Hearst Executive Neeraj Khemlani Named to Top Leadership Role at CBS Network

Neeraj Khemlanii, vice president of Hearst and the executive vice president and deputy group head of Hearst Newspapers, is joining CBS to take the top leadership position at the network.  Khemlani will be co-head of a newly combined CBS News and CBS Television Stations unit, and will be joined by Wendy McMahon, former head of ABC’s television stations group. 

Khemlani is expected to assume primary responsibility for the national CBS News broadcasts, while McMahon assumes responsibility for CBS’ local stations, new reports said, citing sources. He will replace Susan Zirinsky, a 40-year veteran of CBS News who took the top job two years ago. Khemlani returns to CBS having earlier worked there from 1998 to 2006 as a producer at “60 Minutes.” He left to work at the news arm of Yahoo before taking on a series of executive roles at Hearst.

At Hearst, he served as Hearst’s chief creative officer, where he worked across the company’s global brands and with its creative teams, managers and group heads to innovate the best possible products, content offerings and user experiences on every platform. Before that, he served as executive vice president and deputy group head of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, where he focused on growing the company’s nonfiction television production activities.  Khemlani began his career at Hearst in March 2009 as vice president and special assistant to the CEO for digital media. He continues to serve on the boards of A+E Networks, A+E EMEA, Complex Networks, Kobalt Music and NorthSouth Productions.

Prior to Hearst, Khemlani was vice president and general manager of Yahoo! News & Information as well as head of Yahoo! Originals. In this position, he managed the business and products of Yahoo! News, Tech, Weather and Education, original video productions across the Yahoo! Media group and the editorial programming for Yahoo! Finance, as executive editor. 

From 1998 to 2006, Khemlani was a producer for CBS News’ “60 Minutes” and “60 Minutes II.” Prior to that, he was at ABC News, where he produced segments for “Nightline,” “Good Morning America,” “Peter Jennings Reporting” and “ABC News Specials.” 

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He has won numerous awards, including a 2004 Emmy nomination for business reporting, a 2003 Emmy nomination for best interview, the 2002 Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting and a DuPont Award in 1995 for his participation in ABC News’ coverage of the war in Bosnia.

 Khemlani began his career as a newspaper reporter, stringing for The New York Times and The Post-Standard in Syracuse, New York, while in college. Khemlani holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, where he graduated with honors, and a bachelor’s degree in communications from Cornell University, where he was the editor-in-chief of The Cornell Daily Sun.