Lifetime Expected to Name Its First Female CEO

Lifetime Television, which bills itself as the cable channel for women, is expected today to name its first female chief executive.

The channel, which is a 50-50 joint venture between Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Corp., will be headed by Carole Black, president and general manager of NBC4, the NBC network’s station in Los Angeles.

The appointment comes as Lifetime faces its first head-on challenger. Cable veteran Geraldine Laybourne has teamed up with talk show host Oprah Winfrey and the prime-time producers behind Carsey-Werner to launch a channel for women next January. Although the channel has yet to get much carriage on cable and is still raising financing, it will give operators an alternative at a time when sources say contracts covering more than half of Lifetime’s 73 million subscribers are coming up for renewal.

Black will replace Doug McCormick, who headed Lifetime for six years and is credited with building its reach to its current level and its value to more than $3 billion. He also turned the network from a health channel into one focused on women.

Despite its financial success and wide coverage, the channel has lacked the strong identity with its audience enjoyed by ESPN with men and Nickelodeon with children.

Lifetime’s owners did not renew McCormick’s contract when it was up in December, and though they have interviewed male candidates, sources say they were intent on hiring a woman. In fact, sources say, at one point in the contract negotiations with McCormick in December, he threatened to file a sex-discrimination lawsuit against the partners but decided against it.

Laybourne, who is credited with building Nickelodeon, oversaw Disney’s investment in Lifetime until last spring, when she resigned as head of Disney/ABC Cable to form her new company.

Some leading cable executives were surprised by the choice of Black, a broadcaster with no cable experience.

Before taking the top job at NBC4 in 1994, Black was an eight-year veteran from Disney, rising to senior vice president of marketing for the television production division.

At Channel 4, Black took the station from an entrenched No. 2 to first in news and prime-time ratings in the demographic most coveted by advertisers. In 1998, the station won seven out of seven weekday newcasts during the key sweeps period, which determines advertising rates.

During that period, the NBC network also rose to first in the prime-time ratings.