Comcast

Jun 9 2011

Five minority businesses will be selected

Comcast Interactive Capital, the venture capital affiliate of Comcast Corp.—one of the world’s leading media, entertainment and communications companies—has partnered with DreamIt Ventures to provide seed funding, training, mentoring and other benefits to five minority-led startups through DreamIt’s accelerator program.

May 23 2011

Johnathan Rodgers retires

Wonya Lucas has been named president and CEO of TV One, effective Monday, August 8. The cable industry programming veteran succeeds Johnathan Rodgers, who has announced his retirement as of July 31.

Most recently, Lucas was executive vice president and chief operating officer for Discovery Channel and Science Channel, where she was responsible for strategy and operations for the networks as well as oversight of the networks’ research and marketing departments. She joined Discovery Communications in 2008 as the chief marketing officer.

May 6 2011

Communicate to teens “If You Wouldn’t Wear It, Don’t Share it: Beware What You Share”

NEW YORK, N.Y.—In an effort to educate teens about how to be smart about what they post and share online, WhatsWhat.me—the safe, secure “kids-only” social network—has joined the Ad Council’s new collaborative initiative, the Internet Safety Coalition, to provide research-based messages to teens and their parents.

Stanley O. Williford  |   OW Editor
Apr 28 2011

Will join family investment business

Paula Madison, who joined KNBC-TV 11 years ago as president and general manager and moved up to become executive vice president and the first chief diversity officer for NBCUniversal, announced plans to retire on May 20.

Madison’s journalism career began with newspapers in New York and Dallas/Fort Worth after graduation from Vassar College. Following stints with television stations in Texas and Oklahoma, she joined New York’s WNBC in 1989 as assistant news director and went on to become its vice president and news director in 1996.

Juliana D. Norwood  |   OW Staff Writer
Dec 23 2010

Commitment ensures more minority participation

The NAACP, National Urban League and National Action Network recently signed an agreement with Comcast and NBC Universal to expand current initiatives intended to increase diversity in a wide range of areas, including programming and employment.
 
The memorandum of understanding filed with the Federal Communications Commission outlines commitments by the merged companies to improve diversity in corporate governance, employment/workforce recruitment and retention, procurement, programming, philanthropy and community investments. 
 

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.