Meghan Rafferty, who has been executive producer of NBC Nightly News for the past four years, is joining Versant as VP of news standards.
Rafferty will help set and maintain journalism standards for MSNBC and CNBC, as the cable networks prepare to be spun off from Comcast as part of the new company Versant. She will start in the role in September and will report to Brian Carovillano, SVP of standards & editorial partnerships for news.
“In this role, Meghan will be a key voice within both networks’ news leadership, helping to set and maintain the highest standards for our journalism,” Carovillano wrote in a memo to staffers.
No successor has been named at Nightly News. Ben Mayer will serve as interim executive producer.
“Since 2021, Meghan has led the Nightly News team with unwavering dedication, helping deliver the very best of NBC’s journalism to millions of viewers each night,” Janelle Rodriguez, executive vice president of NBC News programming, wrote in a memo to staffers. “Under her leadership, Nightly earned Emmy, Polk and Murrow award and consistently met the moment with clarity, courage, and care.”
Rafferty has been executive producer of Nightly News since 2021, and her departure comes following the broadcast’s transition from Lester Holt to Tom Llamas as anchor. During her tenure, the newscast won a News and Documentary Emmy for Holt’s interview with President Joe Biden, days before he ended his reelection bid, and also a George Polk award for the investigative series “Dealing the Dead” and a Murrow award for best newscast in 2022. She joined Nightly News as senior producer in 2017.
Before Nightly News, Rafferty was with CNN for 10 years, producing Wolf Blitzer’s interviews with world leaders. She also launched Christiane Amanpour’s CNN program, working as the lead editorial producer. She also has helped produce presidential debates for CNN and NBC News in the 2012, 2016 and 2024 cycles.
With the loss of NBC News as a sister network, MSNBC has been building a news operation, hiring Scott Matthews as SVP of news gathering. MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler said in a memo to employees this week that the network has added more than a dozen journalists with more to be announced. The network is recruiting for nearly 50 positions in newsgathering, digital, audio and specials.
