New Leadership Team Set For CBS Newspath

Joel Goldberg

CBS News and Stations today named Joel Goldberg general manager of CBS Newspath, where he will oversee the day-to-day operations of the affiliate newsgathering service that provides content to more than 200 television stations across the country. Goldberg will also continue to serve in his longtime role as senior vice president of operations for CBS Stations. The announcement was made by Wendy McMahon, president and co-head of CBS News and Stations, to whom Goldberg reports.

Additionally, veteran journalist and newsroom executive Maura McHugh has been named news director of CBS Newspath.

“Since beginning the process of combining CBS News and Stations’ operations last year, one of our top priorities has been creating the connective tissue between our company-owned stations with CBS Newspath, in order to better serve both the stations we own and our valued CBS affiliate partners across the country,” McMahon said. “Drawing on their combined 50 years of CBS News and Stations experience, Joel and Maura understand the needs of stations, big and small, across the country. We are thrilled to have them lead CBS Newspath into the future.”

Goldberg has spent his entire career working in local television, and has served as senior vice president of operations for CBS Stations since 2012. In this role, he is responsible for working with the local management teams at 27 ViacomCBS-owned stations across the country on a wide range of areas, including studio and control room operations, labor relations, standards and practices, new business initiatives, and special projects. In addition, he serves as the station group’s programming liaison with the management teams at the CBS Television Network, CBS Entertainment and CBS Sports.

Previously, Goldberg was senior vice president of operations at WCBS New York.

“It is an honor to join the CBS Newspath team and help our CBS News and Stations organization to produce more high-quality local news content for every station across the CBS Television Network,” Goldberg said. “It will be a pleasure to once again work with Maura, who was producing the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts at WCBS-TV when I first joined the station. I have complete confidence in her continuing to lead the day-to-day editorial decision-making at Newspath, while I draw on my operations experience to oversee the business side of the service.”

Prior to joining CBS, Goldberg spent 19 years with NBC, including nine years at WNBC New York from 1993 to 2002. He served as WNBC’s executive producer of sports, morning news and evening news prior to being named assistant news director in 2000. Goldberg started with NBC at WRC Washington, where he was the station’s executive sports producer and served as the producer of the George Michael SportsMachine, a nationally syndicated sports highlights show.

Maura McHugh

A 30-year CBS veteran, McHugh has most recently was the interim head of CBS Newspath since July 2021.

In 2005, McHugh was named senior producer at CBS Newspath and helped to lead the service and its team in covering some of the country’s biggest stories, including Hurricane Sandy, the killing of Osama bin Laden, and four presidential elections.

She joined WCBS New York as a writer/producer in 1992 and rose through the ranks to eventually become executive producer of the station’s 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts.

McHugh won Emmy Awards for leading WCBS’ coverage of the West Side Highway wall collapse in 2005 and the New York City blackout in 2003. She also played a key role in the station’s round-the-clock breaking news coverage on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I am genuinely excited to once again work with Joel and partner with him, as we reimagine the relationship between CBS Stations and Newspath to create an even more robust service for all of the stations and affiliates we serve,” McHugh said.

McHugh started her career in local news at WSVN Miami.