Roark, Mitchell Get New Roles at CBS

According to an internal memo distributed late Wednesday by Wendy McMahon, key roles within CBS News & Stations have come to fruition. And, it means a new role for Adrienne Roark.

In the memo, in which McMahon salutes colleagues for their commitment to “our vision and strategic plan for CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures,” the executive offered a lengthy outline of the changes in the works.

“While News, Stations and CMV each have their own distinct characteristics and commitments to our viewers – globally, nationally and locally – there are cross-portfolio opportunities and new ways of working together that will power future growth, editorial and operational excellence, and industry leadership in innovation and collaboration,” she said, adding, “We’ve identified three strategic areas of focus moving forward: First, growing the value of our News, Stations and CMV brands by increasing the reach and distribution of our content, unlocking new revenue opportunities. Second, expanding and optimizing our streaming offerings to supercharge those audiences and businesses. And third, transforming the way we work by investing in capabilities and technology that will strengthen our journalism as well as our signature content and storytelling.”

She continued, “As I said on Day One, my personal mission is to work with all of you to both uphold our legacy and create our future. I believe if we take full advantage of the incredible content and talent we have across News, Stations and CMV, we can conduct a unified symphony of sorts that is second-to-none. As such, I’d like to share a few announcements that will bring our content and talent teams closer together while honoring the unique mission of our respective brands.”

CONTENT INTEGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT came first.

“To help identify and execute on our cross-portfolio content opportunities, I am pleased to announce Adrienne Roark will serve in the newly created position of President of Content Development and Integration for CBS News, Stations and CBS Media Ventures,” McMahon said. She will work directly with her and Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, Jennifer Mitchell, Ross Dagan, Terri Stewart and News, Stations and CMV leadership to execute on broader division-wide plans and initiatives.

“In this role, Adrienne will continue to oversee our East Coast stations, and also lead efforts to bring together our content and teams in pursuit of audience reach and impact, industry leadership and organizational effectiveness and efficiency,” McMahon said. “At Stations, Adrienne helped institute and cultivate a culture of innovation and collaboration via the launch of the Innovation Lab, a team committed to reimagining content creation and development for the future. That work led to investments in data journalism as well as investigative and environmental reporting. Going forward, she will oversee our new investments in these areas of opportunity – further developing our data journalism and visualization capabilities as well as our weather technology and climate coverage in ways that will benefit all brands. Following Ingrid’s email last week announcing new and expanded roles for News, I am excited by the collaboration and, yes, the innovation to come from this team and our increased commitment to distinctive journalism and signature storytelling.”

Joel Goldberg, SVP of Station Operations and GM of Newspath, will take on an expanded role that supports our integration initiatives across News, Stations and CMV. In this capacity, he will work closely with Adrienne and Ross while continuing his leadership of station group operations and Newspath.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Mitchell will expand her portfolio as CBS Stations President from leading and supporting our operations in six markets in the West and Midwest to now overseeing 11 of our 17 markets. She will be assuming responsibility for our stations in Dallas-Fort Worth and Detroit – markets that previously have been overseen by Roark. And she will also support Tom Canedo and the teams at our Atlanta, Seattle and Tampa stations as they seek to grow their businesses as newly minted independent stations.

McMahon then commented, “If we take full advantage of the incredible talent we have across this division, we can lead the way in both daily and signature content. Leading that fusion of teams and talent will be Laurie Orlando and Alison Pepper. Laurie will serve in the newly created role of SVP, Talent Strategy and Development, CBS News, Stations and CBS Media Ventures and will report to me. In this role, Laurie will oversee the talent strategy for the entire organization, developing and ensuring our talent pipeline is strengthened through collaborative planning, clear and consistent direction and a willingness to explore and experiment together.

“Alison’s role will also be expanding as she becomes SVP, Talent Strategy and Development for CBS News and CBS Media Ventures. She will partner and work closely with Ingrid and our soon-to-be-named head of first-run development and brand extensions at CMV.”

McMahon concluded the memo by stating, “Over the next weeks, I look forward to sharing more announcements with all of you as we drive progress in our strategic areas of focus and find new ways to work together to ensure the future success of our business. I am excited for the opportunities to come and, as always, welcome your ideas and input.”