MSNBC president Rashida Jones out after four years

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MSNBC’s president is stepping down after nearly four years.
Rashida Jones, who stepped into the role in February 2021, announced her departure in a memo to staff Jan. 14, 2025.
“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 wrote in the memo.
Jones’ departure from the top role is effective immediately, but she is staying on in an advisory role until March 2025.
She is being replaced on an interim basis by Rebecca Kutler, who joined the network after serving as a senior vice president for CNN in 2022, after being recruited by Jones.
Jones’ departure comes at a pivotal time in the cable industry and for MSNBC. Its ratings saw a big dip after the 2024 election, a trend that is believed to be due to its more progressive audience tuning out of the news in general. Its parent, NBCUniversal, also announced plans in late 2024 to spin off most of its cable networks, including MSNBC, as the broadcast industry as a whole sees massive shifts toward digital and streaming away from linear.
With a second Trump administration beginning in just days, MSNBC is already attempting to woo back its left-leaning audience, including an announcement that it would bring “The Rachel Maddow Show” back to primetime five nights a week for the first 100 days of the new term.
Under Jones, MSNBC has expanded into a variety of other segments, including boosting its digital presence, offering podcasts and a live events business.
Under the new structure, MSNBC would be part of a separate publicly traded company. Although NBCUniversal would still hold a majority stake in the new company, dubbed SpinCo, it could potentially be sold or restructured further.
One key question mark about the spinoff is that many of the cable networks that will be part of the new company, including MSNBC, share editorial and production resources with NBC News, a strategy that helps boost the bottom line. NBC and the newly-appointed SpinCo execs have not indicated if those resources would continue to be shared.
Jones did not directly say her departure was related to the ratings dip or impending spinoff.
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tags
MSNBC, NBC News, NBCUniversal, NBCUniversal News Group, Rashida Jones, Rebecca Kutler, SpinCo
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Broadcast Business News, Cable Industry, Cable News, Featured, People