to happen for a couple of reasons. For one, if less people came into the office, but offices became less dense to make social distancing possible, companies might still need just as much office space. </p><p>"We, like everyone else, have dreams of reducing our real estate footprint," MSCI CEO Henry Fernandez told Business Insider. However, that dream is constrained by the realities of social distancing.<div type="image" title="digital wall street virtual remote work 3 4x3" height="1344" width="1791" msid="75647458" hostid="261"></div></p><p>"The flipside of that is whatever real estate you occupy, you will consume a lot more of it because we have to social distance," Fernandez said.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.squarefoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/White-Paper-PDF_April-2020-1.pdf">whitepaper</a> by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/squarefoot-hires-former-savills-president-michaeel-colacino-2019-11">Michael Colacino, president at office space company SquareFoot</a>, walks through the reasons why he thinks that the reduction in office space likely won't approach the roughly <a href="https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/">25% decrease</a> <a href="https://www.knoll.com/media/466/356/WP_DistributedWork.pdf">that's estimated</a> by <a href="https://www.gsa.gov/cdnstatic/Workspace_Utilization_Banchmark_July_2012_%281%29.pdf">some experts</a>.</p><p>Executives, already most likely to work remotely before the pandemic, would have to give up their dedicated office space, which is usually much larger than a typical employees. Other employees would have to turn to hot-desks (desks that are on a first-come-first-serve basis) and shared workspaces instead of offices or assigned desks.</p><p>Hot-desking would lead to an almost-unsolvable coordination problem: how do you make repeatable schedules that prevent the office from getting too crowded while also making sure that the correct people are in the office for any in-person activities, like trainings or meetings? Hot-desking also requires a large amount of cleaning to prevent spread of the coronavirus.</p><p>Without workers going remote full-time, the office space won't be able to shrink much. Colacino's model predicts that space demand will shrink about 5%. Given the long length of leases and the high costs associated with breaking a lease or finding a subletter, this shrinkage will happen over a horizon of years, blunting the impact.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-office-tenants-delay-big-leases-amid-corona-2020-4">Major tenants are delaying big leases in as they re-think their office space needs for the post-coronavirus world</a></em></p><h2><strong>How do we make offices safe?</strong></h2><p>Before the advent of a coronavirus vaccine, the near-term return to the office will require lots of operational and technological changes to prevent spread of the virus. The psychological effects of the crisis, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-pandemic-is-a-warning-about-climate-change-fight-2020-3">the reality that global catastrophic events are likely to become more common as a result of climate change</a>, means that these changes won't disappear once the virus becomes a distant memory.</p><p>"What is going to be the long-term imprint psychologically on any of us?" Levin from Genssler said. "We wake up in the morning, we hear about the virus and we hear about the death tolls. We go to bed, we hear about the death tolls." <strong> </strong></p><p>Offices may not feel safe even after a vaccine, and it will be up to companies to make employees feel safe. After 9/11, office buildings in major cities began to add turnstiles and security desks to prevent potential terrorist attacks, and surveillance increased in pretty much every public space. This sacrifice of privacy for security will happen in the office after coronavirus.</p><p>Surveillance in a pre-coronavirus office largely meant the watchful eye of a manager trying to see who is scrolling Instagram at their desk or watching a daytime baseball game in the corner of their computer monitor. <div type="image" title="coronavirus thermometer gun" height="2845" width="3794" msid="75647460" hostid="261"></div></p><p>After coronavirus, surveillance will include everything from <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dangeiger79_major-landlords-are-split-on-mandatory-temperature-taking-activity-6661718523896700928-4RZQ/">temperature checks at a building entrance</a> to the mandatory installation of contract-tracing applications on an employee's smartphone, all of which are allowed under legal guidance offered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Center for Disease Control,<a href="https://www.goodwinlaw.com/publications/2020/04/04_19-preparing-for-reentry-in-the-us"> according to a Goodwin Procter legal analysis. </a></p><p>In China, 80% of Class A office buildings are requiring temperature checks at the entrance to the building to prevent the spread of the virus, <a href="https://www.us.jll.com/content/dam/jll-com/documents/pdf/research/2020-Forecast-Series---Tenant-needs-in-a-post-pandemic-world.pdf">according to a JLL report</a>. </p><p>Artificial intelligence company Landing AI has developed demo software that uses video to flag inadequate social distancing in the workplace in real time. AI-enabled video surveillance and utilization monitoring sensors are likely to become much more common.  </p><p>The limiting factor for a lot of these changes is their cost, magnified by the economic tightening underway right now. <strong> </strong></p><p>"(The costs) add insult to injury within the environment we're operating in," Andrew Sucoff, chair of Goodwin Procter's Boston real estate practice.</p><p><em><strong>Read more: </strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-effective-temperature-taking-will-be-when-offices-reopen-2020-4">Mandatory temperature-taking is largely seen as a critical way to return workers to offices. But some big NYC landlords are worried about its effectiveness.</a></em></p><h2><strong>The return of the suburban office</strong></h2><p>Some businesses are considering alternating desks or erecting temporary barriers in the short-term. In the long-term, companies are considering everything from erecting walled, private offices to moving to suburban office spaces. </p><p>A forthcoming report by Dr. Victor Calanog, head of commercial real estate economics for Moody's Analytics REIS traces the last time the suburban office came into, and out of vogue.</p><p>In the 1980s, with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-city-used-to-be-a-terrifying-place-photos-2013-7">crime at approaching record highs</a> and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/20180718_Brookings-Metro_City-fiscal-policy-Pagano-Hoene-final.pdf">federal and state aid to city budgets shrinking</a>, there was a professional-class exodus from the city to the suburbs. Corporations followed suit on a slightly delayed time scale, given the length of typical office leases: from 1989 to 1997, suburban market inventory expanded 1.7 times faster than inventory in cities's central business districts. </p><p><div type="image" title="bridgewater employee office" height="587" width="783" msid="75647462" hostid="261"></div></p><p>By 1997, suburban office vacancies were 1.8% lower than central business district vacancies, and by 1998, the Building Owners and Managers Association said that the suburban office will be the top real estate investment of the next five to ten years. </p><p>That did not come to pass. City budgets increased, crime fell, and professional workers began to move back to the city. Simultaneously, internet technology and increasing office density lowered demand for office space. The city became the ideal location for office space once again. </p><p>This cycle may repeat itself, with the pandemic replacing crime and budgetary constraints. After 9/11, Morgan Stanley moved employees to offices in Westchester County, New York a suburb outside Manhattan. Before the total coronavirus lockdown, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-shifting-half-of-traders-to-westchester-amid-coronavirus-2020-3">Morgan Stanley moved traders back to the same office</a> again. </p><h2><strong>Why is this time different?</strong></h2><p>The death of the office has been foretold for a while now, but hasn't come to pass.  Dr. Calanog told Business Insider that people have been theorizing the death of the office since the arrivals of the fax machine and the internet.</p><p>Levin, from Gensler, told Business Insider that consultants thought the Great Recession would be the catalyst for the future of the office, where "everyone will be like Google." </p><p><div type="image" title="Open Office Workers Happy" height="1000" width="1333" msid="75647465" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The mood at the time is best summed up by a <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/rahm-emanuel-reprises-never-let-a-crisis-go-to-waste-catchphrase-amid-coronavirus-pandemic">Rahm Emmanuel catchphrase from 2009</a>, <a href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb/repo-crisis-becomes-machiavellian-opportunity-for-some-investors">by way of Macchiavelli</a> and a pit stop with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/sep/15/politics">Naomi Klein</a>: "Never let a crisis go to waste."</p><p>"People had short-lived memories," Levin said. "Some changed, but a vast majority went back to cramming as many people into a space as possible." </p><p>This time is different, says Dr. Calanog, because of the international scope of the change and the duration of the shock, which still has no obvious end date. </p><p>Levin said that, instead of focusing on tactical changes or the ideal model for the future office, he's asking clients deep questions about their goals and principles and the threats to their current business model. </p><p>"The best thing is to avoid clever trends and quick fixes, and have organizations face this new reality," Levin said. </p><p>Levin said the organizations that are using this time to realign their business model to be more adaptable will be the most successful going forward. Any changes they make to their office and workplace should flow from that realignment.</p><p>"I think organizations are going to see more of a connection with a need to change their business models and how the workplace connects to that for the first time."</p>Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-pandemic-wont-kill-office-but-it-will-change-forever-2020-4">Business Insider</a>

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