Why Was MSNBC President Phil Griffin Not Included in the Comcast/NBCU Executive Memo?

By Alex Weprin 

After Comcast announced its new senior executive structure for NBC Universal, some inside NBC News and MSNBC have been asking why MSNBC president Phil Griffin wasn’t mentioned. Does Comcast plan to keep him on board once the deal is complete?

Of course, the company says. “Phil’s done a great job at MSNBC and he’ll continue to be President after the close,” a Comcast spokesperson tells TVNewser.

So what happened?

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Comcast only announced the direct reports to incoming CEO Steve Burke, anyone that was not a direct report was only mentioned in the memo if they were reporting to a new boss. For example, G4 president Neal Tiles used to report to Comcast’s Ted Harbert, now he will report to NBCU’s Bonnie Hammer, and Telemundo’s Don Browne used to report to Jeff Zucker, now he will report to Lauren Zalaznick.

Because Griffin will continue to report to NBC News president Steve Capus, the reporting structure doesn’t change, and he was not mentioned. The same can be said for Syfy president Dave Howe, Bravo president Frances Berwick and Oxygen president Jason Klarman, none of whom are mentioned in the memo because they continue to report to their current bosses.

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