CNBC president: We are unique and essential to our audience

CNBC president KC Sullivan sent out the following on Wednesday morning:

Team,

As you will have seen, Comcast announced that it will proceed with plans to spin off the majority of NBCU’s cable networks into a separate publicly traded company.

Below is the memo that Mike Cavanagh sent earlier outlining the details of the spin and of the business units that will make up our new company. Although the spinoff is expected to take about a year to effectuate, we will immediately begin reporting into Mark Lazarus who will lead the new publicly traded company.

As we think about how today’s news impacts CNBC, I first think of our unique position in the industry and within the minds of our audiences:

• We are essential to our audience – not only as a cable network but as an essential business brand.
• We have an audience that is capable and willing to pay for our news content and insights.
• And we have built a diversified, growing and profitable business.

Mark Lazarus will spend the day with us tomorrow at Englewood Cliffs, the Nasdaq and the NYSE. For those of us at Englewood Cliffs on Thursday afternoon, Mark plans to briefly address the bulk of the troops in the newsroom just after 3:00pm. If you’re able, I hope you’ll join us.

Thank you for your dedication to CNBC and I look forward to working with all of you to continue to drive our success.

KC