MTV exec steps down after a year

A high-profile executive at MTV Networks is leaving the company as part of upheaval among Viacom Inc.’s executive ranks, a Viacom spokesman said Thursday.

Michael Wolf, a former McKinsey & Co. managing partner and a well-known media strategist, will step down as MTV Networks’ president after spending a little more than a year at the company.

Nicole Browning, president of affiliate sales and marketing at MTV Networks and a 20-year veteran, also is leaving the company, Viacom said.

Wolf’s departure comes a day after one of Hollywood’s most powerful women, Gail Berman, resigned as president of Viacom’s Paramount Pictures after less than two years on the job.

“We accomplished everything we set out to do together,” MTV Networks Chief Executive Judy McGrath said.

At MTV, Wolf crafted a deal to distribute clips from the company’s cable shows over Google Inc.’s advertising network last August, only to be upstaged a day later by a splashy deal that News Corp. struck with the Internet search giant.

News Corp.’s deal, led by its MySpace social network, guaranteed revenue-sharing payments of at least $900 million.