Scott Matthews has been named senior vice president of newsgathering at MSNBC.
Matthews comes to the job after most recently serving as vice president and news director at WABC-TV where he directed the Eyewitness News team and oversaw the organization’s streaming and digital products. He previously served as the vice president of news specials at CNBC from 2011 through 2019, where he led special programming, including breaking news and special events and CNBC’s Investigative Unit.
Matthews starts at MSNBC on March 17 and will report to MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler.
At MSNBC, Matthews will be in charge of building out and running the editorial and production newsgathering operation for MSNBC, establishing a new assignment desk, manage daily and breaking news coverage and more.
Matthews is planning to hire more than 100 journalists including field producers, correspondents, photographers, and more. Comcast is preparing to spin off MSNBC, among other properties, while NBC News remains with the parent company, making it necessary for MSNBC to build out more of its newsgathering operations.
Kutler also plans to establish an MSNBC bureau in Washington D.C., and hire domestic and international correspondents there, as well as a head of talent and content strategy. As previously announced, MSNBC hired Politico’s Eugene Daniels as a senior Washington correspondent and co-host of The Weekend and The Washington Post’s Jackie Alemany, who will be a correspondent and a co-host of the Weekend.
Matthews also previously served as the director of programming for CNN Productions, where he was in charge of the documentary series CNN Presents and CNN’s Special Investigations Unit. He also worked as vice president and news director at WNYW-TV and WWOR-TV in New York City, WTXF-TV in Philadelphia, and WFXT-TV in Boston, and as executive producer for investigative reporting at WNYW-TV in New York and KNXV-TV in Phoenix.
