Friday, October 25, 2013

Report: NBC News Chief Sez CNN Gets Breaking News Bump

Patricia Fili-Krushel
Since NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke pressed Patricia Fili-Krushel into service in July 2012 in a newly created position designed to leverage the company's vast news assets -- the executive is back to sleeping with her iPhone on the nightstand.

Little wonder: Her vast portfolio includes NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, The Weather Channel, NBC News Digital, MSNBC.com and CNBC.com. With 2,300 employees and revenue of more than $2.1 billion in 2012, according to a Pew Research Center estimate, NBCU's news properties reach more than 120 million viewers a month.

Fili-Krushel, 59, was recently interviewd by The Hollywood Reporter for its November 1 issue.

Do MSNBC's ratings dips during slow political news cycles worry you?
  • [MSNBC president] Phil Griffin and I have talked a lot about how it's a balancing act: Viewers are coming for MSNBC's personalities, and CNN definitely gets the bump during breaking news. But we have to play in both spaces. When Phil was quoted as saying we don't do breaking news, I know if he could have [taken it back], he would have.
He also recently hired Ronan Farrow, who doesn't have a lot of TV experience.
  • In television, you create your own stars. We're not going to throw him right up on his own show -- it will be gradual. But it's no surprise that news skews a little older. Part of it is trying to appeal to a broader swath of people. Ronan can go from Syria to Kim Kardashian and be credible, and he's got a huge social following. He's great for MSNBC, and I think there are places where we can use him on NBC News as well.
Does it concern you that ABC's World News toppled Nightly News in the demo last summer?
  • Well, it happens so rarely. But when you look at the Nielsen sample, nine households are the CNBC sample. That's the flaw. [The entire Nielsen sample] is 40,000 households. We're all in the same boat. Whether it's on iPads or DVRs, we're just not getting access to those metrics. If news consumption wasn't going up, I'd be worried.
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