Wendy McMahon
A highly accomplished media executive with a record of driving audience growth and business success across all broadcast, digital and streaming platforms, Wendy McMahon leads CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures (CMV). This recently unified division of CBS includes national broadcast news and streaming operations, 27 local television stations, 14 local news streaming channels and CMV's top-rated first-run syndication programming, as well as its content licensing to television stations and CMV's national advertising sales business. Prior to assuming this role, she served as president and co-head of CBS News and Stations, bringing together the people and resources of CBS News, CBS News Digital and CBS Stations to create the leading local-to-global news organization in the United States.
McMahon is known as an innovative and transformational leader. In her current role, she has led the division's mission to reshape television for evolving audiences and for multiple screens. Under McMahon's leadership, CBS Stations skyrocketed from fourth to first in local news streaming in just two years. CBS News' national stream has been renamed CBS News 24/7 and is dramatically growing its audience by employing many of the same strategies that have fueled CBS' success in local streaming. In June 2024, CBS News 24/7 launched its signature show, also named CBS News 24/7, featuring whip-around reporting and an immersive AR/VR viewing experience with reporting on the biggest stories of the day provided by journalists across the entire CBS News and Stations organization.
McMahon has also recently led the creation of CBS News Confirmed, a team of highly skilled forensic journalists that combats misinformation by using data and technology to verify and fact-check questionable video and reports. She has also launched a nationwide community journalism expansion that embeds CBS reporters in several cities where the Network and its owned stations previously haven't had a regular presence. McMahon has also championed CBS' investment in a Super Desk that that pairs technology with people across CBS News and Stations and CMV to create a central news desk for the entire division, a data journalism unit, and enhanced coverage of beats such as weather, immigration, transportation, infrastructure, crime and finance.
CBS Stations' initiatives include adding more than 9,000 hours of local news programming per year – with an emphasis on solutions-oriented community journalism that aligns with the stations' mission of making the markets they serve better places to live; the creation of the CBS Local News Innovation Lab in Dallas-Fort Worth, where a curated team of journalists produce next-generation storytelling and investigations that leverage data and technology to deepen viewer engagement; the "Newsroom of the Future" at CBS News Detroit; and the first-ever morning news franchise at KCAL in Los Angeles.
During McMahon's tenure, CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures has prioritized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, hired and promoted several women and/or people of color to key roles and dramatically improved the workplace environment for all of its team members.
McMahon has been recognized for her leadership by being named as one of Variety's Women's Impact Report honorees, a WICT Network of Southern California LEA (Leadership, Excellence and Advocacy) Award winner, and a Wonder Woman of Los Angeles by Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable.
Prior to returning to CBS in 2021, McMahon was president of the ABC Owned Television Stations, with direct responsibility for the Walt Disney Company's eight broadcast stations, local newsrooms and streaming assets. Before that, she was the senior vice president of ABC Owned Television Stations' Digital, where she crafted a multiplatform future for the group and was responsible for leading digital content, products and technology, and audience development strategies and initiatives.
Previously, McMahon served as vice president of marketing at KABC in Los Angeles and as a creative services director at CBS-owned stations WBZ in Boston and WCCO in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She began her career as a promotion manager for WTOC in Savannah, Ga.
In 2019, McMahon was named the Young Alumna of the Year by her alma mater, Louisiana State University, and the Digital Leader of the Year by the National Association of Broadcasters. Throughout her career, her teams have received numerous Emmys, Associated Press and regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, as well as National Murrow Awards. Her creative teams have also been honored with several Promax, Telly and Broadcast Design Awards for excellence in marketing and brand development.
McMahon graduated summa cum laude from Louisiana State University with a bachelor's degree in mass communication-broadcast journalism. She is married to William Burton and they are proud parents of their son, Chase.