Fox Is Taking Care of Business

While new General Manager Kevin Malone continues to make changes in the Dodger baseball operation, President Bob Graziano and the parent Fox Group are conducting executive searches of their own:

* Graziano is hiring a senior vice president who will oversee the business wing.

* Fox is creating an entity that probably will be called Fox Sports Enterprises and will oversee all of the company’s team and arena investments, among them possible expansion into restaurants and apparel.

Fox has investments in the Dodgers, Kings and Lakers, and the New York Knicks and Rangers. The arenas are the Staples Center and Madison Square Garden.

Fox apparently is looking for a person with an entertainment background to head the new division but hasn’t conducted interviews yet, according to a source, who added that Graziano would report to the new executive, as he does now to Fox chairmen Chase Cary and Peter Chernin, but “it would not affect his authority and responsibility in running the Dodgers.”

Graziano, in the meantime, is trying to hire a business vice president with strong marketing background to coordinate all the departments on the business side, he said, and help identify ways to increase revenue at Dodger Stadium.

Graziano said, “In the past, we’ve had separate vice presidents in charge of the business and baseball sides, and that’s the direction we want to go in the future.”