The situation didn’t play out the way some thought it might (and don’t most of these lawsuits wind up settling anyway?) but it does appear that Lahren did walk away with something important to her.
The deal allows the 24-year-old pundit to be freed from her employment contract — which was to expire in September — and pursue new work that competes with The Blaze. She also gets to keep the Facebook page that The Blaze created for her, and on which she has amassed 4.3 million followers.
Lahren will “promptly” return The Blaze’s “intellectual property” that was posted to the Facebook page, said her lawyer, Brian Lauten. In court hearings, Lauten had offered to delete all of the videos produced by The Blaze off the Facebook page, which would include some of Lahren’s most popular posts. Some had been watched more than 67 million times.
That she gets to keep the Facebook followers is pretty significant. During any downtime, she can marshall that fan base as a means of sending traffic to a website she owns and generating significant ad revenue. Or she can work out a deal with an existing property and do the same.
Of course, that’s the big question. Does Lahren wind up at another network? As it stands, her only option is Fox News, and at this point, if something were to come together, it would have to be a weekend gig.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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