To: All Employees
From: Leslie Moonves
Subject: A MESSAGE FROM LESLIE MOONVES
Date: October 26, 2005
It is my pleasure to announce today that Sean McManus, who has served as President of CBS Sports since 1996, has been named President of CBS News and Sports, effective November 7. Sean succeeds Andrew Heyward, who will continue on as an advisor to the CBS News Division until the end of the year, when his current contract expires, and assist in the transition.
The full memo is after the jump…
In addition to his new role as President of CBS News, Sean will continue to serve as President of CBS Sports, which under his leadership has become the Number One broadcast organization of its kind in the industry. He will continue to be based in New York and will keep offices at the headquarters of both CBS Sports and CBS News, although he will spend the majority of his time at CBS News for the foreseeable future. In that regard, we are very fortunate that, thanks to the work of the last several years, CBS Sports is on an extremely solid footing, with a great executive team, led by Tony Petitti, that is clearly up to the task of keeping that part of our operation running smoothly as Sean grapples with the tasks that lie ahead.
Sean is a superb executive, a great leader and a fierce competitor whose pedigree for excellence in live-event programming is well-known. Under his leadership, CBS Sports has moved over the past decade into the Number One position in its field, and the quality of what we put on the air is the very best in the business. I believe his background has prepared him well for the significant tasks that face us at CBS News, and I am very pleased that we have such a brilliant executive within our management team to take on this crucial role.
Andrew has held the post of President of CBS News for almost 10 years, and served in a wide variety of roles before that during his 24-year career at CBS. Under his leadership, our News Division has been recognized with many of the industry’s highest honors: 57 Emmy, 13 Peabody, 13 Alfred I. duPont/Columbia University, six Overseas Press Club and 46 RTNDA/Edward R. Murrow awards, including most recently the Murrow for Overall Excellence for three years running. He is, quite simply, a man of great character, whose integrity and experience has guided our News division through a time of tremendous change, and I want to thank him for his unwavering commitment to the core values of journalism, and for his years of creativity, dedication and loyalty to this company.
Sean was named President, CBS Sports, in November 1996. During his tenure as President of the Division, CBS Sports has become the year-round leader in sports television and cemented relationships with all the key sporting events that make us the industry leader.
Sean led CBS’s efforts in acquiring broadcast rights to the National Football League in January 1998. In November 1999, he led CBS to an unprecedented landmark agreement with the NCAA that extended the exclusive over-the-air broadcast rights — as well as rights to the Internet, marketing and corporate sponsorship, merchandising, licensing, cable television, radio, satellite, digital and home video — to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship until 2014. The 11-year pact is the most comprehensive sports agreement in history. He also reached a new multi-year agreement with the PGA TOUR, allowing CBS Sports to extend its broadcast rights through 2006 and to remain the tour’s dominant broadcast partner, and extended CBS’s agreements with the United States Tennis Association and a range of college football events.
He has also been extremely successful in attracting and retaining the very best talent in the business to CBS Sports. Complementing the on-air talent roster that already included Jim Nantz, John McEnroe, Billy Packer and Ken Venturi, he was responsible for adding Greg Gumbel, Dick Enberg, Verne Lundquist, Phil Simms, Dan Dierdorf, Lesley Visser, Deion Sanders, Boomer Esiason, Dan Marino, Lanny Wadkins, Randy Cross, Armen Keteyian, Clark Kellogg and Todd Blackledge to CBS Sports’ announcer lineup.
In the Internet space, Sean led our efforts to partner with CBS SportsLine and America Online to obtain the exclusive Internet rights to NFL.com and Super Bowl.com. He also led the Network’s efforts in a joint venture with SportsLine USA, creating CBS SportsLine.com, one of the most successful sports Internet sites.
A graduate of Duke University, Sean began his career in 1977 at ABC Sports, where he was a production assistant and associate producer. He joined NBC Sports in 1979 as an associate producer assigned to the NFL, Wimbledon, the PGA TOUR, auto racing and the Tour de France. In 1982, he became the youngest vice president in the history of NBC. As Vice President of Program Planning and Development at NBC Sports through 1987, Sean was responsible for all programming and was instrumental in the rights negotiations for the Olympics, the NFL, Wimbledon, the Breeders’ Cup, the Orange Bowl, auto racing and NCAA college basketball. After NBC, Sean joined Trans World International, the television division of International Management Group, the largest sports marketing firm in the world, as Senior Vice President of U.S. Television Sales and Programming. From that point, he joined CBS in 1996.
I know you will join with me in welcoming Sean to this important new role with our company, and in wishing Andrew well in what I’m sure will be an important next phase in an already-distinguished career.