Mindy Herman, president and CEO of E! Networks, stepped down from her post Thursday, the same day a published report alleged that Herman had misused company funds for her personal benefit.

Herman will continue to work until an unspecified time before leaving later this year. Parent company Comcast Corp., which co-owns E! Networks with the Walt Disney Co., has begun a search for her replacement.

An article in Thursday's Los Angeles Times depicted Herman's reign as a turbulent time for E! Networks, leaving many employees demoralized by what anonymous sources characterized as bizarre and autocratic behavior. Among the allegations leveled at Herman in the article is that she paid for lavish baby showers thrown in her honor with company funds.

In an interview, Herman declined to address specific allegations, but she questioned the accuracy of the Times report. "There were numerous things, even though I didn't read the story, that appeared untrue to me," she said.

Herman characterized her decision to leave as a determination she made after months of discussion with Comcast executives that depended on the future direction of the company's programming division. The maturation of E! Networks, which includes E! Entertainment and Style, also factored into her decision.

"I'm a startup person," she said. "I'm not sure how dynamic from a business-building standpoint the next five years would be."

Herman had nursed many cable properties to maturation before joining E! in 2000. In her previous job, she oversaw the revamp of pay-per-view giant Viewer's Choice, which was relaunched as InDemand. She spent most of the 1990s at News Corp., where she helped launch FX and Fox Sports and served as executive vp at Fox TV Studios.

Before going on maternity leave, Herman said she had begun discussions with Comcast about her future. The cable operator's bid to acquire Disney piqued her interest.

"Any concerns I had about interesting new content opportunities at Comcast were like, 'Whoa!' when the Disney bid was announced," she said.

But Herman says she grew less interested in continuing at Comcast once it withdrew its bid for Disney. She also was not encouraged by internal debate at the company about consolidating oversight of its programming assets, which also include G4 TechTV and the Golf Channel, at its headquarters in Philadelphia. Comcast is known to have been interviewing candidates for a top programming post to manage its entire portfolio.

In a statement announcing Herman's departure, Comcast pledged its gratitude to Herman for her work at E! Networks and her help in finding her successor.

"Mindy and her senior management team have created a great success story in the cable industry," said Brian Roberts, chairman, president and CEO of Comcast, in a statement.

During her time at E! Herman has been credited with boosting the subscriber and revenue growth of E! Entertainment and for overseeing the development of Style, a fashion-conscious spinoff of the company's flagship channel.

"The network has performed extremely well in the four years that she has been president and CEO," Comcast executive vp David Cohen said.

However, many critics have noted that both E! and Style have demonstrated little ratings growth in recent years. Herman's track record in original programming has yielded few hit series since modest successes including "E! True Hollywood Story" and "The Anna Nicole Show."

Larry Namer, CEO of startup cable channel Reality Central and co-founder of E! predecessor Movietime, believes his former network's programming drifted off course years ago. "There were a lot of people that were unhappy with the way that channel has moved to the salacious and the tabloid," he said.

Sources said Comcast was aware of many of the accusations leveled against Herman and that top Comcast executives had discussed the issues with her. Sources indicated that when Comcast questioned her about the funds that paid for the baby showers, she reimbursed the company.

Cohen declined to discuss the specific allegations made in the Times story, but noted, "It is the policy without exception of Comcast to investigate any allegation of employee misconduct or impropriety and take appropriate action based on our review of the actions or circumstances."

Cohen also took exception to the Times' report that Comcast initiated an internal audit at E! to investigate Herman. "Comcast has a robust internal audit function on a regularly scheduled basis," said. "There has not been any internal audit directed at Mindy Herman."

With Herman's departure, the question of who her successor will be has become a hot topic of conversation in cable-industry circles. Her chief lieutenant at E! -- chief operating officer Ken Bettsteller -- is a well-regarded executive, but one observer close to Comcast questions whether his close ties to Herman would hurt his chances of becoming her successor.

Cohen denied that Comcast has any plans for executive changes at E!