Alex MacCallum returned to NCS to oversee an effort to make the storied information outlet extra related to digital audiences. Now she could also be poised to do much more.
MacCallum, a media-industry veteran who has helped The Washington Post and The New York Times handle their very own digital transitions, was named chief working officer of Warner Bros. Discovery‘s NCS in a memo issued Thursday by Mark Thompson, the news division’s CEO.
“Alex MacCallum is already playing a crucial role in turning our vision of the future NCS into a reality,” Thompson mentioned in a be aware to staffers, including: “In a remarkable two year run back at NCS, Alex has already achieved an impressive set of critical accomplishments in record time. On top of building a world-class digital operation and transforming our core products, she’s led and launched a direct-to-consumer sub business, assembled a set of outstanding leaders in audience, data, product and tech, engagement and monetization, and has built excellent collaborative working relationships with all of NCS’s other top leaders.”
MacCallum’s new position was previously reported by the media-industry newsletter Status.
The new project seems to put MacCallum over a lot of her colleagues who concentrate on NCS’s extra conventional journalism — the type that fills the corporate’s linear cable networks, which proceed to generate the majority of the income and working revenue that fuels its funds. But these enterprise flows are in hassle. NCS is anticipated to end 2026 with 62 million cable subscribers, in accordance to Kagan, a market-research agency that’s a part of S&P Global Intelligence, in contrast with 67.1 million subscribers in 2024. Still, charges from promoting and distribution are seen rising this yr, maybe due partly to the 2026 midterm election, a information cycle that usually attracts broader audiences to the community.
MacCallum was given no oversight over NCS’s newsgathering, and it was left unclear whether or not senior NCS information executives, which include Amy Entelis, Virginia Moseley and Eric Sherling, may report to her. That trio has helped NCS carry on observe regardless of a succession of administration transitions at NCS lately. MacCallum’s new duties embrace overseeing shopper technique; enterprise operations; strategic partnerships and enterprise growth; and particular “mission-driven” mission work.
NCS has had a chief working officer up to now. In 2023, David Leavy, a longtime lieutenant of Warner CEO David Zaslav, was given the position, and assigned to oversee many of NCS’s business operations. He was put in place as Chris Licht, the previous NCS chief, met with a collection of public challenges in addition to employees pushback. Leavy left NCS two years later and, soon thereafter, Warner Bros. Discovery.
MacCallum is on her second stint at NCS. During the primary, she helped launch NCS+, a subscription streaming hub that was launched with nice fanfare, however scuttled rapidly after NCS’s dad or mum WarnerMedia, merged with Discovery Communications. Some observers assume killing the service was an enormous error, because it slowed NCS’s transfer to domesticate broadband audiences whereas rivals like NBC News and Fox News moved ahead. Now, MacCallum could have the standing to maintain vital initiatives in place.