MSNBC named Rebecca Kutler as president of the left-leaning network, removing her interim tag following last month’s exit of Rashida Jones, the company said Wednesday.
Kutler grabs the reins at a crucial time for embattled network, which will be spun off from Comcast along with its other cable channels in a transaction that is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
One of Kutler’s biggest challenges will be building out MSNBC’s news-gathering capabilities since it will no longer be a sister entity to NBC News once the spin off is completed.
Mark Lazarus, who is helming the new company called SpinCo, praised Kutler in a memo to employees Wednesday:
“Since joining the network, Rebecca has played a pivotal role in the development of many of the network’s recent program launches, has been a driving force behind MSNBC’s nonlinear growth and strategic investments, and has introduced new and innovative audience-focused products,” he wrote.
Kutler joined MSNBC in 2022 after a 12-year stint at CNN during the Jeff Zucker era, where she rose from executive producer on shows like “Inside Politics with John King” to senior vice president.
She was tapped as programming chief of CNN+ before the network pulled the plug on the streaming service in 2022.
“My goal over the years ahead is to build on that success. Especially over the next year, this is going to be a really exciting time but also a challenging time. I think it’s important that we as leaders are honest about that and about the challenges ahead. Our jobs are hard on a normal day, and these are not normal times,” Ketner told staffers Wednesday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Jones left MSNBC after a three years at the helm.