Adrienne Roark is leaving Paramount Global and its CBS News & Stations division to become the Chief Content Officer at local television broadcaster TEGNA, the company announced on Tuesday.
As Chief Content Officer, Roark will oversee TEGNA’s local news and content businesses, reporting directly to the company’s CEO, Mike Steib. She effectively succeeds Ellen Crooke, who retired as TEGNA’s Senior Vice President of News in January.
Roark has spent the last three years with CBS, starting first as its co-President of CBS Television Stations, where she oversaw the company’s East Coast and Midwest television operations, including flagship station WCBS-TV (Channel 2) in New York City. She became President of CBS News & Stations — the relatively new name given to the local broadcast division of CBS — in October 2023, though her duties were split with another local CBS TV executive in August. After what was ostensibly a demotion, Roark was only in charge of Paramount-owned stations in New York and Boston.
Paramount and CBS seemed to not fully understand the best ways to utilize Roark’s talent and drive to bring success to its local TV operations, and the company did not give her much of an opportunity to build and deliver on her editorial and business strategies. Paramount is in the process of merging with Skydance Media as part of a complex business transaction that also involves National Amusements divesting its controlling ownership of the company, and is largely seen as a last-ditch effort to keep Paramount and its operations solvent.
TEGNA is not quite in the same position, but the company has faced its own set of business challenges after its blockbuster merger with Standard General fell apart. Last year, its long-time CEO David Lougee announced his retirement, and the company’s Chief Operating Officer Lynn Beall is set to depart later this year. TEGNA has also laid off a number of editorial employees, including its entire national fact-checking team earlier this month.
Hiring Roark — a seasoned industry executive who has led numerous newsrooms through different points of transformation in the business — is possibly the first step toward righting TEGNA’s ship.
“Throughout her impressive career, Adrienne has delivered exceptional journalism at scale while staying deeply committed to local communities,” Steib said on Wednesday. “She brings sharp editorial and operational expertise, a history of rapid innovation across TV and digital, and the kind of high-intensity, high-velocity leadership that fits perfectly with our team.”
Likewise, Roark appears excited to get things started.
“I’m thrilled to join TEGNA and look forward to working with the talented team to continue innovating and delivering high-quality, audience-driven stories for the tens of millions of community members who come to our platforms daily for their local news,” she said.
TEGNA owns more than a dozen local CBS affiliates, including those in Washington (WUSA, Channel 9), Houston (KHOU, Channel 11) and San Diego (KFMB, Channel 8). It also operates TV stations in some of the biggest markets across the country, including the NBC affiliate in Denver (KUSA, Channel 9), the ABC affiliate in Sacramento (KXTV, Channel 10) and the NBC affiliate in Seattle (KING, Channel 5).
