Story Behind the Story: Kathleen Finch Announces Retirement as Chairman and CEO of US Networks for Warner Bros. Discovery
In January , 2016 MediaVillage editor Ed Martin and I were joined by Kathleen Finch for the MediaVillage Lunch at Michael's interview series. At the time, Kathleen was Scripps Networks Interactive Chief Programming, Content and Brand Officer. Scripps, of course, was acquired by Discovery Communications, which subsequently merged with WarnerMedia, and in turn became Warner Bros. Discovery. Today, WBD announced Kathleen's retirement at the end of this year, which led me back to Ed's 2016 interview with her and this excerpt describing her introduction to the television business. You can read the full interview here.
Kathleen leaves a legacy of transformative leadership and creative innovation, shaping television and entertainment for a new generation and bringing to life the vision of original Scripps' leaders Ken Lowe and Judy Girard. Kathleen has many great memories and great moments. We wish you many more! Thank you for your service to the advertising and media community and for your friendship and support for MediaVillage Education Foundation.
Excerpted from "Lunch at Michael's with Scripps Networks' Kathleen Finch" Jan. 5, 2016
After graduating from Stanford, where Kathleen majored in English Literature, her first job was working for a small production company that was producing videos for Apple Computer. "It was early enough that Steve Jobs would sit in meetings with us," she recalled. "We made videos that were about the benefits of having a personal computer in your home. I'm in some of them. I play the college student whose studying was made easier by having a home computer."
From there it was on to CBS News. "I'm a former journalist," she said. "That's really what I thought I always wanted to do." At CBS she would meet her first mentor – the late 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney, who encouraged Finch to pursue her writing and with whom she eventually carpooled to and from Connecticut – and Eric Ober, who was her boss at CBS and later left to run Food Network.
She also got to know Martha Stewart, who was working there as a lifestyle consultant and was central to Finch's "favorite experience" at the network. In 1998, when Pope John Paul II visited Cuba, CBS decided to send Stewart there to do lifestyle reporting and Finch was assigned to accompany her. Because the Pope was there, so were all the news superstars of the moment, including Dan Rather and the late Peter Jennings. Right at that time, however, news broke of President Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, and suddenly all of the news people left. But Finch was told to remain in Cuba with Stewart and continue with their reporting.
Two weeks later Finch returned home from the trip late one Saturday night and turned on Saturday Night Live, only to see a sketch about Martha Stewart reporting from Cuba about the Lewinsky story. "It was fabulous and horrible all at once," she laughed. "And it was on the front page of the Washington Post!"
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