The president and CEO of A+E Networks, Nancy Dubuc, will be resigning from the organization effective April 16. Dubuc has been in discussion with Vice for the CEO position, and the talks are believed to be in their final stages, however the announcement is not official as of now. The CEO position at Vice is currently being held by the company’s co-founder, Shane Smith. After Dubuc’s departure from A+E, Abbe Raven will be handling the role of the acting chair until a suitable replacement can be found.
“In her roughly 20 years at A+E Networks, Nancy played a major role in building the success of A&E, History and Lifetime, and we thank her for her leadership,” Steven R. Swartz, president and CEO of Hearst, and Ben Sherwood, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney|ABC Television, said in a joint statement. “We are also very grateful to Abbe, a former CEO of the company and one of A+E’s first employees, for agreeing to return on a temporary basis as acting chair.”
As President and CEO at A+E networks, Dubuc has led cable networks A&E, Lifetime, History, Lifetime Movies, FYI and Viceland. She also headed the rebranding of two networks during her tenure: Bio, which was rebranded as FYI, and H2, which became Viceland through a joint venture with Vice.
“For nearly 20 years, I have called A+E Networks home and the team has been an extended part of my family,” Dubuc said. “Together, we have had the privilege to build some of the most iconic brands in media. Every step of my career, I have had the opportunity to learn and grow from some of the most inspiring and innovative minds at A+E and in both the creative and business community. I could not be prouder of what we achieved together.”
Dubuc is joining Vice at a very challenging time, with the company missing its revenue projections last year in the middle of fierce competition for digital ad dollars from tech giants Facebook and Google. The revenue growth at Vice has decelerated, and the company would want to cut costs and focus on being a profitable organization if they plan to be acquired.
