Shakeup

ABC News Set for Dramatic Cutbacks

As part of the deep cuts announced this week at ABC News, the network plans to close all of its physical bureaus around the country except Washington and halve the number of its domestic correspondents.

ABC News President David Westin confirmed in an interview Friday that the network's ranks of bureau correspondents, which currently number several dozen, would be cut in half and be replaced with "digital" journalists who would be expected to shoot and edit their own stories.

“We will have as many total journalists as we do now,” he said.

Although the network will keep a minimal staff presence in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Boston, it will shut down its bricks-and-mortar bureaus there and ask its remaining employees to work from the local affiliates. The Washington bureau will remain open, but its size will be substantially reduced.


ABC News Chief to Step Down

David Westin, the longtime president of ABC News, has decided to resign his position on Tuesday.

In an e-mail that Mr. Westin sent to the staff on Monday night, he cast the decision in personal terms, saying that after almost 14 years, he had decided it was time “to move on.” He also pledged to stay in the position until the end of the year to give ABC time to find a replacement.?

Good, it's about time. The mendacious newspaper and magazine industries have suffered massive hits to their bottom lines, and now ABC News is feeling the pinch. Americans are no longer content to be told what to think about what is going on in our country by the bought-off, old-line media like ABC. They are shills for the Democrats and that party has done even more than the detestable Republicans have to destroy the country. I hope NBC and CBS follow ABC's lead in short time. It is unlikely that any of the three will exit the news business entirely, but it seems their accountants and executives have figured out that they're not making money by spending so much on news bureaus that are increasingly ignored.