CBS News president Adrienne Roark out after less than a year

CBS News president Adrienne Roark is leaving the network after less than a year in her role for TV station group Tegna, she announced to staff Feb. 19, 2025.

The comings and goings of CBS News executives have ramped up recently, including a string of leadership changes for the news division stretching back several recent years.

Roark took over the news division after Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews was ousted, reportedly over issues surrounding cost-cutting and other controversies. Before that Neeraj Khemlani and Wendy McMahon both served in the role. From 2021 to 2023, Khemlani and McMahon were co-presidents of the newly created CBS News and Stations part of the network, which was aimed at increasing collaboration and resource-sharing between the network and its own stations.

Khemlani resigned in 2023, after which McMahon became the sole president and CEO of the division, along with taking over responsibility for CBS Media Ventures, the network’s syndication arm.

McMahon still oversees all of these divisions, whereas Roark’s role was more focused on newsgathering at the network level and owned stations.

Roark is expected to depart CBS at the end of February 2025.

Her departure comes as Paramount Global, the parent of CBS, is finalizing a merger with SkyDance Media, which has spurred cost-savings efforts. 

There have been multiple unconfirmed reports that several moves made by the network, including Norah O’Donnell’s departure from “CBS Evening News” may have been connected to these efforts. It was not clear if Roark’s departure might have been triggered by similar financial issues.

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The network also recently relaunched its flagship “CBS Evening News,” though ratings still remain rather stagnant, as well as launching “Plus” versions of “Evening” and “CBS Mornings” that air on select owned stations and streaming.

The network has also been under fire in recent months after it aired two different portions of then-Vice President Kamala’s response to a single question — one as a preview for the report and the other on “60 Minutes” itself. That, in turn, triggered a now $20 billion dollar lawsuit by Donald Trump. CBS recently released transcripts and unedited video from the interview to both Trump’s legal team and the general public.

A separate incident involved “Mornings” anchor Tony Dokupil receiving criticism after a tough and touchy interview with an author of a book on Middle East issues.

In a separate announcement, Tegna confirmed Roark would become the company’s chief content officer, though it did not provide details about what her duties will be.

Based on the title, however, Roark could become a key part of planning how Tegna’s 68 television stations produce local news content. Tegna also owns a handful of digital multicast networks, two radio stations and produces syndicated shows. 

Tegna does not have a national news division in the sense CBS does. At least some television groups have launched efforts to cull content from their stations for a national news service, such as Fox’s LiveNow or produce a national newscast, such as Sinclair’s “The National Desk.” 

At Tegna, Roark will also be overseeing many more stations than she did at CBS but will give up having to manage a full-scale national news operation.

CBS News did not provide any further comment of Roark’s departure other than to confirm it.

There was no immediate word on who will replace Roark. 

Tegna was created in 2015 when Gannett, which owned many of the stations the group holds today, opted to split into two companies. The broadcasting and digital businesses, which were more lucrative, became Tegna, while Gannett, which focuses largely on newspaper publishing, was spun off to create a new company that uses the same name.