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NBCUniversal’s new boss announced a surprise shakeup at the broadcasting giant that will include the ouster of NBC News chairman Andy Lack. Jeff Shell, whose succeeded Steve Burke as chief executive at the beginning of the year, on Monday announced the departure of Lack, who came under fire in Ronan Farrow’s book “Catch and Kill”, …
NBCUniversal’s new boss announced a surprise shakeup at the broadcasting giant that will include the ouster of NBC News chairman Andy Lack.
Jeff Shell, whose succeeded Steve Burke as chief executive at the beginning of the year, on Monday announced the departure of Lack, who came under fire in Ronan Farrow’s book “Catch and Kill”, which he accused NBC News executives including Lack and his right hand Noah Oppenheim of killing his reporting on Harvey Weinstein’s alleged misdeeds.
Lack, who was also accused of downplaying an explosive rape allegation against former “Today” host Matt Lauer, will be replaced at the end of the month by Telemundo chief Cesar Conde, who will oversee NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC. NBC News president Oppenheim, MSNBC president Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC; and CNBC chairman Mark Hoffman will now report to Conde.
Oppenheim had been expected to replace Lack as chairman of NBC News, having inked a new contract with the company last year. But there had been a mounting outcry against that promotion inside the halls of 30 Rock since the publication of Farrow’s book.
Elsewhere, Mark Lazarus, who currently oversees NBC Sports Group and the network’s local stations, will now oversee its entertainment businesses as well, including new streaming service, Peacock. Peacock, which soft-launched for Comcast subscribers last month, has become one of the company’s biggest priorities this year.
Lazarus will become chairman of NBCUniversal television and streaming, a new unit that combines NBC Entertainment the entertainment cable TV channels, the sports group, local stations and Peacock, NBCU said.
“This is the right structure to lead NBCUniversal into the future during this transformational time in the industry,” said Shell in a statement. “Mark has a proven track record across every aspect of our television business from sports to local stations to entertainment. He is the ideal leader to oversee our television and streaming portfolio in this newly formed division, which allows us to have a more unified approach to our content strategy.”
Under the new entertainment and streaming structure, lifestyle networks chief Frances Berwick, sports president Philip Martzolf, local stations chief Valari Staab, Peacock chairman Matt Strauss, and NBC Entertainment chairman Paul Telegdy will report to Lazarus, the company said.
The executive changes come as the company prepares to cut costs in order to manage the fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic. Shell referenced those cuts during the Comcast earnings call last week, telling analysts, “On costs, the question about whether we’re right-sized on costs given where the environment is headed, the answer is probably no, and we’re addressing that pretty aggressively.”
“And certainly over the next weeks and months, we’ll make pretty significant adjustments there across our business,” he concluded.
