Altice USA Promotes to Keith Bowen to News President as Cheddar Founder Jon Steinberg Exits

variety.com:

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorDigital entrepreneur Jon Steinberg is exiting the streaming business news service that he founded in 2016 and sold to cable operator Altice USA three years later.On Tuesday, Altice promoted Keith Bowen to president of Altice News and Advertising.

He’ll succeed Steinberg in leading the cable operator’s in-house News 12 hyper-local news operation serving parts of Long Island, as well as Cheddar News, the i24News international news service that Altice launched in 2017 and Altice’s A4 advanced advertising data operation.

As part of the transition, Kristin Malaspina has been tapped as general manager of Cheddar News and as senior VP of distribution for Altice News.Steinberg, the former chief operating officer of Buzzfeed, made a splash with Cheddar when the streaming business news feed aimed at digital-economy viewers emerged as an early free ad-supported streaming channel that landed distribution from some cable operators and connected TV services — enough to attract the attention of the U.S.

arm of media mogul Patrick Drahi’s telecommunications empire. “Keith has helped our news and advertising businesses experience significant growth and success, and I am confident that the division will continue to flourish under his leadership,” said Dexter Goei, CEO of Altice USA. “Jon’s enthusiasm and keen business mind have helped our News & Advertising group achieve great success over the last three years and I offer my gratitude to him and look forward with excitement as Keith brings his invaluable expertise to our news and advertising groups.”Steinberg said he was “immensely proud” of the work done by the Altice and Cheddar teams during the past three difficult years.