Women take top business roles at news outlets
- Sara Fischer, author of Axios Media Trends
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
Several women were named to top business positions at news companies in the past week, adding to a broader trend of women assuming top editorial roles at news companies in the past year.
Why it matters: Business leaders tend to oversee departments that are critical to the mission of news companies, like revenue, marketing, communications and human resources.
Driving the news: Public radio veteran Goli Sheikholeslami was named CEO of Politico on Monday, replacing Patrick Steel, who departed last year.
- Inc. and Fast Company's parent Mansueto Ventures named Stephanie Mehta as chief executive and chief content officer, replacing Eric Schurenberg.
- BBC News named TV news veteran Deborah Turness as its new CEO last week.
Between the lines: The past few years have seen a dramatic increase in women being named to top positions at news companies.
- In publishing, Adweek named Juliette Morris CEO in December. The Associated Press named Daisy Veerasingham CEO and president last summer. Robin Sparkman was named ProPublica President and co-CEO last year. Regina Buckley was named president of The Guardian U.S. last year. Barbara Peng was named president of Insider last year. The New York Times named Meredith Kopit Levien CEO in 2020. Heather Dietrick is CEO of Daily Beast. Anna Palmer is founder and CEO of Punchbowl News. Jessica Lessin is the founder and CEO of The Information. Emily Ramshaw is the co-founder and CEO of The 19th News. Maribel Wadsworth is president and publisher of USA Today. Pam Wasserstein is president of Vox Media. Lauren Williams is the CEO and co-founder of Capital B.
- In television, Kimberly Godwin was named president of ABC News last April. Wendy McMahon was named co-president of CBS News shortly thereafter. Rashida Jones was named president of MSNBC in late 2020, becoming the first black woman to lead a major cable news company. Fox News named Suzanne Scott CEO in 2018.
The big picture: Several women have been named to top editor positions over the past year, per CNN, including Julie Pace at the AP, Sara Kehaulani Goo at Axios, Danielle Belton at HuffPost, Sally Buzbee at the Washington Post, Mary Margaret at Entertainment Weekly, Swati Sharma at Vox, Tracy Conner at The Daily Beast, Alessandra Galloni at Reuters, Julia Chan at the 19th and Alyson Shontell at Fortune.