MSNBC President Rashida Jones says she is stepping down after four years leading the liberal news network, her move coming on the eve of a second Trump administration and after changes in corporate ownership.
Jones, in a memo to staff on Tuesday, said that she is leaving to “pursue new opportunities.” She’ll be replaced on an interim basis by Rebecca Kutler, a former CNN executive who joined MSNBC in 2022.
In Jones’ tenure, MSNBC has generally displaced CNN as the second-rated cable news-focused network behind Fox News Channel.
Its ratings are sharply down since Donald Trump’s election.
MSNBC’s lineup has remained fairly consistent since Jones, the first Black executive to lead a cable news network, moved from NBC News to take over there in 2021. Former Biden administration press secretary Jen Psaki is her highest-profile addition.
In November, Comcast announced it was breaking MSNBC and CNBC away from NBC News into its own company, led by executive Mark Lazarus, meaning Jones was answering to new corporate leadership.
At a morning meeting on Tuesday, Jones said she was “excited about what we’ve done. I’m excited about what comes next.” She shed little light on the timing, although corporate changes and political transitions often trigger changes in the news business.
“When Rashida shared this with me at the end of last week, I was surprised,” Lazarus said in the meeting, according to MSNBC. “I was a little saddened for the company but very happy for her to be able to come to grips with a hard decision — a very personal decision.”
Lazarus also told employees Tuesday that MSNBC will keep its name. There had been some talk that it would be changed under new corporate leadership; the name was a result of a partnership with Microsoft when the network started in 1996. There have been few other indications of visible change for viewers yet due to the uncoupling from NBC News.
Jones generally kept a low public profile as MSNBC leader. She made considerable changes to the network’s weekend lineup and, during the weekday, extended the length of two of MSNBC’s more popular shows: “Morning Joe” and Nicolle Wallace in the afternoon.
She had to deal with the internal fallout over NBC News’ decision last year to hire former Republican National Committee head Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor, which was reversed after an open mutiny among many MSNBC personalities.
MSNBC’s viewership has dropped 57% since Trump’s election.
The network notes that the post-election audience for cable networks closely associated with a losing candidate typically sinks, and that there are already signs that things are picking up again.
Whether it will to the extent that it happened for MSNBC in 2017 is an open question, particularly with more people eliminating their cable service.
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MSNBC announced on Monday that its most popular personality, Rachel Maddow, is returning to host her show five nights for the first few months of the new administration. Since 2022, she has generally done her show one night a week.
