Susan Zirinsky, former CBS News president, is back in a job where she can do one of her favorite things: tell a few stories. Zirinsky heads See It Now Studios, an independent production unit that she expects to launch documentary films and series for a range of ViacomCBS properties as well as outside parties. “I’m not a sliver of the network, or producing just for the inside,” she says. “My mandate is to be a studio.”
ViacomCBS announced Wednesday that CBS News is launching See It Now Studios, a new content provider that will produce news, documentary and unscripted programming for Paramount+, CBS, the ViacomCBS family of networks, international broadcasters and other content platforms. Former CBS News President Susan Zirinsky will run the operation.
The Radio Television Digital News Association will present Susan Zirinsky with the 2021 Paul White Award for her achievements in and contributions to the field of electronic journalism. The award-winning broadcast journalist first joined CBS News in the 1970s at the age of 20 two weeks after the Watergate scandal. In 2019, after a nearly 50-year tenure, she was appointed the first female president and senior executive producer of CBS News, which she held until April 2021. She now has a production partnership with ViacomCBS.
In an interview as she prepares to step down as news division head, Susan Zirinsky said, “I feel I have given my entire soul into rebuilding this organization.”
CBS News President Susan Zirinsky is nearing a deal to step down after just two years in the role and sign a wide-ranging production partnership with parent company ViacomCBS, according to people familiar with the matter. A search for a successor to Zirinsky has been ongoing for several months but a candidate has yet to be named. It is expected that she will remain as head of CBS News until then, the people said.
The company, which underwent layoffs this week, has not yet docked executive pay, which has “upset” some network staffers. However, CBS News President Susan Zirinsky was asked by an employee during a staff Zoom call whether pay cuts were considered and said that cuts were discussed at the corporate level, though they have not been enacted.
Exclusives
“We fully support Gayle King and her integrity as a journalist,” CBS News President Susan Zirinsky told The Associated Press. “We find the threats against her or any journalist doing their job reprehensible.”
Norah O’Donnell and Susan Zirinsky are out to remake CBS’s flagship newscast at a time when journalism is under seige. (Photo: Celeste Sloman for Variety)
Tapped to lead the news division after a cascade of scandals, Zirinsky is retooling the network. Can a throwback also win the future?
Susan Zirinsky has overhauled the news division’s programming slate and is shipping Cronkite and Rather’s show to D.C. Some staffers wonder if it’s “a move that’s being made out of convenience for the anchor.” But Zirinsky counters, “There’s a huge opportunity right now. I can’t let it go.”
CBS News president and senior executive producer Susan Zirinsky on Monday unveiled a new weekday anchor lineup, naming Norah O’Donnell anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News and Gayle King, Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil co-hosts of CBS This Morning.
Kimberly Godwin was named EVP of news, with top editorial oversight of newsgathering around the world. Charles Pavlounis was given expanded duties as EVP of business development and chief financial officer. And Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, who was EVP of news, was named EVP of strategic professional development, focusing on recruitment and development of off-air talent
Why CBS News’s David Rhodes is being replaced by broadcast news legend Susan Zirinsky.
Susan Zirinsky, the incoming president of CBS News, earned a huge round of applause at the 10 a.m. editorial meeting on Monday at CBS News headquarters on West 57th St. She stressed the “gold standard” of CBS News, a division built by Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. And she read from the script that Cronkite delivered on the night that President Richard Nixon resigned in August 1974.
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.
48 Hours producer Susan Zirinsky has emerged as the front-runner to become the new executive producer of 60 Minutes at CBS News, sources say. Zirinsky is now the favorite to fill the shoes of veteran producer Jeff Fager, who was fired last month amid accusations of inappropriate conduct and sexual harassment, according to insiders briefed on the situation. An announcement is expected as soon as next week
The internal bake-off to succeed the 60 Minutes chief is heating up, with Bill Owens and Susan Zirinsky eyed as candidates for the executive producer role.
Susan Zirinsky, often referred to by the first letter of her last name, has been at CBS News since 1972, but it’s what she might do in 2018 and going forward that could be infinitely more interesting. Some staffers at CBS News think she is a likely internal candidate to take the top 60 Minutes job, which has been vacant since CBS ousted former executive producer Jeff Fagerlast week
