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NBCU Sales Chief Keith Turner Leaving Company

Dec 1, 2006  •  Post A Comment

Keith Turner, president of NBC Universal’s sales and marketing team, is leaving the company, NBCU Chairman Bob Wright said in a memo to staff Friday morning.

With NBC falling to fourth place in the ratings, the network’s upfront ad sales dropped by about $900 million in the 2005 upfront and remained at that depressed level during the 2006 upfront.

Mr. Turner’s replacement will come from within parent company General Electric, but not from the NBC Universal sales group, people familiar with the situation said.

In his memo, Mr. Wright said Mr. Turner is leaving “to pursue career opportunities outside the company. Keith has been an outstanding leader of our sales organization for the past eight years and has played as significant role in our success throughout his almost 20-year career at NBC.”

Mr. Turner is the latest senior executive to leave NBCU, which is going through a reorganization that will trim 700 jobs and $750 million in spending.

Last month, Randy Falco, president and COO of the NBCU Television Group, jumped to AOL as chairman and CEO, while David Zaslav, NBCU Cable President, took the CEO job at Discovery Communications.