Michael Malone, a long-time reporter, editor and content director at Broadcasting+Cable, Multichannel News and NextTV, died Saturday (Oct. 19) at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York after a long illness, surrounded by friends and family.
Malone, 55, joined B+C in 2005 as deputy editor, covering the local TV station beat. He later became the publication’s programming editor. He was named content director of the three Future Media & Entertainment titles earlier this year and led the brands until they ceased publication on Sept. 30.
A five-time finalist for the Jesse H. Neal Award for excellence in journalism, in addition to his day-to-day coverage Malone wrote B+C’s “Local News Close-Up” profiles and hosted the podcasts “Busted Pilot” and “Series Business.” The Hawthorne, New York, resident and 1991 graduate of The University of Rhode Island had earlier worked at Restaurant Business magazine. He was also a prolific freelance writer, with bylines in publications including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and New York.
He was an active member of the Television Critics Association and attended numerous TCA critics tours.
A talented, creative and witty writer, in addition to his 20 years at Broadcasting+Cable and his other journalistic pursuits, Malone also had a handful of published books under his belt.
Malone was born in New Jersey on Sept. 3, 1969. He is survived by his wife, Susan, his two children, Gavin and Charlotte, his mother, Shelly Malone, sisters and brothers-in-law Nancy and Jim Dempsey, Kate and Brian Burke, Eileen and Jim Baker, and eight nieces and nephews.
In addition to his professional endeavors, Malone was a trusted local scout leader, a dedicated member of the Village Lions rugby team and an enthusiastic player for his local softball team, according to the family.
He was known to friends and family as the kind of father and uncle who loved getting down on to the floor to play with the kids, fully committing to whatever game was being played and never asking to quit until everyone was tired out. He was always up for a backyard catch, a game of Frisbee, shooting hoops or creating one of his famous scavenger hunts that sent the kids scurrying around for hidden treasure, the family said, describing him as “a connoisseur of Dad jokes, Sniglets and puns.”
He was also fondly remembered by colleagues for his writing skill and his newsroom presence.
"Mike Malone was a gift to the newsroom,” Mark Robichaux, former editor-in-chief of B+C and Multichannel News, who worked with Malone from 2005 through 2019, said. “His relentlessly dry wit and lively writing fueled his colleagues, and his recent rise to editor, a role he so richly deserved. His loss is heartbreaking to all of us who knew him, but his legacy lives on in the stories he told and the lives he touched."
