MSNBC is negotiating pay cuts with night anchors Joy Reid and Stephanie Ruhle as the cable channel nosedives in the ratings after the election, according to a report. Rachel Maddow, arguably the star of the network, previously agreed to pare down her $30 million salary, it was reported. The Ankler's report this week about Reid and Ruhle negotiating pay cuts should come as no surprise. Parent company Comcast generated concern over MSNBC's future by announcing a plan to spin off MSNBC and some other NBCUniversal properties into a new company. But perhaps more urgent is the station's plummeting viewership. Its prime-time audience tanked 55% from Nov. 4 through Dec. 15, according to Nielsen ratings cited by The Wrap. (CNN, a mainstream counterpart, experienced a 46.7% drop.) "The ReidOut" host Reid and "11th Hour" host Ruhle, whose salaries are believed to be considerably lower than Maddow's, are experiencing audience declines in line with the network's overall numbers.
Newly promoted "Morning Joe" co-host Jonathan Lemire has also been presented with a new deal at a lesser salary, according to Ankler.
Comcast plans to spin off its cable networks. What's next for MSNBC?
www.npr.org
... Well, sure. I mean, to set the table squarely, Fox News has been running away with ratings and cable news and oftentimes can accurately say it's the most popular channel on cable itself. After that, though, MSNBC and CNN have been battling for a certain kind of prominence.
MSNBC falls of late pretty squarely as the second most-watched cable news channel in the country, besting CNN. And the question, in some ways, for us is -- what's going to change if it's being spun off into what's now for the near term being called SpinCo for viewers, for people who may turn in?
And the answer is, at least for the next year, probably not much at all. I think you're going to see basically the same lineup. You may see a very similar approach - NBC news reporting, for example, informing and infusing the news side of what it offers. ...
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