Hampton University alumna and veteran television news executive Rashida Jones was today named as the president of MSNBC.
She will be the first African American to run a major cable network in television history when she takes the helm in February 2021.
From CNN:
Jones has been at MSNBC and NBC News since 2013. She previously worked at The Weather Channel and at local stations. She rose through the ranks at NBC and became the senior vice president for specials in 2017.
Jones’ portfolio was expanded earlier this year when she was put in charge of MSNBC’s daytime and weekend news schedule.
“In the last year alone that has meant, of course, that she has masterfully guided our coverage of the global pandemic, the social justice protests and unrest, Decision 2020, and the two most-viewed Democratic presidential debates in television history,” NBCUniversal News Group chair Cesar Conde wrote on in a memo Monday.
The 2002 Hampton graduate and member of the school’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications Hall of Fame also serves as co-chair of the school’s advisory board.
