MSNBC President Rashida Jones Steps Down

MSNBC president Rashida Hones has announced she will be stepping down from her position at MSNBC.

Jones said in a statement, “I came to this decision over the holidays while reflecting on our remarkable journey and the many successes we’ve achieved together as a team.”

She added, “This has been the most rewarding chapter of my professional career and I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished, which has been made possible only by you.”

MSNBC’s vice president of content strategy, Rebecca Kutler, has been named the interim president.

MSNBC president Rashida Jones stepping down https://t.co/5EmQjP16at pic.twitter.com/HgjiKJp9FF

— New York Post (@nypost) January 14, 2025

Per NBC News:

Rashida Jones, the president of MSNBC, announced Tuesday that she is stepping down after four years of steering the cable news network.

Jones, who made history as the first Black executive to lead a major U.S. television news network, made the announcement to top MSNBC anchors, leaders and network staff on Tuesday morning. (MSNBC and NBC News are both units of NBCUniversal.)

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Rebecca Kutler, the network’s senior vice president of content strategy, was named interim MSNBC president. Jones, who recruited Kutler to the network in 2022, plans to stay on in an advisory role until March.

“I came to this decision over the holidays while reflecting on our remarkable journey and the many successes we’ve achieved together as a team. This has been the most rewarding chapter of my professional career and I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished, which has been made possible only by you,” Jones said in a memo to staff.

The announcement comes nearly two months after Comcast announced a plan to spin off most of its cable TV networks into a separate publicly traded company, currently known as SpinCo. The new company will include MSNBC, CNBC, the USA Network, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and the Golf Channel.

Jones took charge of MSNBC in February 2021 after the inauguration of President Joe Biden and the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. She drove MSNBC to ratings triumphs on major political nights.

BREAKING NEWS: MSNBC boss Rashida Jones exits network days before Trump returns to White Househttps://t.co/kZooSzjUaX

— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 14, 2025

Here’s what The New York Times reported:

The president of MSNBC, Rashida Jones, is stepping down from that position, the company said on Tuesday, a major change at the news network just days before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office.

Rebecca Kutler, senior vice president for content strategy at MSNBC, will succeed Ms. Jones as interim president, effective immediately. Ms. Jones will stay on in an advisory role through March.

“Rebecca is the ideal leader to guide us through this moment, and I look forward to collaborating with her as we shape our collective future together,” Mark Lazarus, the chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group, said in a note to staffers.

Ms. Jones’s exit comes amid industrywide pressure for the cable news industry, which has seen declining ratings after the U.S. presidential election. MSNBC has been the second most-watched cable network during that period, ahead of CNN but behind longtime ratings leader Fox News.

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