Andy Lack named head of NBC news division: memo

(Reuters) - NBCUniversal named veteran news executive Andy Lack as chairman of its news division, according to a memo from Chief Executive Officer Steve Burke sent on Friday. Lack, who recently served as CEO and chairman of Bloomberg LP's Media Group and head of the independent U.S. agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, will oversee NBC News and cable news network MSNBC. The heads of NBC News and MSNBC, Deborah Turness and Phil Griffin, respectively, will report to Lack. Mark Hoffman, the president of cable business network CNBC will report to Burke. Lack replaces Pat Fili-Krushel, who will take a new corporate role on Burke's team. The memo, which was obtained by Reuters, did not provide further details. NBCUniversal is a unit of Comcast Corp. Rumors have been swirling for months about a shake-up at the news division, given the ratings challenges at its top money-making morning TV program, "Today Show," and at MSNBC as well as the suspension of its nightly television news anchor, Brian Williams. Williams was suspended without pay for six months in February after admitting a story he told about coming under fire on a helicopter during the U.S. war in Iraq was not true. This is a homecoming for Lack, who started his career at CBS and joined NBC News in 1993 as its president. In 2001 he was promoted to president and chief operating officer of NBC, responsible for news, entertainment, TV stations, MSNBC and CNBC. He was also CEO and chairman of Sony Entertainment Group. While at Bloomberg, Lack was one of the executives at the news and data company who filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission about Comcast's acquisition of NBC. Bloomberg charged that Comcast was not including its business network near similar channels, or "neighborhoods," such as CNBC. (Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)