CBS News has found its new leaders.
Neeraj Khemlani, executive vice president of Hearst Newspapers, has signed a deal with ViacomCBS to take the top leadership position at CBS News, according to two sources familiar with the deal.
Khemlani will be co-head of a newly combined CBS News and CBS television station unit, the company said in an official statement on Thursday. Wendy McMahon, who was the head of ABC’s television station group until Wednesday, will join him.
“This is an opportunity to create a news and information structure that positions CBS for the future,” George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS Entertainment Group, said in the news release. “It speaks to our ability to serve news collection, production, technical and operational resources nationally and locally, linearly and digitally, with the skill to deliver trusted information to every platform.”
Khemlani is expected to take the main responsibility for the national CBS News broadcasts, while McMahon assumes responsibility for CBS ‘local stations, the sources said. In an email to staff members, Cheeks said the co-chiefs’ will manage this division as a team with specific focus areas’ and that in the near future he will have ‘more specifically on this, including reporting structures. ”
Khemlani did not respond to a request for comment. CBS spokesmen Chris Ender and Justin Dini also did not respond to a request for comment.
Khemlani will replace Susan Zirinsky, a 40-year veteran of CBS News, who accepted the top job two years ago. While Zirinsky made some notable changes, including the revamp of ‘CBS This Morning’, the ratings for the morning and evening broadcasts declined during her tenure, reflecting the broad, prolonged declines in the industry.
Television news is undergoing a series of leadership changes. Kimberly Godwin, a CBS News executive who also contested Zirinsky’s position, was named president of ABC News this week, as NBC News first reported last week.
In cable, MSNBC President Rashida Jones becomes the first black woman to lead a cable news network this year. CNN President Jeff Zucker also announced that he wants to resign by 2021. (NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC News and MSNBC.)
Zirinsky, a veteran news producer who regularly spoke to her about the corporate bureaucracy required from her current position, is in talks to sign a production agreement with ViacomCBS to create news content on the company platforms, has two sources with knowledge said of it. The Wall Street Journal only reported on the deal on Tuesday.
