CAA Hires Former CBS News Producer to Guide Reporters and Influencers

As the lines between traditional journalists and digital influencers start to blur, CAA hopes it can guide reporters walking on either kind of terrain.

The large talent agency, which represents George Stephanopoulos and Mary Bruce as well as Punchbowl, recently hired Becky Van Dercook, a former CBS News producer who recently helped manage communications and media for emerging political influencer Jack Schlossberg, who is also the only grandchild of President John Kennedy. Van Dercook now works as an agent in CAA’s TV-news department, but her expertise will let clients try their hand in a broader array of media opportunities.

Van Dercook is charged with helping established clients broaden their profile online, while simultaneously identifying opportunities outside of legacy media through newsletters, podcasts, live events, and social media content. She will also be looking out for influencers, man-on-the-street reporters, and news personalities skilled in short-form content.

“Becky is providing a masterclass in social media guidance to our news clients and to our creator clients across the agency, finding creative ways for them to establish, grow, and monetize their brands,” says Rachel Adler, who heads CAA’s news department, during a recent interview.

She adds: “We are very much mission-driven: here to future-proof our clients’ careers and develop new models for how they can develop and distribute the work they do.”

CAA is taking steps on a path that many find themselves having to tread. With the economics of streaming draining revenue from traditional media operations, the economics of news have grown more challenging. That has spurred a broad phalanx of popular names to launch a new shingle in digital outposts. Don Lemon, Megyn Kelly, Chuck Todd, Joy Reid and Tucker Carlson are among the familiar faces who have struck out for new video podcasts. WME, another of Hollywood’s big talent firms, has helped Oliver Darcy, a former media reporter at CNN, to debut his own newsletter, “Status,” Jennifer Rubin, formerly of the Washington Post to launch a new outlet called The Contrarian; and Jim Acosta, the one-time CNN anchor, to move to Substack.

One reason for the growing digital exodus? Money.

The Interactive Adverting Bureau, an industry advocacy group, projects in a new report released Thursday that ad spend invested in creator-driven media will reach $37 billion in 2025, an increase of 26% over last year, and about four times faster than the overall media business. About 48% of advertisers surveyed by the group feel creators are a “must buy,” ranking behind social media and paid-search ads.

Van Dercook is already at work counseling CAA clients. She assisted Alex Wagner, who contributes to both Crooked Media and MSNBC, in launching a TikTok profile and meeting with influential creators. Van Dercook “acted as a spiritual guide for my social media strategy,” says Wagner. “Becky is uniquely talented: she learned the business as a television producer and has adapted seamlessly to the new media landscape. This means that she understands traditional, institutional media but is situated at the crossroads of change — she is a key resource in helping all of us navigate this moment of major disruption in the news industry.”

She also helped ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, who says Van Dercook “was very helpful in finding emerging media opportunities and utilizing my social platforms to promote my new book and bring my reporting to new audiences.” He adds: “It is smart that CAA has decided this is a space worth investing in.”

Van Dercook says she’s learned by doing. “I spent the better part of a year working for Jack Schlossberg through the 2024 campaign. Working closely with a talented creator and building his business from the ground up taught me how to succeed on social media and how to be nimble and adjust when things didn’t work,” she says. “This is a moment of change in news, and it represents a great opportunity for CAA to meet consumers where they are — online, listening to podcasts, and reading newsletters.”

Van Dercook graduated from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs with a master’s in public policy and earned her undergraduate degree summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Middlebury College. While at CBS News, she helped produce political coverage across the news division, and helped manage coverage of the 2020 Election, President Biden’s inauguration, and the Capitol insurrection.

The new hire, says Adler, means “we have a journalist who can speak to our clients not just as their agent, but as a producing partner.”