President and Chief Executive Officer
CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures
A highly accomplished media executive with a record of driving audience growth and business success across all broadcast, digital and streaming platforms, Wendy McMahon is president and chief executive officer of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures (CMV). She assumed this newly created and expanded role that includes singular oversight of CBS News and Stations as well as leadership of CBS’ domestic syndication business in August 2023.
McMahon leads all of CBS News’ broadcast and streaming operations, 27 local television stations, 14 local news streaming channels and CMV’s top-rated first-run syndication programming, as well as its content licensing to television stations and the division’s national advertising sales business. Prior to assuming this role, she served as president and co-head of CBS News and Stations, since May 2021, and shared responsibility for bringing together for the first time the people and resources of CBS News, CBS News Digital and CBS Television Stations to create the leading local-to-global news organization in the United States.
Under McMahon’s leadership, CBS has reimagined its approach to operating the Company’s television stations in 17 major U.S. markets, the stations’ websites and mobile platforms, local news streaming channels, and Newspath, the CBS Television Network’s affiliate news service.
Embracing what she calls “The Three C’s: Content, Culture and Community,” McMahon has championed initiatives that have increased the local news hours produced by CBS Stations from 26,000 in 2021 to more than 35,000 in 2023 – with an emphasis on solutions-oriented community journalism that aligns with the stations’ mission of making the markets they serve better places to live. The station group’s expansion efforts also include the creation of the CBS Local News Innovation Lab in Dallas-Fort Worth, where a curated team of journalists produce next-generation storytelling and investigations that leverage data and technology to deepen viewer engagement; the “Newsroom of the Future” at CBS News Detroit; and the first-ever morning news franchise at KCAL in Los Angeles.
Under McMahon, CBS News and Stations has prioritized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, hired and promoted several women and/or people of color to serve in key roles and dramatically improved the workplace environment for all of its team members.
In the past year, McMahon has been recognized for her leadership by being named as one of Variety’sWomen’s Impact Report honorees and a Wonder Woman of Los Angeles by Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable.
Prior to returning to CBS in 2021, McMahon was president of the ABC Owned Television Stations, with direct responsibility for the Walt Disney Company’s eight broadcast stations, local newsrooms and streaming assets. Before that, she was the senior vice president of ABC Owned Television Stations’ Digital, where she crafted a multiplatform future for the group and was responsible for leading digital content, products and technology, and audience development strategies and initiatives.
Previously, McMahon served as vice president of marketing at KABC in Los Angeles and as a creative services director at CBS-owned stations WBZ in Boston and WCCO in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She began her career as a promotion manager for WTOC in Savannah, Ga.
In 2019, McMahon was named the Young Alumna of the Year by her alma mater, Louisiana State University, and the Digital Leader of the Year by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Throughout her career, her teams have received numerous Emmys, Associated Press and regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, as well as National Murrow Awards during each of the last three years: (2020, Breaking News), (2021, Best Newscast) and (2022, Investigative Reporting). Her creative teams have also been honored with several Promax, Telly and Broadcast Design Awards for excellence in marketing and brand development.
McMahon graduated summa cum laude from Louisiana State University with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication – broadcast journalism. She is married to William Burton and they are proud parents of an 11-year-old son.
