Penske Scoops: SXSW Leak; Golden Globes-Attorney General Mess Builds
I have 11 mins of leaked audio from an internal meeting, and dish on the nepo baby-of-media's legal entanglement over his awards show
First, before I begin detailing the assorted self-inflicted calamities newly befalling Penske Media, I wanted to share some audio that demonstrates the singular skill of media’s junk king of the hour, hard at work making distressed assets more distressed. On and around April 25, Penske, a 51 percent owner of the once-beloved fest, axed 11 team members at SXSW, including its longtime president Hugh Forrest (following the axing of another 23 employees in the last few years). The New York Times reported that the company hadn’t met its financial goals for this recent March festival, or the one before in 2024.
SXSW’s new leader is Jenny Connelly, Penske Media’s executive vice president, product and technology.
In Trumpian fashion, Penske’s administration of the festival has combined bad intentions with clownish incompetence (and a DOGE-ish reduction of severance for those let go from two weeks for every year served to just one, per the NYT).
The trademark Penske management style is on full display in this recording obtained exclusively by The Ankler in which a chipper Connelly, in enthusiastic HR-ese, reveals to an assembled SXSW all-hands call of 150 on April 25 that “I have a lot of information to share with you,” then giggling, before adding, “So try and stick with me . . . Your brain might be shutting down.” Then she summarily lets it slip that the festival’s venerated leader was being shown the door along with other assorted staffers.
The speaker explains, “Today we made the incredibly hard decision to part ways with a number of our staff members . . . They reflect the necessary changes at our company to adapt to challenges and prepare for what’s ahead.” What those challenges are and what lies ahead, of course, are never laid out.
Here’s the recording of the meeting:
Enjoy this soundtrack of our times while you read on, including my scoop on the latest in the Golden Globes-attorney general-HFPA mess that could — could — begin the process towards a reversal of ownership, and the extremely curious choice to make CEO of Rolling Stone.
Golden Globes: The AG Acts as the HFPA Strikes Back
Today we learn that the chickens may finally be coming home to roost at the Penske-Boehly joint venture. Given the charges of improprieties around the acquisition and an ongoing review by the California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office of the entire process involving the transfer of a non-profit into for-profit hands that I first broke, I now have learned exclusively that Penske-Boehly co. has agreed to submit to mediation to review the deal, with the first session to take place next week.
For those who have lost track of this sordid plot, and the AG’s power to revoke it’s approval of the deal, here is my earlier piece that lays out exactly the stakes of this matter:
SCOOP: Attorney General Reassessing Golden Globes Deal
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Now, to compound matters further around the troubled awards show . . .
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which as reported here multiple times — and virtually nowhere else — was acquired in a shady shotgun marriage. Since getting its hands on the property, Penske-Boehly went about removing all traces of the HFPA from the house by turning members of the Association into employees, and then in turn firing them all, with meager severance.
This week, however, the long-suffering, scorned and fired former members of the HFPA are finally fighting back.
