NCS boss Mark Thompson has quietly anointed a prime lieutenant as his doubtless successor.
Alex MacCallum, NCS’s digital chief who labored below Thompson when he ran The New York Times Company, has been tapped because the left-leaning cable community’s new chief working officer.
Thompson circulated a memo to staffers saying the transfer earlier this week, according to the Status newsletter.
The transfer is probably going a blow to different prime brass — together with govt editor Virginia Moseley, who had lengthy been seen internally as a number one contender for the highest job, Status reported.
A spokesperson for NCS mentioned Moseley has repeatedly instructed folks she is absolutely dedicated to her position as govt editor of the worldwide information operation and never in one other position.
In January 2024, The Post reported that rank-and-file staffers at NCS had been sad that Moseley was elevated by Thompson to function govt editor.
“‘Tyrant’ is the word that you hear used the most to describe her,” a supply instructed The Post on the time.
“She has reduced reporters and producers to tears. She fires before she aims.”
The shake-up comes at a crucial second for NCS because it grapples with declining cable revenues and seeks to reinvent itself as a subscription-driven digital information operation — and as employees prepared for Paramount Skydance to purchase the information org’s father or mother firm Warner Bros. Discovery.
Thompson has been overhauling NCS with an “audience-first” push into digital subscriptions and streaming — a strategy that has included layoffs, restructuring and a renewed direct-to-consumer push.
MacCallum has been on the heart of that effort, overseeing NCS’s digital merchandise and serving to launch its subscription and streaming companies.
She was initially employed by then-NCS President Jeff Zucker to assist construct NCS+, the community’s short-lived and ill-fated streaming service.
MacCallum later returned below Thompson to steer its digital push.
In his memo, Thompson praised her “impressive set of critical accomplishments,” crediting her with constructing a “world-class digital operation” and launching NCS’s direct-to-consumer subscription enterprise.
“In a remarkable two-year run back at NCS, Alex has already achieved an impressive set of critical accomplishments in record time,” Thompson wrote in the memo circulated to staffers on Wednesday.
“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.”
The C-suite drama unfolds in opposition to a backdrop of uncertainty over the network’s future possession and the potential implications for Thompson’s tenure.
In February, Paramount Skydance agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal valued at about $31 per share, or roughly $110 billion, bringing main belongings together with NCS, HBO and the Warner Bros. studio below the management of Paramount CEO David Ellison.
The proposed deal has rattled NCS’s newsroom, with staffers elevating issues about editorial independence and the community’s destiny below new possession.
Thompson has sought to reassure journalists in latest conferences, telling employees he stays dedicated to NCS and intends to remain on as the corporate navigates the transition to new possession, which nonetheless wants regulatory approval.
But unease persists internally, fueled by Paramount’s latest strikes at CBS News — together with layoffs and management modifications — in addition to broader questions on how a mixed media empire below Ellison would reshape NCS.
The Post has sought remark from NCS.