Gibson to Be Solo Anchor of ABC Newscast
Less than a week after ABC-TV declared that Elizabeth Vargas was doing a “terrific” job co-anchoring “World News Tonight,” the network announced today that Vargas is leaving the broadcast and Charles Gibson would become its solo anchor.
“Vargas said today she had chosen to step down to take maternity leave and later return to co-anchor ’20/20′ and ABC News specials,” the ABC announcement said.
“Going forward Elizabeth Vargas has asked that we limit her responsibilities to anchoring ’20/20′ and special primetime hours,” ABC News President David Westin said in the statement. From the moment the late anchor Peter Jennings “became ill, no person in this organization has stepped up more than Elizabeth. I have nothing but respect, gratitude and admiration for the work she has done on our behalf oftentimes under enormously stressful conditions. Elizabeth is absolutely vital to the success and future of ABC News,” he said.
Vargas said she had made the decision after consulting with her doctors, the announcement said.
“David and I have been talking for some time about what would happen as my maternity leave approaches,” Vargas said in the statement. “My doctors have asked that I cut back my schedule considerably. What works best for me and my family is to return in the fall to ’20/20′ as I raise my new baby and young son.”
“I have loved every day I spent at ‘World News Tonight’ and have endless respect for my colleagues there,” Vargas said. “This broadcast needs someone who can give 150 percent â?? day in and day out. I am not in a position to give that right now, and it wouldn’t be fair to do any less. In Charlie, this broadcast and news division has a wonderful and respected leader.”
Gibson’s new assignment is to take effect on May 29. He continues as a co-anchor of “Good Morning America” until June 30.
ABC’s statement last week that Vargas, who was raised by a Puerto Rican father and Irish-American mother, was doing a “terrific” job came as the “CBS Evening News” beat “World News Tonight” for the first time since the week ending Aug. 3, 2001. A spokeswoman told Journal-isms on May 17: “Elizabeth Vargas has done a terrific job as anchor of World News Tonight. She is expected to take maternity leave sometime in August and then return to anchor the broadcast.”
Today, CBS boasted in a news release that “The CBS EVENING NEWS has increased its total viewers in more weeks than any other evening newscast during the 2005-06 television season: The CBS EVENING NEWS is up in 26 of 35 weeks this season; NBCâ??s ‘Nightly News’ is down in 32 of 35 weeks; ABCâ??s ‘World News Tonight’ is down in 33 of 35 weeks and the last 32 weeks straight.”
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists had taken pride in Vargas’ appointment. “There’s only so many Elizabeth Vargases and Ray Suarezes we have out there,” Joseph Torres, deputy director of NAHJ, said today, speaking of the correspondent on PBS’ “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.” “Who’s behind her, coming next? It’s not like they have a stable” of Latinos. Having a Vargas “attracts people to the business. It’s critically important for people to see that diversity,” he said.
Torres said he admired Vargas’ work during Hurricane Katrina and thought she was “a real pro.”
But Vargas’ appointment was followed by bad luck or bad timing. The pregnancy “was about as unplanned as it gets,” Vargas told Gail Shister of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I was shocked. I had just signed on to a brand-new job that I was thrilled to have.” On Jan. 29, co-anchor Bob Woodruff and his cameraman suffered serious head wounds in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq, removing him from the show.
The future role of Woodruff, who is recovering, was not mentioned in today’s announcement.
- David Bauder, Associated Press: Charles Gibson Named New ABC Anchor
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Local Group Buys Philly Inquirer, Daily News
The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News will be sold to a local company known as Philadelphia Media Holdings, it was announced late today, and while some journalists were relieved that the papers were successfully sold, there were concerns about the political direction they would take.
“McClatchy Co. has agreed to sell Philadelphia’s major daily newspapers to a group of local investors for $562 million, most of which will be borrowed from banks,” began a story on the Inquirer’s Web site by Joseph N. DiStefano and Harold Brubaker.
“‘We got it,’ said a jubilant Brian P. Tierney as he rushed through The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News lobby this afternoon to a meeting with publisher Joe Natoli ‘We signed every line.'”
“This culminates a process that began months ago with Knight Ridder’s announcement that it would evaluate strategic options. Now, we know who our new owners will be. They are local people who care about our city and region. They believe in our future and in the future of quality journalism. They have pledged to work with us to achieve a vision of growth — while being fully respectful of the need for news and editorial independence,” Natoli said in a note to the staff.
