Rashida Jones plans to step down as president of MSNBC, The Hill learned on Tuesday.
Jones, who has served as the network’s top executive for four years, informed top anchors and MSNBC leaders of her decision this week and shared the news widely with the network on a call Tuesday morning.
Mark Lazarus, the chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group, joined Jones on Tuesday’s call and has appointed Rebecca Kutler, currently senior vice president of content strategy, to replace her on an interim basis.
When Jones was hired in 2021, she was the first Black woman to head a major television network. She presided over MSNBC’s coverage of President Biden’s time in the White House and President-elect Trump’s legal battles through an increasingly competitive cable news landscape.
Jones recruited top former Biden administration officials like Jen Psaki and Symone Sanders-Townsend to host shows on the left-leaning network and oversaw a revamped push into MSNBC’s live events and nonlinear content strategies.
MSNBC routinely ranks behind Fox News in the cable news ratings race, though it notched a string of viewership wins over competitor CNN during Jones’s tenure before experiencing sharp declines in viewership in the weeks following last fall’s presidential election.
Jones’s departure comes just weeks after Comcast, MSNBC’s parent company, announced plans to spin off it cable assets amid dwindling Wall Street value for its linear properties as more viewers cut cable in favor of streaming services and social media platforms.
“Rashida has expertly navigated MSNBC through a years-long, unrelenting and unprecedented news cycle, all while driving the network to record viewership and making investments in nonlinear businesses,” Lazarus wrote in a memo to staff on Tuesday obtained by The Hill. “MSNBC is well-positioned for the future, and I am grateful that she will continue to support us during this transition.”
