One of the best-known and most admired executives in the television business is retiring after a 46-year career. Deadline.com reports that Joe Abruzzese will step down as Discovery Communications’ head of ad sales at the end of the year.
Abruzzese has been at Discovery for the past 14 years, following 11 years at CBS and 10 years at NBC. “Discovery will promote Ben Price, a 27-year veteran, to president of U.S. ad sales when Abruzzese leaves,” Deadline notes. “He’ll report to Chief Commercial Officer Paul Guyardo.”
Said Discovery CEO David Zaslav: “Joe has defined what it means to lead with integrity, has made clients into friends, built the best ad sales organization in the business — including our new leader Ben Price — and created fantastic value for Discovery and our shareholders.”
What a huge loss for Discovery