Rashida Jones, the first Black executive to helm a major television network, announced on Tuesday that she would be stepping down as president of MSNBC, the progressive news channel she has led since 2021.
Jones first shared the news of her departure with the network’s anchors on Tuesday morning before addressing the staff in the daily editorial meeting.
Rebecca Kutler, a former CNN executive who joined MSNBC in 2022 as senior vice president of content strategy, will serve as interim president. Kutler, who was poised to run CNN’s digital streaming service before it was suddenly scuttled, has largely been in charge of overseeing MSNBC’s dayside programming since her arrival.
Oliver Darcy reported in his Status newsletter last month that Jones was considering leaving the network after Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Jones first shared the news of her exit with Mark Lazarus, a veteran NBC Universal executive who will be the chairman of SpinCo, the new company Comcast has spun off to house MSNBC and most of its other cable assets. Lazarus asked Jones to stay on to support the network through the transition.
“After four incredible years at the helm of MSNBC and 11 years at NBCU, I have made the decision to pursue new opportunities,” Jones shared in a memo to staff. “I shared this decision with Mark, who has been incredibly supportive and has asked me to stay on for the next few months to help guide the network during this transitional period.”
She added: “I came to this decision over the holidays while reflecting on our remarkable journey and the many successes we’ve achieved together as a team. This has been the most rewarding chapter of my professional career and I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished, which has been made possible only by you.”
Lazarus praised Jones in a separate memo, saying he “had been impressed by her business successes, exceptional producing skills and sharp editorial instincts.” Adding that Kutler had been appointed as interim president, he stated that “Rebecca is the ideal leader to guide us through this moment, and I look forward to collaborating with her as we shape our collective future together.”
Jones, who previously served as senior vice president of NBC News and MSNBC, was named president of the network in February 2021. During an extremely chaotic election year, MSNBC saw a series of ratings victories over its competition, including beating CNN on a presidential election night for the very first time.
At the same time, the network has experienced a post-election ratings slump since Kamala Harris was defeated by Trump, resulting in liberal viewers fleeing the channel in droves. Between the election and the end of the year, MSNBC’s primetime audience in the key demographic of adults aged 25 to 54 fell 65 percent, according to Nielsen. The network has recently taken steps to stop the bleeding by announcing that top star Rachel Maddow will return to hosting her show primetime show five nights a week in the first few months after Trump’s inauguration.
Jones’ departure also comes at a tenuous time of upheaval for the network, not only due to the predicted post-election drop in ratings but also because of Comcast’s decision to spin the network off from the rest of NBC Universal amid cord-cutting and decreasing ad revenues in linear television.
Still, even with the plummeting viewership since November, MSNBC ended 2024 as the second most-watched network across all of cable and improved upon its 2023 ratings. Additionally, the network enjoyed its largest viewership advantage over CNN in 2024.
During the editorial meeting on Tuesday, told staff she had “decided to move on and leave the company.” Noting that she first shared her decision with Lazarus last week, she said she’s “really excited about what we’ve done” and that it was the “right time” for her to move on.
Additionally, in the meeting, Lazarus addressed one question that has been weighing on the staff since it was announced they would be splitting from NBC News.
“In what I hope will be welcome news, for the foreseeable future, we will retain the name — I know there was some discussion with the MSNBC name, so you can take that off of your worry list on things,” Lazarus stated.
“I’ve had discussions with many of you, and I know how important it was, and we were able to have that discussion internally,” he added. “So, I think that’s very good news, and Rashida, we’re all going to continue to make you proud.”
