Ross Dagan has been named executive VP of news operations and transformation, CBS News and Stations. It is a new role at the company that will see Dagan “responsible for reimagining and aligning the news operations and engineering functions across CBS News and Stations,” CBS said.
CBS News and CBS Television Stations merged in April. Wendy McMahon and Neeraj Khemlani are group presidents and co-heads.
Dagan starts next month and will be based in New York. He was network director of news content at Network 10, a ViacomCBS network based in Sydney, Australia.
“We are very pleased to welcome Ross to our CBS News and Stations family,” McMahon said. “As we continue the process of bringing together our wide portfolio of broadcast, streaming and digital resources, it is vital to have an inspiring organizational leader who is able to embrace the distinctive elements of our local, national and global news operations, break down silos, and manifest a modernized and maximized operations nucleus that will allow CBS News and Stations to become much greater than the sum of their individual parts.”
Khemlani added: “We are thoroughly impressed with Ross’ record of achievement as a change management leader and how he approaches newsgathering operations with an editorial point of view. He has successfully worked across international borders and different cultures to bring teams together and drive success in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the Middle East. We look forward to having Ross leverage his experience in business, tech and newsgathering, as he works with the talented teams we already have in place to unify our efforts and strategize opportunities for future growth and innovation.”
Dagan has worked at Network 10 twice, previously as director of news from 2007 to 2012. “I am excited to have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play a role in the unification and transformation of CBS’ local, national and global news organization,” Dagan said. “It will be a privilege to work with the people who have already made CBS’ network news, digital and local offerings best-in-class operations, and collectively chart a course for raising the bar in terms of how we manage newsgathering, align technology and create new workflows.”
Dagan spent five years at Al Jazeera English, including a stint as executive producer from 2015 to 2018. In 2006 and 2007, he was program editor at Al Jazeera English.
He did two stints with the Seven Network in Australia, including director of news, based in Brisbane, from 2013-2015, and director of news for Seven Queensland from 2001-2005. He was also head of news and current affairs, Maori and Pacific Programs, for Television New Zealand in 2012 and 2013.
