Former NBC and BBC news chief Deborah Turness is joining Independent Talent Group (ITG) to launch a creative studio.
She will become President of Independent Talent Studio, focusing on building media brands, franchises and IP around creative talent.
This comes after she exited BBC News in November last year in the wake of the scandal in which a BBC program edited a Donald Trump speech, leading to the U.S. President suing the British public broadcaster. The incident also led to the exit of Tim Davie, who was Director General at the time.
Turness’s return comes as the creator economy continues to expand rapidly, and the former President of NBC News and CEO of BBC News will seek to find “world class clients” who will develop their ideas across video, podcasts, social, newsletters, live experiences and emerging formats.
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It also comes at an interesting time for Duncan Heath’s legendary London firm ITG, which reps hundreds of actors, directors and writers, including A-listers Daniel Craig, Anthony Hopkins, Stephen Graham, Sophie Turner, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and David Tennant among others.
Last December, we revealed Sienna Private Equity (SPE) had acquired a majority stake in the business and had armed it with investment for organic growth and acquisitions. Today’s announcement falls under the first category.
Turness, who is among the most experienced news and content execs in western media, is certainly a coup for the business.
As well as leading news and current affairs at the BBC, where she was also a board member, Turness previously served as President of NBC News in the U.S., was CEO of British news provider ITN and was President of NBC News International.
She is at the Edinburgh TV Festival this week, where she is on stage with former BBC news presenter Amol Rajan. In May, she delivered the 2026 Sir David Nicholas Memorial Lecture, ‘The Revolution Reshaping News: A Dispatch from the Frontline’, where she pointed to creator-led media as one of the biggest challenges facing newsrooms and traditional media organizations.
Today she said: “We are living through an extraordinary transfer of creative power – where time, trust and commercial revenues are moving from institutions to individuals. The growth and energy in the media market today is in human to human relationships, with deep engagement and value for both consumers and brands.
“I am immensely excited to be joining Independent Talent Group to build a studio where a broad range of talent can deepen connections with audiences and build their brands. This is a creative as well as commercial opportunity and I cannot wait to get started and to work with their brilliant team.”
Sally Long Innes, CEO of ITG, added: “Independent has always been built around exceptional creative talent and the belief that our job is to help that talent realise its ambitions. The way our clients can build audiences, create ideas and ultimately own businesses is changing incredibly quickly.
“We are already investing in this area and Deborah joining us gives us the opportunity to accelerate those plans dramatically. She combines creative instinct, an extraordinary understanding of audiences and a track record of building and leading major media businesses.
Heath, the founder and Chairman of ITG said Turness’s hire was “an important part” of a wider ambition be at the heart of a blurrig of boundaries between “sport, entertainment, creators and culture.” It also points the financial muscle ITG is operating with after SPE’s investment.
“We want Independent to be at the heart of that change, bringing together exceptional talent, ideas and commercial expertise to create new opportunities, build new businesses and shape what comes next,” he added.