McMahon Makes Exec Moves At CBS News And Stations & CBS Media Ventures

On Wednesday, Wendy McMahon, president-CEO of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures, unveiled executive changes at the two units.

In a memo to staff, she said: “While News, Stations and CMV each have their own distinct characteristics and commitments to our viewers – globally, nationally and locally – there are cross-portfolio opportunities and new ways of working together that will power future growth, editorial and operational excellence, and industry leadership in innovation and collaboration.

“We’ve identified three strategic areas of focus moving forward: First, growing the value of our News, Stations and CMV brands by increasing the reach and distribution of our content, unlocking new revenue opportunities. Second, expanding and optimizing our streaming offerings to supercharge those audiences and businesses. And third, transforming the way we work by investing in capabilities and technology that will strengthen our journalism as well as our signature content and storytelling.”

Content Integration And Development

McMahon continued: “To help identify and execute on our cross-portfolio content opportunities, I am pleased to announce Adrienne Roark will serve in the newly created position of president of content development and integration for CBS News, Stations and CBS Media Ventures. She will work directly with me, Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, Jennifer Mitchell, Ross Dagan, Terri Stewart and News, Stations and CMV leadership to execute on broader division-wide plans and initiatives.

“In this role, Adrienne will continue to oversee our East Coast stations, and also lead efforts to bring together our content and teams in pursuit of audience reach and impact, industry leadership and organizational effectiveness and efficiency. At Stations, Adrienne helped institute and cultivate a culture of innovation and collaboration via the launch of the Innovation Lab, a team committed to reimagining content creation and development for the future. That work led to investments in data journalism as well as investigative and environmental reporting.

“Going forward, she will oversee our new investments in these areas of opportunity – further developing our data journalism and visualization capabilities as well as our weather technology and climate coverage in ways that will benefit all brands.

“Joel Goldberg, SVP of station operations and GM of Newspath, will take on an expanded role that supports our integration initiatives across News, Stations and CMV. In this capacity, he will work closely with Adrienne and Ross while continuing his leadership of station group operations and Newspath.

Stations

“Jennifer Mitchell will expand her portfolio as CBS Stations president from leading and supporting our operations in six markets in the West and Midwest to now overseeing 11 of our 17 markets. She will be assuming responsibility for our stations in Dallas-Fort Worth and Detroit – markets that previously have been overseen by Adrienne. And she will also support Tom Canedo and the teams at our Atlanta, Seattle and Tampa stations as they seek to grow their businesses as newly minted independent stations.”

Talent Strategy And Development

She continued: “As noted above, I believe that if we take full advantage of the incredible talent we have across this division, we can lead the way in both daily and signature content. Leading that fusion of teams and talent will be Laurie Orlando and Alison Pepper.

Laurie will serve in the newly created role of SVP, talent strategy and development, CBS News, Stations and CBS Media Ventures and will report to me. In this role, Laurie will oversee the talent strategy for the entire organization, developing and ensuring our talent pipeline is strengthened through collaborative planning, clear and consistent direction and a willingness to explore and experiment together.

“Alison’s role will also be expanding as she becomes SVP, talent strategy and development for CBS News and CBS Media Ventures. She will partner and work closely with Ingrid and our soon-to-be-named head of first-run development and brand extensions at CMV.”