• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 8, 2016

Arlene Manos is stepping down from her day-to-day role of overseeing AMC Networks' ad sales organization and turning it over to Scott Collins, whom Manos recruited from NBCU in 2008, and who has been serving as her No. 2 in recent years.

Manos, who becomes president emeritus of the group, says she is not transitioning out of AMC but will take on new “larger projects” within AMC Networks, but declined to discuss them in detail.

She said she would continue to be involved with AMC Networks’ sales organization on a “week-to-week and month-to-month” basis, but that Collins would be its day-to-day leader, succeeding Manos as president of the group and reporting directly to AMC Networks COO Ed Carroll.

Manos said she will also continue to report to Carroll in her new capacity, but said the current story is about the transition of the AMC Networks sales organization, which is generally regarded as one of the best in the media industry with a genuine esprit de corps.

Manos, who began her career local media sales, gained attention for building a strong sales organization while head of national sales at A&E  Television Networks, before joining AMC Networks just as it was making the transition from a subscriber revenue model to ad-supported networks.

She was key to transitioning AMC, IFC, Sundance and WE tv from sub fees to ad-supported, and also for introducing BBC America and BBC World News to the U.S. ad marketplace.

She said she is most proud of the sales organization she built at AMC Networks, and especially the “core values and standards” with which it operates, and the continuity and “cohesiveness” of its staff and noted the transition to Collins as evidence of that.

Prior to joining AMC Networks in 2008 as senior vice president of advertising sales for WE tv, Collins was vice president of national ad sales for NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, overseeing sales for USA Network and the Sci-Fi Channel. Before that, she was an account executive at A&E Television Networks.

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