New York
Act Daily News
—
On paper, Cesar Conde is the chair of NBCUniversal News Group. But on Wednesday he additionally appointed himself because the efficient president of NBC News.
After Noah Oppenheim — who has led the community throughout a tumultuous interval within the media business and thru Donald Trump’s chaotic presidency — instructed employees that he would vacate the position of NBC News president in favor of returning to screenwriting, Conde disclosed his succession plan.
But the NBCU News Group boss notably declined to pick a single successor to supervise the sizable portfolio of Oppenheim. Instead, Conde moved to separate the position up amongst a workforce of three executives.
A model of this text first appeared within the “Reliable Sources” e-newsletter. Sign up for the every day digest chronicling the evolving media panorama right here.
Rebecca Blumenstein, a deputy managing editor of The New York Times, will assume a swath of Oppenheim’s duties, taking over a newly created position as president of editorial on the community. Blumenstein has a prolonged historical past working in print, however manifestly lacks expertise in tv news. She will oversee a few of NBC News’ tv portfolio, resembling “Meet the Press,” however won’t have purview over the 2 cornerstone packages, the “Today” present franchise and “NBC Nightly News.”
Those duties will fall to the opposite two executives that Conde has elevated to run the NBC News portfolio: Libby Leist and Janelle Rodriguez, two longtime community executives who each acquired promotions to govt vp. Leist will proceed to supervise “Today” and Rodriguez will oversee “Nightly” and NBC News NOW.
All three executives — Blumenstein, Leist, and Rodriguez — will report on to Conde, making him the last word community boss.
“The appointments of Rebecca, Libby and Janelle provide a powerful foundation for the News Group as it continues to grow its leadership position,” Conde stated in a press launch asserting the news, including that “the extraordinary accomplishments of Rebecca, Libby and Janelle and their visions will keep us on the path of continued success.”
Inside NBC News, the announcement puzzled some staffers, in line with folks acquainted with the matter. “It is certainly leading to some head scratching around the newsroom,” as one individual put it.
Of course, there may be one other manner to have a look at the choice to divide Oppenheim’s portfolio amongst three executives: linear tv is dying and the times during which a heavyweight, singular tv news govt reigned over a fiefdom are quickly coming to an in depth.
As one former tv news govt put it Wednesday night, the business has a case of the “incredible shrinking news president.”