Latest from Next TV in Ww2015

MCNWW 2015: Insight Was on the Menu at ‘Wonder Women’ 2015 Luncheon

kent.gibbons@futurenet.com (Kent Gibbons) — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Get complete current and archival #mcnWW coverage.

NEW YORK — The lunch is certainly tasty at the annual Multichannel News Wonder Women fete at the New York Hilton each year, but most people don’t come for the food.

They come for the stories and the insights, such as this pearl from Univision executive vice president of content distribution Sarah Madigan: “When I learned that I received this award, I thought, this award is pointedly not for a small-town Texas lesbian who sits at her desk at 11 p.m. on a Wednesday, eating peanut butter out of a jar while reading a 250-page Cox agreement and answering the phone with the word ‘dude.’ ”

Oh but it is, especially if, like Madigan, she is the kind who brings agreements like those into fruition.

Honoree Tina Pidgeon, the general counsel at General Communication Inc. in Anchorage, Alaska, came with her husband, Tim Fitzpatrick, and their two daughters. She fought back tears in relating that Dana Tindall, her predecessor at GCI, had died in an August 2010 plane crash, along with Tindall’s 16-year-old daughter and U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

Tindall had hired Pidgeon to run GCI’s Washington, D.C., office, and had said Pidgeon would someday succeed her.

“It was hard, suddenly leaving family and friends, taking a new role, and leading a grieving department,” Pidgeon said. “How could I embrace a professional opportunity that came out of this wrenching event? I had to be brave.”

Susette Hsiung, EVP at Disney Channels Worldwide, took risks in her career, while also hedging her bets by studying for an MBA degree at New York University at night “in case this whole television thing didn’t work out.”

Her mom had urged her to do so, noting that the only Chinese person on her TV was local NYC newswoman Kaity Tong.

“Do what excites you,” Hsiung said. “Try new things, don’t be afraid to take risks, value diversity and listen to your mother.”

Judi Lopez, the distribution EVP from Fuse Media (NUVOtv and Fuse), injected a different dose of diversity. “Hello everyone. Welcome to my quinceanera,” she joked. “The Univision table’s cracking up over there: 16% percent of you know what I’m talking about.”

Several honorees were lawyers, including two Comcast executives — senior vice president of of legal regulatory affairs Lynn Charytan and SVP of federal government affairs Melissa Maxfield — who have stayed superbusy shepherding mergers with NBCUniversal and Time Warner Cable to completion. Maxfield expressed sympathy for her dad, surrounded by women in the form of herself, her sisters and her mom. The only male companions he had were the family’s six dogs, “but of course my sisters and I named them.”

Jennifer Hightower, the general counsel at Cox Communications, cherished a quote a friend handed her the day she returned to work after having twins — a quote about how “having it all” was “a lingering cliché of the 80’s Yuppie feminism.” Not so, Hightower said, if you are lucky enough to work “at a company and in an industry that values individual contributions, the advancement of women leaders and the ever present desire for life balance.”

EVP Sandra Kapell runs human resources for Cablevision Systems, and she asked rhetorically how many times HR executives had been honored at events like this. “You can comfortably say zero, that’s OK,” she said, to laughs. This after opening with a story about a kitchen incident at home the night before in which cookies her daughter was baking melted in the oven. “My first lesson is: Cookies need flour.”

Don’t Miss Wonder Women, on March 19

MCN Staff — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 13:00:00 +0000

The Wonder Women luncheon on Thursday, March 19, in New York is shaping up as another don’t-miss event, and tables are selling fast.

Honoring the 17th annual class of high-accomplishing women in cable TV, programming and related fields, the program at the New York Hilton also includes three all-star hosts:

· Alisyn Camerota, CNN anchor and co-host of morning news show New Day.

· Andrea Canning, correspondent for NBC’s news magazine Dateline.

· Pam Oliver, reporter for Fox NFL Sunday on Fox and Fox Sports 1.

As selected by the editors of Multichannel News, this year’s group of Wonder Women – read all about them at mcnwonderwomen.com – includes senior executives at companies ranging from cable operators Comcast, Cablevision Systems, Cox Communications and GCI; programmers A+E Networks, Disney, Fox, Univision and NUVOtv; technology provider Arris and agency Horizon Media.

The event (co-sponsored by the New York chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications) also recognizes 12 executives as Women to Watch. They, too are from a range of programming, operating and marketing companies, including non-traditional ones such as Google and Hulu.

For more on the luncheon, honorees and sponsors, please visit mcnwonderwomen.com or call Rebecca Shottland at 917-281-4722 or email rshottland@nbmedia.com.

CNN's Alisyn Camerota Joins As Wonder Women Host

kent.gibbons@futurenet.com (Kent Gibbons) — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 15:30:00 +0000

Alisyn Camerota, the co-host of CNN's New Day morning program, has joined as a co-host the program honoring the 2015 class of Multichanel News Wonder Women. The luncheon event will be held on Thursday, March 19, at the New York Hilton.

For more about the 17th annual Wonder Women class, and about the event and its history, please see mcnwonderwomen.com. Earlier, Andrea Canning, correspondent for NBC's Dateline news magazine show, was announced as a co-host. More announcements about hosts and about the event will be coming soon. Twitter hashtag: #WW2015. The March 19 event is co-sponsored by the New York chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT).

Here is more about Alisyn Camerota:

She is a CNN anchor and co-host on CNN’s morning show New Day with Chris Cuomo and Michaela Pereira.

