JUST IN: MSNBC Snags Top TV Executive Ousted in CNN+ Purge

Photo by TJ Kirkpatrick

The president of MSNBC, Rashida Jones,, announced on Wednesday that CNN veteran Rebecca Kutler will join the network as senior vice president of content strategy.

Kutler will join the number two ranked cable news network starting on September 26th and will “oversee content initiatives across the portfolio. In this role, she will run the streaming team and develop new programming on linear and the MSNBC hub on Peacock.”

Kutler’s long tenure at CNN saw the veteran talent executive work in “nearly every TV news role” and she has been credited with the development of CNN personalities like Abby Phillip and Van Jones.

Kutler’s departure from CNN was first reported in mid-June, weeks after CNN pulled the plug on its streaming service CNN+. Kutler’s last role at the network was as senior vice president and head of programming for CNN+, which became the first casualty of the WarnerMedia merger with Discovery.

The new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav abruptly killed the streaming service as part of wider cost cutting effort, despite the already $300 million spent on the service.

Variety’s Brian Steinberg notes that Kutler’s “influence” at CNN went beyond CNN+ as she also oversaw “all analysts, contributors and commentators for CNN, a job she has held since 2015, and was a key lieutenant for former CNN chief Jeff Zucker as well as Amy Entelis, who oversees talent at the news venue.”

Jones noted in her announcement that Kutler will report directly to her and she has high hopes that “Rebecca’s decades-long experience in nearly every TV news role, as well as extensive knowledge of news audiences, will bolster MSNBC’s success across platforms.”