CNBC Chief Mark Hoffman Hears Closing Bell, Will Step Down After 17 Years

The closing bell is ringing for Mark Hoffman, the longtime chief of stock-market chronicler CNBC.

Hoffman said in a memo Tuesday that he plans to step down from the role after a 17-year tenure. His last day at the helm would be September 12. He will be replaced by KC Sullivan, the president and managing director of NBCUniversal’s global advertising and partnerships business.

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“Once defined as a moribund domestic cable channel that many thought would never fully recover from the dotcom bubble bursting, CNBC is today a global multimedia powerhouse, punching far above its weight, in the digital age,” Hoffman said in his note.

CNBC may be best known for the market prognostications of Jim Cramer and the wry morning presence of Becky Quick, but behind the stock-and-bonds commentary is a large business that thrives mainly by catering to a broad but niche constituency: people with skin in the game in the world of finance. CNBC encompasses not only the familiar cable network, but, increasingly, in recent years, a series of events; a web-news organization; and some direct-to-consumer products. Much of that has come to rise under Hoffman.

CNBC was estimated to have finished 2021 with $215.4 million in advertising revenue, according to Kagan, a market-research unit of S&P Global Intelligence. The network stopped using Nielsen for daytime ratings in 2015 in the belief that CNBC’s audience — typically watching from brokerage offices and market floors — wasn’t being counted accurately. CNBC uses information gleaned from financial professionals and affluent investors to define it audience, which it believes should secure a premium from the advertisers who wish to reach them.

Hoffman has had some challenges as well. CNBC’s launch of an evening-news program anchored by former Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith has not generated the viewership or profile that might have been expected. CNBC’s daytime schedule vies for advertising and attention with programming on Fox Business Network, which has generated more overall audience during market hours this summer, according to data from Nielsen.

Hoffman’s departure represents the latest leadership transition under the aegis of NBC News Group Chairman Cesar Conde. Since taking the role in May of 2020. Conde has also installed a new president, Rashida Jones, at MSNBC, and worked to build a new portfolio of news products that encompass linear programs like “Today” and streaming offerings such as NBC News Now. Before Conde took charge of NBCU’s news assets, CNBC operated on a stand-alone basis, owing to friction between Hoffman and Andy Lack, the former head of the news properties.

His replacement has built business for NBCUniversal around the world. Sullivan is a 13-year veteran of the company who has served for the past two years as president and managing director of the company’s global advertising and partnerships business, based in London. During that time, he has helped forge connections with Comcast sibling Sky. Prior to that, Sullivan spent more than a decade in leadership roles at CNBC and NBCU News Group, including as president and managing director of CNBC International. ,CFO of NBC News Group, and CFO of CNBC. While at CNBC International, he opened bureaus in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and China, launched partnerships in Indonesia and Thailand, and created “East Tech West,” a multi-year, industry-leading tech event in the Guangdong region of China.

 

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