Sesame Workshop Top Marketer Leaves Children’s Nonprofit

• Sesame Workshop Chief Marketing Officer Samantha Maltin is leaving the company.
• Maltin’s exit follows Sesame Workshop’s CEO change and the upcoming “Sesame Street” renewal.
• “Sesame Street” could find new streaming partners when its deal with Max ends in 2025.

Sesame Workshop is losing its chief marketing officer of five years, Samantha Maltin, in a rare executive shakeup, the company confirmed to Business Insider.

Maltin, who was named to the role in 2019 and appeared on Business Insider’s list of CMOs to Watch in 2021, was only the second CMO in Sesame Workshop’s 50-year history. She left for a new role at St. Jude of Memphis, Tenn., said two people familiar with the matter. Her departure was not announced externally.

Maltin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It’s the second big change this year at the nonprofit, after it named a new CEO in Sherrie Westin, who had been president since 2021. It also comes at a time of transformation. The long-running “Sesame Street” is preparing to launch its biggest format change since 2016, when the show went from 30 minutes to an hour. Starting in 2025, the program will change its old “magazine” style format for two 11-minute narrative-based segments and a new animated series, “Tales From 123”.

The revamped show could also have a new home. ‘Sesame Street’ five-year deal with Warner Bros.’ Max streaming service Discovery will end at the same time as the new show launches. In 2022, HBO Max (now Max) grabbed headlines when it yanked about 200 older episodes of “Sesame Street” as part of a larger cost-cutting move. Sesame Workshop is in full negotiations with distributors for the show.

With the beloved IP appealing to multiple generations, “Sesame Street” could be attractive to other streamers eager for tried-and-true content. It could find more licensing partners, which is becoming more common as studios move away from the days of selling their content directly to Netflix and other streamers. Episodes also air on PBS after a delay, an arrangement that will likely continue.

However, traditional children’s TV and movies face headwinds as kids increasingly prefer home shows on YouTube. Profit pressures are also causing media companies to pull back on developing children’s content.

Maltin previously worked at Schireson, a data science strategy firm — which has since joined ad firm Known — which gave him an edge in working with Sesame’s CTO on data strategy. Maltin is an alum of A+E Networks, Nickelodeon and Viacom.

She also helped create a brand image for “Sesame Street” celebrating its 50th anniversary.