Maurice Wolfe "Reese" Schonfeld was an American television journalist and executive. Trained as a lawyer, he was a co-founder of CNN with Ted Turner in the early 1980s. He went on to establish the Food Network one decade later.
Early life and education
Schonfeld was born in Newark, New Jersey, on November 5, 1931. He was of Jewish descent, the grandson of Yiddish-speaking immigrants. His father, Philip, worked as a partner in a glass-and-mirror company; his mother, Sarah, was a housewife, secretary, and bookkeeper. He got the nickname "Reese" as a result of his younger sister's mispronunciation of Maurice. He graduated from Weequahic High School. He went on study at Dartmouth College, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1953. He subsequently earned a Master of Arts and a law degree from Columbia University. However, he never went into practice.
approached Schonfeld to find out about satellites. Schonfeld recalls Turner asking him how much a satellite would cost, and upon hearing the sum Turner exclaimed "only a million dollars a year?", after which Turner acquired his first satellite. Approximately a year later he was approached again by Turner, who wanted to found a 15-hour all-news channel. Schonfeld convinced Turner to increase to a 24-hour news channel. Schonfeld calculated it could be done with a staff of approximately 300 if they used an all-electronic newsroom and satellites for all transmissions. It would require an initial investment of $15–20 million and several million dollars per month to operate. In 1979, Turner sold his North Carolina station, WRET, to fund the transaction and established its headquarters in lower-cost, non-union Atlanta. Schonfeld was appointed first president and chief executive of the then-named Cable News Network. He hired Burt Reinhardt as vice president of the network; Sam Zelman as vice president of news and executive producer; Bill MacPhail as head of sports; Ted Kavanau as director of personnel; and Jim Kitchell, former general manager of news at NBC, as vice president of production and operations. While at CNN, Schonfeld is credited with originating the 24-hour cable news concept. In 1982, Schonfeld was succeeded as CEO by Ted Turner after a dispute over Schonfeld's firing of Sandi Freeman and was succeeded as president by CNN's executive vice president, Burt Reinhardt.
Post-CNN
After leaving CNN, Schonfeld joined Cablevision Systems in New York, where he developed and oversaw the first 24-hour all-news service on a local cable system, News 12 Long Island. He also produced People Magazine on TV for CBS, and assisted in developing "News Channel 8" for Allbritton Communications Company. Schonfeld subsequently worked with Time Warner in planning the International Business Channel. He designed and implemented the Medical News Network, an interactive TV news service, for Whittle Communications in 1993. He also served on the board of Robert Halmi International before it was sold to Hallmark. In 1992, Schonfeld began developing Food Network, which launched on November 23, 1993. He acted as president of the network, which was sold to Belo Broadcasting in 1996 and was later resold to the E. W. Scripps Company. Schonfeld sold his interest in the Food Network to Scripps in 1999. He continued consulting for various media projects and occasionally contributed to The Huffington Post.
Personal life
Schonfeld was married to Pat O'Gorman, sister of poet Ned O'Gorman, until his death. They had six children—three daughters and three sons. He was previously married to Karen Lamberti; they divorced. Schonfeld was the author of Me and Ted Against the World, an account of the development and early history of CNN, and "The Global Battle for Cultural Domination", an essay in Developing Cultures: Essays on Cultural Change. Schonfeld died on July 28, 2020, at his home in Manhattan. He was 88 and had suffered from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
