CBS News SVP Sonya McNair is leaving the network, TVNewser has learned. McNair is the third member of the CBS News PR team to depart in recent weeks. In an internal memo obtained by TVNewser, CBS Corp. chief communications officer Gil Schwartz writes, “Given the portfolio of duties Sonya has shouldered these past four years, we appreciate her feelings in this matter and want to support her in her decision.”
McNair will stay at least until Thanksgiving. She joins Kelli Halyard, who’d been with the network more than 19 years, and who was promoted earlier this year to executive director, who left two weeks ago for Consumer Reports. Weesie Viera, who managed PR for CBS This Morning, moved to BuzzFeed last month.
“It’s been an eventful time since Sonya took over the Communications portfolio for the News Division,” Schwartz wrote. “She helped us attract the right kind of attention to the launch of the CBS This Morning. She brought the same focus to the launch of CBSN last year, and again to the transition on Face the Nation this past summer…For all that work we are very grateful.”
Prior to joining CBS, McNair worked at The New Yorker, Essence Communications, and spent 16 years at ABC News.