Microsoft News Tracker

Reuters:

MSNBC President Rick Kaplan is leaving the third-ranked cable news network after more than two years on the job, according to company e-mails obtained on Thursday.

Kaplan informed employees of his departure in a note sent late on Wednesday, noting that prime-time viewership at MSNBC grew 25 percent during his tenure. He did not elaborate on his decision to leave or his future prospects.

MSNBC is majority-owned by General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal after NBC increased its stake in the joint venture with Microsoft Corp. in December.

As always, MSNBC TV is separate and distinct from MSNBC.com. The December deal was mentioned previously here. No successor to Kaplan was named immediately. As for where MSNBC stands in the industry:

But with an average nightly audience of 143,000 people aged 25 to 54, it (MSNBC) still lags far behind Time Warner Inc.’s CNN with 201,000 viewers and News Corp.’s Fox news channel with 375,000 viewers.