“LOCAL NEWSPAPERS HAVE LONG BEEN THE FERTILE GROUND FROM WHICH STORIES GROW TO A NATIONAL LEVEL.” —Dan Rather
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About
The 30 Company is a film and television studio that puts meaningful journalism at the heart of every story we tell. Founded with the mission to support and revitalize local news, we partner with newspapers and reporters to bring their stories of courage, humanity, and justice to Hollywood. The 30 Company is a production studio powered by journalists and guided by Dan Rather’s legacy of fearless journalism.
We are actively developing media content across different genres and formats, including scripted feature films, TV series, docu-series, documentaries, and podcasts.
“If you want to see a good reporter’s neck swell, try telling him or her what to write or say” —Dan Rather
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TEAM
Dan Rather, Chairman Emeritus
Dan Rather is one of the world’s best-known journalists of the last half-century. He has interviewed every president since Eisenhower and personally covered almost every important dateline of the last 60 years. Rather joined CBS News in 1962 and in 1981 assumed the position of anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News—a post he held for 24 years. His reporting across the network helped to turn 60 Minutes into an institution, launched 48 Hours as an innovative news magazine program, and shaped countless specials and documentaries. Upon leaving CBS, Rather returned to the in-depth reporting he always loved, creating the Emmy Award-winning Dan Rather Reports on HDNet.
Philip Kim, Chief Executive Officer
Philip Kim began working with Mr. Rather in 2001 as his assistant at CBS News. From 2006 - 2015, he served as Mr. Rather’s chief of staff and special assistant and produced stories for the Emmy Award-winning cable news magazine, Dan Rather Reports. Philip has traveled the globe on assignment, including Afghanistan, Iraq, the West Bank, South America, and Eastern Europe. From 2016 to 2021, he was chief operating officer at News and Guts, an independent media company founded by Mr. Rather. In that role, he managed project development, strategy, and business affairs.
Alexander Shebanow, Chief Operating Officer
Alexander Shebanow is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist. In 2013, he began work on Fail State, an expansive documentary exposé on predatory for-profit colleges and the student loan debt crisis. Executive produced by Dan Rather, Fail State premiered in the fall of 2017, garnering strong press attention, film festival awards, and rave reviews in The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. For his investigative work on Fail State, Alexander was awarded the 2019 William Randolph Hearst Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting.
