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Attending the 2023 Sports Illustrated Athlete of the Year Awards and the Prime Video World Premiere of Coach Prime Season 2 at the CU Events Center in Boulder, Colorado on December 6, 2023. Ross Levinson.
CNN
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Digital publisher The Arena Group, which operates household brands such as Sports Illustrated and The Street, fired its chief executive on Monday amid a major bloodbath at the top, the company said. a spokesperson told CNN.
A spokeswoman for Arena Group declined to provide further details on the firing of Ross Levinson, who served as chief executive for three years. But the move comes after an embarrassing debacle in which Sports Illustrated was found to have published articles using fake author names and profile photos generated by artificial intelligence.
Effective immediately, Mr. Levinson will be succeeded by interim chief executive Manoj Bhargava, founder of Five Hour Energy, which owns a majority stake in Arena Group, Bhargava spokesman Vince Bodiford said. will be appointed.
Levinson’s firing comes one day after Arena Group fired three key executives: president of operations and chief operating officer Andrew Craft, president of media Rob Barrett and corporate counsel Julie Fenster. It was announced in less than a week.
“All of our media brands, including Sports Illustrated, will continue to operate under management teams in these areas, but the company is taking a broader view of how we incorporate our operations and business as a whole. That’s all,” Bodiford told CNN.
When asked if this change had anything to do with allegations that Sports Illustrated uses AI to write articles, Bodiford said, “This does not add to the company’s previous statements regarding AI.” I have nothing to add.”