{"id":16297,"date":"2013-08-07T05:45:48","date_gmt":"2013-08-07T09:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=16297"},"modified":"2013-08-06T22:00:49","modified_gmt":"2013-08-07T02:00:49","slug":"buying-up-the-old-guard-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2013\/08\/buying-up-the-old-guard-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Buying up the old-guard media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Jeff Bezos, the founder and owner of Amazon.com, has bought the Washington Post<\/a>.\u00a0 That was just days after the New York Times<\/em> unloaded the Boston Globe<\/em><\/a> to the owner of the Boston Red Sox.\u00a0 But those aren\u2019t the only surprising media acquisitions.\u00a0 Newsweek<\/em>, which used to belong to the Post<\/em>, has been bought by a company with ties to the controversial evangelist David Jang, who started the news site The Christian Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From Ted Olsen, The Second Coming Christ Controversy: Company with Ties to David Jang Buys \u2018Newsweek\u2019 | Christianity Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Journalism websites are abuzz today with news that IAC\/InterActiveCorp sold the once-iconic Newsweek title to IBT Media, publisher of the website International Business Times. Most media coverage focuses on the history of the magazine, including the death of its print publication in December and IAC chairman Barry Diller\u2019s comment that his buying it had been a \u201cmistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

But few sites are noting that IBT has significant ties to David Jang, the Korean pastor hailed by some of his followers as a messianic figure, a \u201cSecond Coming Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christianity Today published two major articles on Jang last year, quoting multiple sources who described an international network with Jang as its spiritual\u2014and sometimes even operational\u2014leader.<\/p>\n

Jang has been a controversial figure in Asia since 2008, when a committee of Hong Kong theologians and church leaders \u201cunanimously expressed its serious apprehensions and concerns.\u201d His views and influence continue to be debated in South Korea and in the U.S. And last year, the National Association of Evangelicals appointed a committee to determine \u201ctheological compatibility\u201d between the Jang-founded Olivet University and the Southern Baptist Convention\u2019s LifeWay Christian Resources. The findings of that committee have not been publicly released, but after reviewing the committee\u2019s report LifeWay officials withdrew from plans to sell a 2,100-acre New Mexico conference center to the school.<\/p>\n

IBTimes has no public or formal ties to Jang. According to CT sources, IBTimes CEO Etienne Uzac owns 55 percent of the company and chief content officer Johnathan Davis owns 45 percent. Jang does not appear on the company\u2019s \u201cleadership\u201d page\u2014nor on any of its other pages.<\/p>\n

But in CT\u2019s reporting for the earlier two stories, several sources said that IBTimes was very much a part of Jang\u2019s network. IBTimes leaders took part in internet chats with Jang (usually weekly) where the pastor laid out his plans for various business units, like Olivet University and the Christian Post. . . .<\/p>\n

Still, IBTimes is more connected to Olivet than IBT executives are suggesting.<\/p>\n

When Buzzfeed\u2019s Peter Lauria noted<\/a> CT\u2019s earlier reporting on Jang and IBT, co-owners Uzac and Davis \u201cconceded that they had a working relationship with Olivet University, which was founded by Jang.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauria continues:\u00a0 \u201cThe relationship involves such things are placing students in internships, using the school\u2019s servers, and getting design assistance. \u2018That\u2019s as far as it goes,\u2019 said Davis, who likened the arrangement to how Stanford funnels students to Silicon Valley companies like Google.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uzac said he has been to Olivet several times and has met and knows Jang. He added that IBT has had a \u201cgreat working relationship with\u201d Olivet so far and would continue to explore opportunities with the University just as it would with other organizations.<\/p>\n

Lauria\u2019s report does not note that Davis is married to Olivet president Tracy McBeal Davis, that Davis formerly served as former director of journalism at Olivet, and that Olivet\u2019s website had listed Uzac as its treasurer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff Bezos, the founder and owner of Amazon.com, has bought the Washington Post.\u00a0 That was just days after the New York Times unloaded the Boston Globe to the owner of the Boston Red Sox.\u00a0 But those aren\u2019t the only surprising media acquisitions.\u00a0 Newsweek, which used to belong to the Post, has been bought by a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[133,2708,1208,2707,2335],"class_list":["post-16297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","tag-amazon-com","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-journalism","tag-newsweek","tag-washington-post"],"yoast_head":"\nBuying up the old-guard media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jeff Bezos, the founder and owner of Amazon.com, has bought the Washington Post.\u00a0 That was just days after the New York Times unloaded the 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