A Seat at the Table: Observations from a Woman in Television News

Please join us on Thursday, April 5 from 11:45 am - 12:45 pm for “A Seat at the Table: Observations from a Woman in Television News” with Amy Entelis, Executive Vice President for Talent and Content Development, CNN Worldwide. Entelis joined CNN in 2012 and is responsible for new program development and acquisitions for CNN Worldwide, as well as the identification and recruitment of on-air talent for CNN programming and platforms.

The conversation will be moderated by Eileen O'Connor, Vice President for Communications at Yale University, and they will be speaking about the changing role of women in business.

This event is presented by the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism. The Poynter Fellowship plays a unique role in the educational life of Yale University. Nelson Poynter (Yale, M.A. 1927) established the program to enable Yale to bring to its campus distinguished reporters, editors and others who have made important contributions to the media.

This event is open to the public.

While conditions for women working in the media have improved in recent years, women are still “always outnumbered around the tables where the big decisions are made,” said Amy Entelis, executive vice president for talent and content development at CNN Worldwide.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have worked around very talented women, but in my 38 years in the industry, I’ve never had a woman as a boss,” Entelis told students at the Yale School of Management on April 5.

Entelis spoke at Yale SOM during an event presented by the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism. The conversation was moderated by Eileen O'Connor, vice president for communications at Yale. In her talk, “A Seat at the Table: Observations from a Woman in Television News,” Entelis discussed women in leadership positions in media, diversity in programming, “fake news,” and the #MeToo movement.

Entelis joined CNN in 2012 and is responsible for new program development and acquisitions for CNN Worldwide, as well as the identification and recruitment of on-air talent for CNN programming and platforms. She shared stories of her early days in the industry when men dominated the business and discrimination and sexual harassment against women were commonplace.

“I think the #MeToo movement is the most important, significant event in workplace culture that I’ve seen in my career,” Entelis said. 

First at ABC News and then during her tenure at CNN, Entelis has worked to foster the careers of women and of people of color. “It feels a lot better for me personally to be in a room now that has a fair number of female decision makers,” she said. Diversity is good for newsrooms, and it enriches the viewpoints represented in creative content, creating broader appeal, she explained. Organizations, Entelis said, should diversify their talent pools.

Businesses, on the whole, should hire the best employees they can find, and then give them ample opportunity to develop their talents, so that when leadership positions within the organization become available, there are qualified in-house staffers to fill them, Entelis said. “You have to take care of who you’ve got, so you’ll have the right people in place when you need them.”