In Depth
Sassa Named President of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication
Former top Turner Broadcasting and NBC executive Scott Sassa has been named president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, the company said Thursday.
Mr. Sassa will be overseeing the group responsible for Hearst’s interests in cable television networks, including ESPN, Lifetime, A&E and History, as well as television, television production and distribution, newspaper syndication and merchandise licensing.
Bruce Paisner, who had been executive VP of the group, is retiring, the company said.
Most recently, Mr. Sassa founded and was CEO of Uber, an Internet startup. Previously he’d been a CEO-in-residence at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and president of Friendster.
At NBC, Sassa was president of entertainment and president, West Coast. At Turner he helped launch Turner Network Television and later was responsible for programming and operations at TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies and Turner’s international entertainment networks.
“Our success with the Lifetime, A&E and History networks and the content created with partners like Disney, ABC and NBC, as well as our investment in the ESPN family of networks, have all grown well beyond expectations,” said Frank Bennack, CEO of Hearst. “We are confident that Scott, who has successfully developed and led some of the entertainment industry's most recognized brands, is ideally suited to accomplish Hearst's goals moving forward in a time of media evolution."
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Billy Kivster
It took someone who has been out of touch with the business for several years to properly replace Bruce Paisner.