The Young Turks Network Hires Deanna Brown as President (EXCLUSIVE)
Deanna Brown, a 30-year media and digital-content veteran, has joined TYT Network as the company’s first president.
Brown, along with TYT Network founder and CEO Cenk Uygur, will lead the strategic direction for all business initiatives and work with Uygur to set direction of TYT Network’s strategic growth. Uygur will continue to oversee the company vision and lead all content and coverage related initiatives. Brown will work from the company’s Culver City, Calif., headquarters.
TYT, a digital news and pop-culture network best known for its “Young Turks” political news and commentary show, last summer raised $20 million in funding from investors including WndrCo, the media investment firm co-founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg.
“Deanna is exactly the right person to be named TYT Network’s first president,” Uygur said. “She’s driven, entrepreneurial and knows the digital content world inside and out.”
Brown commented, “I’ve followed TYT’s growth during my time in the industry and have always been impressed by the company’s deep understanding of the millennial digital media industry. When I had the chance to help build the next phase of the company, I knew I had to jump at it.”
Most recently, Brown was entrepreneur-in-residence at the venture arm Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video, heading the launch of Sanctuary Ventures, a millennial-targeted “alternative spirituality” media startup.
Before that Brown served as CEO of Federated Media and president of Scripps Networks Interactive and has also held the role of VP, GM at Yahoo and VP of programming at AOL. She has also founded and led media companies including Powerful Media/Inside.com and Gaming Industry News. Early in her career, she was an advocate for digital media, launching CondeNet for Conde Nast in 1995.
Brown is the latest executive hire for TYT Network. Last year the company tapped Phillip Morelock, previously chief digital officer of Playboy Enterprises, as VP of product and engineering; head of programming Matt Atchity, formerly editor-in-chief of Rotten Tomatoes; and managing editor Jonathan Larsen, former producer with Al Jazeera America.
Founded in 2002 by Uygur as an online-radio show, TYT has grown to reach 12 million followers on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and has generated more than 8 billion video views to date.
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