Former ABC News Chief James Goldston has joined Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Candle Media to head up a new division focused on scripted and non-scripted features and series inspired by true stories. Goldston will serve as President of the new group.
Mayer and Staggs held senior executive posts at Disney during Goldston’s tenure at ABC. They launched Candle in 2021 with backing from private equity firm Blackstone. Initial investments have included the acquisition of Moonbug Entertainment and a significant stake in Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine.
Goldston spent 18 years at ABC News, including seven years as President, overseeing all aspects of the news division. Along with daily news programming, he oversaw podcast and documentary projects for Hulu and Disney+. That roster included The Dropout, produced by Rebecca Jarvis and her team, which became a breakout podcast, documentary and Emmy-winning scripted series for Hulu; and John’s Ridley’s Let it Fall, a duPont-Columbia Award-winning documentary on the LA riots. His teams have won five Edward R. Murrow Awards for Overall Excellence, and numerous other honors in journalism, including Peabody, duPont-Columbia and Emmy awards.
“Kevin and Tom have built a best-in-class team of storytellers at Candle Media,” said Goldston. “I’m thrilled to work with this brilliant group to create premium content based on the most compelling true-life stories.”
After leaving ABC News in 2021, Goldston founded Aquitania Films, creating documentary series for the U.S., UK and global market. Last year he also brought his story-telling acumen to producing the January 6 hearings in Washington DC. Aquitania’s extensive development slate will join Goldston and his team at Candle Media.
“We have known James for many years, through our collective time together at Disney,” said Candle Media co-founders Mayer and Staggs. “He is a world class storyteller, with a unique ability to turn real life stories into engaging, premium content across a variety of formats and platforms. We look forward to working with him to integrate and expand these capabilities as part of Candle.”
In addition to the Hello Sunshine and Moonbug deals, Candle has engineered eight additional acquisitions during its first 12 months of operations. Candle now has almost 1,000 employees, with offices in LA, London, New York, Nashville, Montreal, Mexico City, Tel Aviv and Singapore.
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