Richard Lipner, the accountant-turned-agent who boosted the careers of many television journalists, died Tuesday after a long illness. He was 85 years old.
Jay Souris, vice president of the talent agency UTA (which acquired Lipner's company NS Bienstock in 2014), said in an internal memo that Lipner died at his home in Manhattan surrounded by family members.
“Richard will be remembered as the agent who transformed the news world,” Souris said in the memo. “To say that Richard was creative and larger than life is really an understatement.”
Over his nearly six-decade career, Lipner was known as a fierce negotiator for a number of television news stars, including Diane Sawyer, Mike Wallace, Norah O'Donnell, Ed Bradley, Bill Whitaker and Charlie Rose. Former clients, many of whom he represented for decades, continued to consult with him after his retirement in 2022.
Lipner had the ability to recognize changes in the television news landscape and then capitalize on them.
When legendary sports television executive Ronnie Arledge took over ABC News in the late 1970s, he asked Lipner to bring him clients from CBS and NBC who he believed were underpaid. Lipner sprang into action and raised earning power throughout the entire television news industry as a result.
As part of Arledge's hiring drive, he aggressively pursued CBS News star Dan Rather. He instead remained at CBS, but Lipner used the offer as leverage to appoint him as successor to “CBS Evening News” anchor Walter Cronkite—even though the job had been promised by the network's Washington correspondent, Roger Mudd. Rather's new assignment came with a record contract that paid $2.2 million annually.
When Ted Turner launched CNN in 1980, Lipner brought to the mogul established names like Daniel Schur, who lent credibility to the fledgling cable news operation.
“Richard broadened the definition of talent in television news and dramatically increased its value,” former CBS News president Andrew Heyward said in a 2022 interview. “Not just for big-name stars, but for other people who might not be at the top level. You had this phenomenon of co-producers walking around saying, 'I've got another year on my contract' without any irony. That was something new.”
Some news network executives were unhappy with the way Lipner's agency had disrupted their business model. Ed Joyce, head of CBS News in the early 1980s, referred to the Beinstock Agency as “meat hucksters.” Lipner emphasized that his goal is to get customers “a fairer share of what the company makes.”
Lipner was born in Brooklyn and graduated from the University of Rochester. He joined his father's accounting firm in New York City in 1964. Most of their clients were music publishers and small record labels operating out of the legendary Brill Building in Times Square.
Lipner and his father eventually joined forces with Nate Bienstock, a life insurance salesman whose clients included CBS News commentator Eric Seyfried and author John Steinbeck. As more journalists began television work in the 1960s, Bienstock began treating their contracts as a side hustle.
The younger Lipner noted Bienstock and the growth of television news. Reporters and broadcasters covering the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement became household names. Soon, Lipner was representing television news talent.
“The big agencies were all focused on film and TV and making a lot of money from screening fees,” Lipner told The Times in a 2022 interview. “We were specialists, so we got a foothold and outperformed everyone else.”
By the end of the 1970s, Lipner's client list included Rather, Morley Seaver, Wallace, and Andy Rooney, all part of the “60 Minutes” staff, which had grown into the most popular news program.
Lipner represented Sawyer when she became 60 Minutes' first female correspondent, and Bradley, the show's first black journalist. He later engineered Sawyer's move to ABC News, where she eventually became anchor of ABC World News Tonight.
Lipner's business grew with the help of his wife, Carol Cooper, a former television commercial producer whom he met on a blind date in 1962. She joined Bienstock in 1976, and helped develop the careers of Bill O'Reilly, Megyn Kelly, and CNN's Anderson Cooper. Which she still represents at UTA, where she continues to work.
Lipner said that Cooper complemented him, often toning down his brash personality.
“She knows my transgressions,” Lipner said. “She knows when to stop me from making dirty jokes. She also had more confidence in my ability to take risks and do things than I thought she would. I think our marriage has lasted as long as it has, and been as good as it is now, because we're not afraid to be critical and honest with each other.” Some.
In recent years, Lipner has devoted much of his time to a family foundation, which contributes to organizations that provide scholarships to students who want to work in television news. He was also a major supporter of the American Broadcasting Corporation Library, which houses the papers of journalists at the University of Maryland.
Lipner Cooper is survived by his two sons, Jonathan and Adam, who is also a UTA agent, and four grandchildren.
