CBS News on Monday named Wendy McMahon as its CEO and president. The role expands McMahon’s prior role as co-president to having solo oversight over CBS News and its stations. Previously, McMahon shared responsibilities with Neeraj Khemlani, who on Sunday told staff he was stepping down.
CBS’s McMahon: Local News Needs An Overhaul
Wendy McMahon, president and co-head of CBS News and Stations, says while audiences trust local news, “they are largely unsatisfied with the product,” and reconnecting with viewers’ priorities is an industry-wide problem.
Wendy McMahon, president and co-head of ViacomCBS’s CBS News and Stations unit, has sent a letter to Nielsen objecting to the audience measurement firm’s plan to include broadband-only homes in its local ratings. The complaint adds to a chorus of criticism for Nielsen, which is already under fire for undercounting viewers and under pressure from an industry that is accelerating the search for alternatives to Nielsen, which has long dominated the ratings business.
CBS Stations To Make ‘EPIC’ Move In 13 Markets
Wendy McMahon, president, co-head of CBS News and Stations at ViacomCBS, announced that the CBS station group will be hiring to fill a number of newly created positions as executive producers impacting communities (EPIC).
With a consolidation of CBS’s News and Stations divisions already underway, the network has now also finished its long external probe into various allegations of racist and abusive behavior at local outlets — and change is coming to the City of Angels and the Windy City ASAP and more, promise execs.
The two executives named to head a newly fashioned division that combines the CBS local stations with CBS News and the team that manages the CBSN live-streaming news service offered their early vision for how the operation will function. Both Wendy McMahon and Neeraj Khemlani suggested in their first outreach to staffers that the company’s ultimate product will combine the national and overseas heft of CBS News with feet on the ground in various cities where CBS operates.
Exclusives
Neeraj Khemlani, a former journalist who has worked at Hearst Newspapers for 12 years, and Wendy McMahon, who was head of ABC-owned stations, will be co-presidents of CBS News, the network said on Thursday. The move comes a day after CBS News President Susan Zirinsky told staff members that she was stepping down after two years on the job.
Wendy McMahon, the president of ABC Owned Television Stations, is leaving the company, effective immediately. In an internal email, McMahon wrote: “Leading the ABC Owned Television Stations has been a tremendous honor and blessing… I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve you.” She has been with the Walt Disney Co. for 11 years and previously worked at CBS.
The two station group chiefs say they welcome the TVB’s plan to transition to impressions-based local TV currency.
How ABC’s McMahon Is Modernizing Broadcasting
ABC Owned Television Stations Group President Wendy McMahon was recently honored for her excellence as a leader in local broadcasting. Here, she talks about that and her take on the state of the broadcasting industry.
Wendy McMahon, president, ABC Owned Television Stations Group, to receive the award at the NAB Show Achievement in Broadcasting Dinner on April 8.
The digital chief of the eight-station group and one-time creative services director will take over from Rebecca Campbell, who was earlier named to an international post for the parent Walt Disney Co.
