Comcast-owned European TV giant Sky unveiled a new leadership structure for its Sky News Group on Monday. It named former CBS News president David Rhodes executive chairman of the Sky News Group with “overall responsibility for Sky’s news services across Europe, Middle East and Africa.”
With a channel said to be not financially viable, the company will focus on producing streaming video content. David Rhodes will leave his consultant role at News UK, but keep advising the parent company.
David Rhodes, a 12-year veteran of Fox News who also held executive roles at CBS News and Bloomberg, has begin doing consultant work on “video projects” for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. in the U.K. That has led to speculation that Rhodes could return to Fox News in some capacity.
Why CBS News’s David Rhodes is being replaced by broadcast news legend Susan Zirinsky.
Rhodes is stepping down following a troubled year that saw morning anchor Charlie Rose and the top executive at 60 Minutes lose their jobs following misconduct reports and ratings issues at its top shows. Zirinsky, who started work at CBS in the Washington bureau as a 20-year-old in the early 1970s and is currently the executive producer at 48 Hours, will take over in March.
Exclusives
CBS will air its 60 Minutes interview with porn star Stormy Daniels, CBS News President David Rhodes confirmed Tuesday. Rhodes, however, would not confirm when the interview with Daniels would air. Anderson Cooper last week interviewed the porn star who claims to have had an affair with President Trump.
CBS News President David Rhodes, who was honored on Thursday night with the Radio Television Digital News Foundation’s First Amendment Service Award, said that showing cellphone video of the high school shooting was made after discussing “who are we to decide that the truth shouldn’t be seen by a wider audience? If these images can be put in appropriate context by our reporters, aren’t they important for people to see? Our job as a news organization is to reveal these events, not conceal them.”
On March 8, the Radio Television Digital News Foundation will host its 28th annual recognition of First Amendment champions — The First Amendment Awards: Freedom Fails Without A Free Press. This year’s honorees include: NBC’s Meet the Press, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, CBS News’ David Rhodes, Gretchen Carlson and ABC News’ Robin Roberts.
In late May, it came out that after six years as anchor of the CBS Evening News, Scott Pelley would be vacating the chair. In an employee town hall Thursday, CBS News President David Rhodes was asked if he thinks the rocky transition has hurt company morale. “I absolutely do. And I’m concerned about it,” he said, according to someone who viewed the event.
CBS’s Rhodes: On-Air, Online News Is Strong
CBS News President David Rhodes says there is a great deal of affiliate interest in its CBSN platform. “And we’re hoping that some of the things we learn about it on a national or even on an international scale are lessons that could be applied locally.” Not surprisingly, Rhodes is just as bullish on traditional broadcast news as he is on his news division’s forays into digital. He noted that The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley had its largest November audience in nine years last month. And Rhodes also expressed satisfaction in the steady audience growth of CBS This Morning in recent years too. (Photo by Wendy Moger-Bross)
The third annual conference from TVNewsCheck and Sports Video Group will open Dec. 14 with an interview featuring the president of CBS News. Other sessions over the two-day event will address ENG, white spaces/wireless mics, targeting millennials, virtual sets/augmented reality, covering the 2016 political races and election night, story-centric workflow, covering the pope, news everywhere and more.
CBS President-CEO Leslie Moonves said CBS News President David Rhodes has extended his contract through February 2019. Rhodes has been president of CBS News since 2011.
Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News and executive producer of 60 Minutes, today announced his intention to step down from his role as chairman and to return to full focus on running the newsmagazine, effective at the beginning of the new year. At that time, David Rhodes, who has been president of CBS News since 2011, will assume sole leadership of the division.
What’s Behind CBS’s Digital News Push?
CBS News chief David Rhodes talks about the network’s decision to launch a streaming news service — CBSN — as part of a strategy to uphold his network’s brand and format while also attracting the viewers that will keep it in business decades from now.
After a reboot of the evening newscast under Scott Pelley, CBS News President David Rhodes and his boss, CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager, are devoting much of their attention to the network’s cellar-dwelling morning show.
Five months into the tenure of CBS News chairman Jeff Fager and CBS News president David Rhodes, there are more staff changes on West 57th Street … and beyond.
CBS News President David Rhodes tore into his morning news program, Early Show, today telling staffers in an e-mail, “CBS News had a great weekend. And a bad Monday morning.”
Historic Studio 45 at the CBS Broadcast Center, once home to the soap opera Guiding Light, saw the beginning of a new era at CBS News Tuesday, as David Rhodes and Jeff Fager, the new president and chairman of the news division led a town hall meeting for employees.
Last week Jeff Fager, the behind-the-scenes boss of 60 Minutes, was appointed CBS News chairman with Bloomberg’s David Rhodes his right-hand man. Their first major issue is likely to be whether Katie Couric remains as the network’s top anchor after her current contract expires at the end of May.
Sean McManus is stepping down as president of the news division to become chairman of CBS Sports. CBS News will now be headed by Jeff Fager, as chairman, and David Rhodes, as president.
