Joanna Coles, the veteran magazine editor and former chief content officer of Hearst Magazines, is coming aboard “CBS This Morning” as a creative adviser.
CBS News President David Rhodes announced the news to staffers Thursday. Coles’ role will be part time.
“Initially, Joanna will be engaged with the CBS This Morning team and will weigh in on other strategic opportunities. We love the journalism that CTM is doing, we believe in the people doing it—and we want Joanna’s perspective and experience to help us engage new audiences everywhere around that work,” Rhodes told staffers in a memo.
Coles joins as “CBS This Morning” has hit a plateau in the ratings. While the show has been a success at CBS, which had not been able to mount a competitive morning-news program for years, it has – like rivals “Today” and “Good Morning America” – suffered ratings shortfalls in the most recent TV season. Nonetheless, the program generated its second-highest ratings during the period. CBS News recently added anchor Bianna Golodryga as a fourth co-host of the morning program, joining Norah O’Donnell, John Dickerson and Gayle King.
Until this summer Coles was editor and chief content officer of Hearst Magazines, overseeing more than 300 publications worldwide. She was previously editor of Cosmopolitan and of Marie Claire, and has been a producer on two different cable series, “So Cosmo” and “The Bold Type.” She is also on the board of directors of Snap Inc.
“She also brings a sharp sense of humor and a habitual viewer’s perspective to our daily experience of news coverage in this extraordinary climate, ” Rhodes said in the memo.