Changes Coming at ‘NewsHour With Jim Lehrer'

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer is making some big changes effective next September.

The show will change its name to PBS NewsHour and move from a single-anchor format to two anchors and add an online correspondent.

Lehrer will remain the executive editor and primary anchor, joined by Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff or Jeffrey Brown, with senior correspondents Ray Suarez and Margaret Warner concentrating on out-of-studio reporting.

The show will also merge is on-air and online operations, but the plan is not to cut any staffers, according to spokesman Rob Flynn. "We anticipate that we won't be laying off anyone," he said.

Does this mean Lehrer is stepping back? No, says Flynn. "It suggests that we feel the program needs some changes to make the online and broadcast programs work more in synch, but to also provide a little bit more warmth and humanity and a different type of pacing to the broadcast."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.