• by Wayne Friedman , December 4, 2008

Former NBC and Turner TV executive Scott Sassa has been named president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication.

Sassa will be in charge of television production and distribution, newspaper syndication and merchandise licensing. He will replace Bruce Paisner, the group's longtime executive vice president, who is retiring. Paisner will remain a consultant to the company. Sassa will also become senior vice president of Hearst Corp.

Sassa will also oversee Hearst's programming investment in Lifetime, A&E, History, and ESPN networks.

Since 2004, Sassa worked for Internet startups and venture-capital groups. Previously, he was founder/CEO of Uber, a consumer Internet startup. Before that, he was a CEO-in-residence at the VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers from 2005 to 2006. In addition, he was president/CEO of social-networking site Friendster.

At NBC, he was president of NBC Entertainment, overseeing the launch of various prime-time series, including "The West Wing," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Scrubs." He also held positions as president of NBC West Coast and president of the NBC Television Stations division.

A former CEO of Marvel Entertainment, Sassa had a nine-year stint starting at Turner Broadcasting System, ending in 1996 as president of Turner Entertainment Group. He helped to build Turner networks, TBS Superstation, Turner Network Television, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies.