CNBC makes leadership change as business channel adapts
CNBC is getting a change in leadership as the parent company looks to integrate the cable channel more closely with NBC News.
The niche financial news channel announced Tuesday that Mark Hoffman, who has led CNBC since 2005, would be replaced by KC Sullivan, a sales executive at parent firm Comcast. The appointment could portend a new era for the business news cable channel.
Under Hoffman, CNBC largely operated as an independent entity apart from Comcast’s NBC News Group. The executive — a native of Encino— was a protector of the channel’s walled-off status within the company.
The network even has its own facility in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., across the river from the Comcast Building in midtown Manhattan, where NBC News is located.
But that independence may go away under Sullivan, the pick of NBC News Group Chairman Cesar Conde, who gained oversight of CNBC when he took over the news division from Andy Lack in 2020. (Hoffman reported to Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, before Conde arrived.)
Former CNBC employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity believe the appointment will further integrate the network into NBC News, a move that began under Conde. CNBC anchors and correspondents, many of whom worked their entire careers at the network under Hoffman’s leadership, were lamenting his exit on the air with a sense that more change is imminent.
Sullivan had been managing director of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, based in London, where he worked on Comcast’s Sky Media. He has experience on the business side of CNBC, having run its international operations for seven years. Sullivan, who was a protégé of Hoffman, also served as chief financial officer for the network.
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Sullivan’s background indicates he will be focused on developing new revenue opportunities for CNBC, which, like all cable networks, faces an inevitable decline in viewers and revenues as consumers move away from pay TV subscriptions.
Under Hoffman, the company launched a direct-to-consumer subscription service, CNBC Pro, and an investment club fronted by host and analyst Jim Cramer. Hoffman also oversaw CNBC’s expansion of its international operations, after leading the effort to take full ownership of them after a longtime partnership with Dow Jones.
CNBC has long been a highly profitable business for NBC News, with what the company called “record financial performance” in 16 of the 17 years Hoffman has been at the helm. The network, which does not use Nielsen ratings to set its advertising rates for its daytime business programming, has long been successful thanks to its ability to reach high-income viewers.
“We are in the business of business so it’s important to note we’ve never been more profitable, setting record after record in financial performance, year after year, as we maneuvered through economic cycles, exogenous events and the historic secular change that accompanied the information age,” Hoffman said in his farewell note to staff.
But growth going forward will be challenging as the network will continue to see a loss of subscribers due to cord-cutting. Financial market news and information also is widely available on the internet and mobile devices.
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