MERRILL BROWN
Merrill Brown was appointed the first editor in chief of MSNBC.com in August 1996 after serving as acting managing editor for the July 15 launch of the service. He became senior vice president in August 2000. Brown brings a combination of editorial, marketing and business experience to the MSNBC.com team, with a background that includes extensive experience in newspaper and magazine publishing, cable TV network management and interactive media. His career includes stints as a business writer and Wall Street correspondent for The Washington Post and as editor in chief of the award-winning Channels magazine. Brown was also a founder and senior vice president of Courtroom Television Network (Court TV.) In 1999, he was recognized by Brill’s Content as one of the top 25 most influential people in media.
Prior to joining MSNBC in May 1996, Brown was a media and communications consultant whose work included strategic development at Time Inc., NBC, U S West and a score of other media entities (1995-96). While at Time, he served as consulting senior editor of Money magazine, developing online and Internet services for the publication. He also served as acting editor for the Time Magazine Daily (the periodical’s daily online news operation) and as a consulting editor for Time magazine. During that time, Brown also served as a launch consultant for NBC Desktop Video, designing the network program plan and creating the network’s on-air look for NBC’s business news service delivered to personal computers.
Brown was one of the initial strategists responsible for creating the Courtroom Television Network (Court TV). As senior vice president of corporate & program development, he oversaw program planning, advertising, promotion, marketing, public relations and development of day-to-day management of the cable network (1990-1994).
From 1985 to 1990, Brown was editor in chief of Channels magazine, repositioning the bi-monthly as a highly successful monthly, tripling the amount of ad pages in three years. Channels was named a National Magazine Award finalist for general excellence while under Brown’s editorial tutelage.
Brown was with the Washington Post from 1979 to 1985, serving as a financial reporter (1979-1982), New York financial correspondent (1982-1984), and director of business development, Washington Post Company (1984-1985). Prior to that, Brown was a financial reporter at the Washington Star (1978-1979), Washington correspondent for Media General Newspapers (1975-1978), a reporter at the Winston-Salem Sentinel (1974-1975), and reporter and freelance critic at the St. Louis Post Dispatch (1973-1974). Brown has also made many television appearances on shows like the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour (1980-1990), as a regular media analyst for CNBC and FNN (1989-1990), and on dozens of major broadcast and cable news programs.
Brown serves on the board of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation and the Media Center, a division of the American Press Institute. He is a member of the Journalism Advisory Committee, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
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