Rebecca Kutler Named President Of MSNBC After Serving In Interim Role

Rebecca Kutler has been named president of MSNBC, after leading the cable network on an interim basis following Rashida Jones’ departure last month.

Kutler takes the helm of the network at a key moment: MSNBC will be spun off from Comcast, along with other cable channels, in a transaction expected to be completed by the end of the year. With NBC News no longer as a sister entity, Kutler has talked of building a new news organization.

Mark Lazurus, who is leading the Comcast spinoff company, wrote 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. By constructing a first-rate newsgathering operation and assessing what’s required to be competitive in the marketplace, Rebecca and the team will ensure that MSNBC continues to be indispensable to our audiences and our partners.

“This is an exciting moment as we build our new company’s operation, and it has been a pleasure working with Rebecca over the last few months. I am thrilled to have such a respected leader at the helm of MSNBC during such a pivotal moment.”

MSNBC also has seen audiences return after a significant tune-out following Election Day. Last week, its primetime schedule averaged 1.5 million viewers, its highest since election week, according to Nielsen.

In a meeting with network leadership today, Kutler said, “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.

“We have a new company, we have new leadership, we will have new offices, and we have a non-stop news cycle. I think it’s important that we all share in the exciting parts of what the year ahead is going to mean in terms of getting to build a new news organization – one that is built for us, for our needs first, to be part of a new company that is standing itself up, and that we have a seat at the table at the ground floor of that, and what that’s going to look like and we get to help determine that.”

Kutler joined MSNBC in 2022 after serving as a senior executive at CNN. She has been MSNBC’s senior vice president for content strategy, where she oversaw podcasts, films, live events and digital ventures. She previously oversaw the network’s dayside programming.