NBCUniversal is restructuring its news division, creating
the new NBCU News Group to encompass NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and The Weather
Channel and be run by Patricia Fili-Krushel.
NBC News president Steve Capus and CNBC president Mark
Hoffman will still run their respective divisions, but will now report to
Fili-Krushel, who will be chairman of the new group, instead of NBCU CEO Steve
Burke. MSNBC president Phil Griffin will continue to report to Capus.
"I am confident that placing all of these assets into one
group will accelerate their growth, individually and collectively," Burke said
in an internal memo announcing the changes Thursday obtained by B&C. He stated the new structure would "help foster even more cooperation" among the news properties.
The restructuring is similar to what NBCU did with its
sports properties last year, combining the broadcast NBC sports division, NBC
Sports Network and Comcast's regional sports networks under one corporate
umbrella, the NBC Sports Group. It also comes days after MSNBC.com was renamedNBCNews.com, bringing the network's online home under the same brand as the
news division.
Fili-Krushel had been executive VP at NBCU, overseeing media
works, business strategy, human resources and legal since the close of its merger with Comcast. Before that she was
executive VP of administration at Time Warner, Inc., president of ABC from
1998-2000, where her purview included ABC News, and president of ABC Daytime,
where she helped launch The View.