Prior to joining CNN, Camerota served as co-host of America’s News Headquarters on Fox News Channel. Before that, she co-anchored Fox & Friends Weekend and contributed to the Fox & Friends weekday franchise, where she covered the gamut of hard news and human interest stories. Camerota was live on the air as the Iraq War began, the space shuttle Columbia exploded, and countless other breaking news events.

Prior to her role as anchor, she served as National Correspondent in the network’s Boston bureau, which included overseas assignments in London and Rome. Before joining Fox, Camerota was a correspondent and substitute host for NBC’s national daytime magazine show REALlife, traveling the country and telling stories of compelling people. She also served as a reporter at WHDH-TV, the NBC affiliate in Boston, and ABC6 in Providence, R.I. She spent five years as a crime reporter for the program America’s Most Wanted.

Camerota attended The American University on an academic scholarship and graduated cum laude. Her first job in news was helping to research and produce Ted Koppel's award-winning documentaries. Her work contributed to the receipt of a prestigious DuPont award. She is married and has three children.

'Dateline's' Andrea Canning To Host Wonder Women Event

kent.gibbons@futurenet.com (Kent Gibbons) — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 18:00:00 +0000

Andrea Canning, the correspondent for NBC's Dateline and contributor to all NBC News platforms, including TODAY and NBC Nightly News, has been named as a host of the March 19 Wonder Women luncheon at the Hilton New York, the publishers of Multichannel News announced today.

The event honors the 2015 class of Wonder Women, whose photos and biographies are now on the relaunched mcnwonderwomen.com site and whose profiles will appear in the Jan. 26 edition of the magazine. In addition to the 13 women in cable, telecommunications and related businesses honored as Wonder Women, the magazine and event salutes 12 Women To Watch. As always, the luncheon event is co-sponsored by the New York chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications.

Check back with mcnwonderwomen.com for news as more hosts are named and for other information about the event.

Here is more about Andrea Canning:

ANDREA CANNING

Correspondent, NBC’s Dateline

Andrea Canning is a correspondent for NBC’s Dateline and has been since October 2012. She contributes to all NBC News platforms, including TODAY and NBC Nightly News. Canning reports on major crime stories and national trials.

Prior to joining NBC News, Canning served as an ABC News correspondent since 2004, where she covered the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court and the Iraq War for ABC’s affiliate news service, NewsOne. Canning covered a wide array of stories ranging from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the Casey Anthony case, to her 2011 headline-making interview with actor Charlie Sheen. Canning contributed to Good Morning America, Nightline, World News with Diane Sawyer and 20/20, while regularly anchoring the early morning broadcasts World News Now and America This Morning. She also served as fill-in news reader for Good Morning America and fill-in anchor for the program’s weekend edition.

Canning previously worked for WCPO-TV, the ABC affiliate in Cincinnati, Ohio, as anchor of their evening newscast. From 1999 to 2001, Canning covered countless stories for WPTV, the NBC affiliate in West Palm Beach, Florida, including the anthrax scare at the National Enquirer buildings, the path of the 9/11 terrorists, the international custody battle of Elian Gonzalez and the 2000 Presidential Election. Canning served as a reporter and evening news anchor for CKVR Television in Barrie, Ontario from 1997 to 1999. She was also the morning anchor for WXVT-CBS in Greenville, Mississippi. Prior to CKVR, from 1996 to 1997, Canning was an assignment editor and field producer for the television program Extra.

Canning graduated from the University of Western Ontario in London with a degree in psychology. In addition, she studied radio and television arts at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto. She is married to Major Tony Bancroft, a former F-18 fighter pilot with the U.S. Marine Corps. They have four young daughters, and are expecting a fifth daughter in May 2015. Canning is on Twitter @CanningAndrea.

'MCN' Names Women To Watch For 2015

kent.gibbons@futurenet.com (Kent Gibbons) — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:15:00 +0000

The editors of Multichannel News have announced the 2015 class of Women To Watch who, like the Wonder Women named earlier, will be recognized at a luncheon event on March 19, 2015, at the Hilton New York.

The 12 Women To Watch appear in a celebratory ad in the upcoming edition of the magazine and you can read more about both 2015 classes in the relaunched microsite, mcnwonderwomen.com. The 2015 Wonder Women class includes four previous Women To Watch.

Here are the 2015 Women To Watch.

Theano Apostolou, EVP, Communications, Starz.

Lori Bernstein, SVP, Business and Legal Affairs, 20th Television.

Anne Cowan, SVP, Communications and Marketing, CTAM.

Rita Ferro, EVP, Disney Media Sales and Marketing.

Pam Kaufman, Consumer Products, CMO, Nickelodeon Group.

Carolina Lightcap, Head of Content, General Manager, Southern Cone, Discovery Networks Latin America/U.S. Hispanic.

Susanne McAvoy, EVP of Marketing, Creative, and Communications, Crown Media Family Networks.

Julie Nolan, Chief People Officer, Simulmedia.

D’Angela Proctor, SVP of Programming and Production, TV One.

Beatrice Springborn, Head of Originals, Hulu.

Ellen Stone, EVP of Marketing, Bravo and Oxygen Media.

Kristen Morrissey Thiede, Head of Business Development, Google Fiber.

Profiles of the 2015 Wonder Women and Women To Watch will appear in the Jan. 26 edition of Multichannel News.