Journalist Rashida Jones, who is also a TOPLINE Broadcast, will take over as president of MSNBC next year. She will replace Phil Griffin’s- 12 years stint at the helm of the cable news network and become the first black woman to run a major cable news operation.
According to a memo from NBC News Chairman Cesar Conde obtained by the first Wall Street Journal Monday, Jones who is working currently as a senior vice-president at MSNBC will replace Griffin in February.
By ending a 24-year career at MSNBC, Griffin asked Conde about leaving the position after Election Day.
Jones worked for more than an era as a producer at a Local TV news station and Weather Channel and joined MSNBC seven years ago. According to Conde’s memo, Jones was hired as an executive producer for a daytime show but by her decorative work, she is currently charged with managing the network’s dayside and weekend programs and a special event like debates. Since 1996, Griffin for his part worked at MSNBC and NBC News when the cable was newly debuted.
By tripling the ratings in process, Griffin has led MSNBC through four presidential elections and countless schedule reshuffles. As the network’s stated uniqueness has spun between externally liberal observation and more frank news and analysis, MSNBC’s primetime lineup was populated with left-of-center hosts like Rachel Maddow whose show was launched during Griffin’s tenancy. During Donald Trump’s presidency, the network’s rating ticked up gradually competing closely with CNN along the way. The network’s top-rated shows infrequently come within a conspicuous distance of Fox News, the undisputed frontrunner in the cable news landscape as in recent years the total average ratings have frequently eclipsed CNN.
Griffins’ wave-off from the network comes after a corporate rearrangement at NBC Universal, which is owned by Comcast. Earlier this year, Conde, the head of Telemundo was promoted to NBC News chair after embattling former chair Andrew Lack departed. Conde took charge of both MSNDC and CNBC after he was promoted.