ABC News President David Westin will resign his post after 13 years of service. He sent an email to staffers Monday that said while “we’ve put in place news anchors on all of our programs” over the last nine months, the division also “went through a very difficult transformation made necessary by changes in our business and its economics.” One news report says that Westin, 58, had a long-running feud with parent company Disney over making the division more profitable. Though ABC News has made significant gains over the last year – Diane Sawyer has maintained respectable ratings on World News while Nightline has managed to flourish in late night opposite the talk shows – it continues to rank No. 2 behind NBC in the mornings and evenings.
Westin joined the division in March of 1997 and will remain its chief through the end of the year while ABC/Disney TV Group President Anne Sweeney finds a replacement. Sweeney released this statement Monday: “For the past 13 years, David Westin has proved himself a tireless advocate for ABC News, effectively guiding the group through some of the most seismic industry, and divisional, changes imaginable. During that time, he helped reinvent our news organization, and positioned us for great success going forward. I’m certain David will be as successful in whatever future endeavors he chooses to pursue. I will be announcing a new President of ABC News in the near future.”
Sorry, please send my last comment to abc chairman.
Thanks again,
Monty Ward
Westin should never have been put into this position in the first place. The man worked tirelessly for years trying to make ABC number 1 in news and now he is put into a position where he has to resign. At 58, I hardly believe he’ll be finding another job anytime soon but I wish him a lot of luck. Perhaps another network will pick him up and appreciate him for what he has done in the past. In wonder if his salary is way up in the millions of dollars/year like Katie Couric.
Maybe CBS will hire him. Thier news divison is pathetic and from all accounts is on the verge of collapse.
Can we please have Chris Cuomo back in the morning now?
I find it interesting that news about the head of ABC News is posted on Entertainment Weekly (Hollywood Insider no less). News used to be a public service and loss leader; now its lumped in with entertainment. No wonder we’re so woefully under-informed and over-stimulated with the attention span of gnats. I know, crabby crabby. Its only our democracy, eh?
ABC has the opportunity to become the first news organization without a political bias. Don’t hire another left leaning head. Don’t hire someone who will seek to create news rather than report news.
The latest Gallup poll says only 25% of Americans believe the news media. Why bother finding a replacement? Just shutdown the newsroom. The MSM is becoming less and less credible every day and people are switching.
It’s Obama’s fault again.
(and to bad if you can’t take a joke)
ABC being destroyed by one thing…Obamaphile liberalism. CNN, NBC are already toast.
Don’t we all long for the days when news coverage was accurate, credible, and unbiased; when reporters reported facts and observations and were required by tough editors to keep their opinions to themselves? If one of the networks offered this, wouldn’t we all watch every night? If we all watched, wouldn’t advertisers buy commercial time and help the news division turn a profit? I know I would watch and I would encourage my friends and colleagues to, as well. Disney/ABCNews should make a splash by announcing their intention to take the network to a new level of accurate, timely, and unbiased journalistic excellence – and then begin their effort by selecting a replacement for Mr. Westin who is committed to that goal and who won’t rest until it is achieved.
Hire me. First thing I would do is put David Muir where he belongs — as anchor of World News.
Next, I would recruit Whit Johnson from CBS; and add him to GMA as the news reader.
I would have JuJu and the All My Children guy as GMA anchors; Matt Guckman to read the weather reports.
I’m behind David Muir 100%
Another “yes” for the David Muir move.
that good that person is a 0bama liberals one side of the story
that good that person is a discriminatory one side of the story only
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