The new owners agreed to keep the current editors in place, and indicated a willingness to work with the papers’ labor unions. The Daily News is edited by a black journalist, Michael Days. “It looks like a very good outcome,” Days told Journal-isms tonight. “From my perspective, we have local ownership. We aren’t subject to the quarterly whims of Wall Street,” and, he said, the new owners are fans of the Daily News.
A fact sheet circulated to employees included these questions and answers:
“Q: What will happen to me during this transition?
“A: This newspaper’s most valuable asset is our employees. We must stay focused on producing our newspapers, Web sites, community and other publications at the high standards for which we are known. We need to provide readers with superior editorial content; we need to provide readers and advertisers with superb customer service.
“Q: What will be the impact of the PMH Transaction on staffing? Will there be any layoffs?
“A: There are no layoffs planned. PMH has said it wants to grow the business.
“Q: Will there be changes in the way our local company operates?
“A: During this period of transition, which could extend for several months, we will continue business as usual.”
“The biggest investor in the group is Bruce E. Toll, a developer and cofounder of the Toll Bros. home- construction company. Toll plans to put up $25 million, according to people familiar with the group. Toll owns the Reedman- Toll Auto World and Roberts Auto Mall dealerships, and recently sold shares in UbiquiTel Inc. worth more than $30 million, DiStefano wrote in a Tuesday Inquirer story.
“Last month, Toll told The Inquirer he wanted to buy the newspapers, in part, so he would see more local business stories in The Inquirer’s business section,” the story said.
Days noted that one of the investors is African American, Leslie A. Brun, chairman and CEO of Sarr Group, LLC, a diversified holding company.
Melanie Burney, an Inquirer reporter who is parliamentarian of the National Association of Black Journalists, intially said “the atmosphere here is ‘cautiously optimistic.’ We’re all waiting to see what this will mean in the long term.”
Henry Holcomb, an Inquirer business reporter who is president of the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, told Journal-isms this afternoon, “We have succeeded in one aspect: We have a buyer who is a private company who has pledged to build both newspapers.” However, he said the Guild was concerned about the “deeply partisan” ties of some of the principals to the Republican Party and to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, a reference primarily to Tierney, the buyers’ chief organizer.
But Holcomb added, “He has assured us he won’t manipulate” the papers, “and we look forward to holding him to that promise.” He said both staff members and readers had expressed concern about “the partisan nature of some of the buyers.”
“We have been through wave and wave of job cuts under Knight Ridder . . . we were cut to the bone” and now look forward to some stability, Holcomb said.
Robert Bogle, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Tribune, which describes itself as the nation’s oldest black-owned newspaper, expressed some of the same concerns. From what he’s heard, he told Journal-isms, “Many of these people certainly could bring a very parochial and subjective view of this city. None of them, that I’ve heard, certainly demonstrated anything different in their business lives that embrace the diversity and greatness of our city.
“They’re two good newspapers and deserve the very best ownership and leadership,” Bogle said.
At a news conference later in the afternoon, Tierney “said that all the investors had signed a pledge that they would not attempt to influence or interfere with the editorial policies of the papers. ‘We won’t be involved in terms of the editorial side,’ he said. It was the first moment in his speech that employees of the papers, who were in the audience, applauded,” Katharine Q. Seelye wrote on the New York Times Web site.
A meeting for employees that followed “was very uplifting, and most people seemed encouraged, that it is finally over, and it appears that this could be a good opportunity for everyone,” Burney told Journal-isms.
The McClatchy Co. announced in March it would buy the Knight Ridder newspapers, but would divest itself of 12 of them, 11 of which did not meet its requirements for growth expectations:
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal; Wilkes Barre (Pa.) Times Leader; Aberdeen (S.D.) American News; Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald; Ft. Wayne (Ind.) News- Sentinel; Contra Costa (Calif.) Times; Monterey County (Calif.) Herald; and Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune. The 12th paper, the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press was to be sold due to anticipated antitrust concerns involving McClatchy’s Star Tribune” in Minneapolis.
- Audio: Sale of Phila. Inquirer, Daily News
- Joe Strupp, Editor & Publisher: Ex-‘Inky’ Editor Rosenthal: New Ownership Of Philly Papers “Dangerous … At Times.”
