The News
NBCUniversal’s offloading of ”SpinCo″ has prompted high level questions and speculation about what exactly the plan is for declining linear TV channels. SpinCo has several paths forward, whether as a consolidator of more declining linear TV assets, a risk-taking investor in promising but cash-strapped digital media properties, or as a target for acquisition itself (or a little bit of each).
The new company’s CEO, Mark Lazarus, hasn’t figured out any of that yet. Instead, in the weeks since the spinoff was announced, his major focus point has been the complex and unprecedented logistics of untangling the broadcast operations of MSNBC and CNBC from NBCUniversal, which feeds the networks with newsgathering and shares physical space with them at 30 Rock in Midtown and in various locations across the city. Questions about the content and the future of talent appear to be largely on hold at the moment, while those other issues get answered. (MSNBC rank and file have been concerned that the new SpinCo has not promised to recognize the employee union.)
Lazarus is spending time thinking about building out his leadership team, but even top-level leadership questions are taking a backseat.
Chief among these concerns is the looming move en masse to New Jersey or worse, Connecticut, that has staff of almost all levels spooked. While Lazarus has promised that the networks will maintain a Manhattan presence, SpinCo’s relocation to the outskirts of the city is a physical manifestation of the networks’ place in the world.
As cable news declines in relevance, and as many formerly generous TV salaries have gone flat or declined themselves, many now Manhattan-based employees feel that a relocation to the far reaches of Stamford or Edgewood Cliffs would be a literal bridge (or several) too far.