Charlie Pavlounis, who as chief financial officer and head of business development helped spur new lines of business at CBS News including a series of podcasts, is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities, CBS News President Susan Zirinsky told staffers in a memo Tuesday.
“I have no doubt Charlie will continue to explore his passion for combining his financial discipline with identifying new content and distribution opportunities in media during the next chapter of his impressive career,” said Zirinsky, in the memo. “We plan to announce Charlie’s successor shortly and we appreciate Charlie remaining through June so that we can have an orderly transition.”
Pavlounis, a longtime CBS Corp. employee, joined CBS News in 2015, put in place to manage the finances of the large CBS unit and identify new streams of revenue. He helped reshape CBS News’ radio business after the parent company sold its radio division in 2017 to Entercom Communications. He has had a hand in the expansion of CBS News into podcasts, such as “Mobituaries with Mo Rocca.” More recently, Pavlounis led the business behind the launch of “60 on 6,” a new version of “60 Minutes” made for Quibi, the short-form video hub. He also reworked the business behind the licensing of the CBS News Archive, with a nod toward making material available for documentaries.
Prior to joining CBS News, Pavlounis served as chief audit executive for CBS Corp. for five years reporting to the company’s chief financial officer, and to the head of the audit committee of the CBS Corp. Board of Directors.