NBC News Snaps Up Yamiche Alcindor Amid Prodigious Hiring Spree
Ed Rode/Getty Images for Politicon
NBC News has been keeping media reporters busy in recent weeks as it scoops up prominent journalists from its competitors as part of a massive hiring spree to gear up for a push into streaming.
PBS’ Washington Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, Politico’s Marc Caputo, and ABC News’ Tom Llamas are just the tip of the iceberg of dozens of high-profile reporters who have announced in recent weeks they are joining NBC News.
Alcindor, 35, is expected to begin her new role as Washington correspondent at NBC News in March. Prior to working at PBS, she was also a reporter for the New York Times and USA Today. While covering the White House for PBS she became a high-profile challenger of the Trump administration.
NBCU previously committed to hiring more than 200 new employees for their digital and streaming platforms.
“As more consumption shifts to streaming, it’s only natural that we shift more of our attention and resources to serving that audience,” Noah Oppenheim, president of NBC News, told Axios over the summer.
Amid concerns about a looming decline in cable news audiences, the cable and broadcast networks have all announced ambitious plans for streaming platforms. Both MSNBC and CNN lag behind Fox News in the ratings, and Politico’s Jack Shafer, while arguing that cable news has had its day, pointed out last week that MSNBC’s average viewer is 68-years-old.
While NBCU pushes its streaming service, NBC News Now, to try and capture a younger audience with growth potential, CNN too announced over the summer it would hire 450 new employees for its streaming service CNN+.
“It’s less about a number of shows and more about continuing to expand our programming so that whenever someone is looking for news on streaming, 24/7, they can open News NOW and find it,” Oppenheim said of NBC’s streaming ambitions in the interview with Axios.
Whether NBC and MSNBC’s streaming properties will remain entirely separate is an open question for the future, but Axios reported over the summer that as the push to streaming began “NBC plans to keep its existing news streaming services distinct” and that NBC has already launched The Choice, an extension of MSNBC’s content on Peacock.
