TV Unit of Fox Gets New Chief

Fox Entertainment Group on Thursday hired a TV executive with a diverse resume to be president of Fox Television Studios.

Angela Shapiro was most recently president of the ABC Family cable channel, a unit of Walt Disney Co. But she left last fall after a falling out over the channel’s management.

Before that, Shapiro was president of ABC’s daytime division and Disney’s Buena Vista Productions. She helped develop the syndicated version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

Shapiro has also owned several businesses including Soap Opera Digest and an agency that helped market the mood ring.

Shapiro “combines a strong entrepreneurial spirit with exceptional programming, marketing and business savvy,” her new boss, News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin, said in a statement.

News Corp. will be looking to Shapiro to focus on developing shows, including reality programs, for Fox’s network, cable channels and TV stations. Shapiro succeeds David Grant, who is leaving the company.

Separately, Fox this week created a studio, fox 21, to nurture writers who have struggled to sell their ideas, as part of an effort to corral production costs.

“The mandate is to try to produce programming more cost-effectively,” Shapiro said of the corporate cost-cutting directive. “It has to make sense on the creative level as well as on the business level.”

Fox Television Studios produces more than a dozen shows, including “Malcolm in the Middle,” “The Bernie Mac Show” and “The Shield.”