Updated at 1:25pm Eastern
Two days ago, TEGNA promoted Tom Cox to Chief Growth Officer — a sign that a company that was once poised to become an entity within Standard General is not only thriving but looking to expand.
That’s clearly the case today, as the woman who just announced she is exiting CBS News & Stations as President of Editorial and Newsgathering is TEGNA’s next Chief Content Officer.
Adrienne Roark will report to TEGNA CEO Mike Steib, effective March 31.
“With more than three decades of experience in news leadership, local TV station management and innovative content development, Roark brings her proven expertise to TEGNA,” the company shared in a press release issued early Wednesday afternoon (2/19).
Steib commented, “Throughout her impressive career, Adrienne has delivered exceptional journalism at scale while staying deeply committed to local communities. She brings sharp editorial and operational expertise, a history of rapid innovation across TV and digital, and the kind of high-intensity, high-velocity leadership that fits perfectly with our team.”
Roark added, “I’m thrilled to join TEGNA and look forward to working with the talented team to continue innovating and delivering high-quality, audience-driven stories for the tens of millions of community members who come to our platforms daily for their local news.”
Roark’s departure comes at a delicate time for CBS News & Stations, as its parent Paramount Global seeks to complete a transfer of control from from controlling shareholder National Amusements Inc., to investors in Skydance Media. Then, there is the FCC’s probe into whether or not CBS News tweaked an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, resulting in different answers to the same question airing on its Face the Nation and 60 Minutes.
Roark in August 2024 was promoted to a role in which she was tasked to lead CBS News and Stations’ teams in the field and across newsrooms “to drive the daily Network News content engine, including correspondents, assignment desks, bureaus, booking teams, standards and practices, the Super Desk central newsgathering and storytelling platform, and CBS News Radio.”
These were duties formerly held by Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, with Roark taking on the responsibilities while continuing to lead the CBS Local News Innovation Lab in Dallas-Fort Worth, and the Centers of Excellence she has built around data journalism, weather and specialized beats/units. Within the last five months, Roark relinquished leadership of WCBS-2/WLNY-55 in New York and WBZ-4/WSBK-38 in Boston to Johnny Green Jr.
Roark joined CBS News and Stations on August 2, 2021, reporting to President and Co-Head of CBS News and Stations Wendy McMahon. It was her second tenure at CBS, which she joined in the mid-2000s as Asst. News Director of WFOR-4 in Miami, rising to News Director in June 2007. In mid-2010, she relocated to Dallas, serving as VP/News Director of KTVT-11 and KTXA-21 for CBS.
In 2014, Roark moved to Portland, Ore., taking the President/GM role for KOIN-6. She would later serve as the head of crosstown rivals KPDX-12 and KPDX-49, in June 2016, until taking the job at CBS and succeeding Peter Dunn, who led the CBS O&Os until losing his job amid claims gender and racial misconduct.
