Business news network CNBC has announced a management shakeup in the midst of wider turmoil in the American TV business news marketplace.

In recent years, CNBC has shown declining ratings in both daytime and primetime dayparts. Rival CNNfn closed down at the end of 2004 after failing to gain adequate distribution; and plans for a business news channel are in the works at Fox News.

The channel's new president will be Mark Hoffman. Hoffman was previously president and general manager of the NBC owned-and-operated station in Connecticut, WVIT-TV. Before that, he was interim president of CNBC Europe in London. Hoffman started out at CNBC as an executive producer back in 1997.

"Mark Hoffman has proven himself to be an innovative and highly-skilled programming and news executive whose deep television experience will help CNBC build on its successes going forward," said Jeff Zucker, president of NBCU TV Group. "During his tenure at WVIT, the station realized significant increases in key demographic ratings and revenues, earning No. 1 performance in both morning news and 11 p.m. news. He has firsthand knowledge of how CNBC was built into a dominant global brand and the perfect background across news, programming and sales to help drive the network's continued growth. We're thrilled to add Mark to our leadership team."

Hoffman replaces Pamela Thomas-Graham, who is being moved upwards to the position of CNBC chairman.

"We have achieved a number of successes during my tenure as President," said Thomas-Graham. "I look forward to being able to now focus on CNBC's strategic planning challenges to generate continued growth for the company."