>>31256 ABC News taps James Goldston to be new president
Thu 10 Apr 2014 10.44 EDT Last modified on Fri 18 Aug 2017 12.12 EDT
ABC News tapped James Goldston to be its next president on Thursday, capping an ascent that began 10 years ago when the US network hired him away from ITV in London. Goldston moves up from his current role as a roving senior vice president in charge of news content. His appointment, which was widely expected, was praised by his predecessor, Ben Sherwood, who was promoted in March to a broader role inside parent company Disney. “The results speak for themselves,” Sherwood said in a statement. “Good Morning America is enjoying its best performance in decades; World News just saw its best quarter in three years; Nightline has delivered the best numbers in 11 years in the time period; 20/20 is at a four year high; and This Week just posted its best quarter and longest winning streak over NBC in 16 years.”
Goldston’s appointment means two of the three World War II-era American television news networks now will be run by Britons. Former ITV executive Deborah Turness took over as president of rival NBC News in August 2013. The longest-serving network news chief is now David Rhodes, who has been president of CBS News only since 2011. At ABC News, Goldston has worked something of a Midas touch, taking each show he has run to a top slot in the ratings. At the late-night news show Nightline, Goldston rallied a team of ambitious young producers and led a transformation from one anchor – Ted Koppel – to three. The new show caught on, growing a whopping 17% in total viewers in 2008 and passing The Tonight Show a year later to become the top-ranked in its time slot.
When Goldston was placed in charge of Good Morning America in 2011, the morning show had not beaten archrival Today in more than 16 years, in a defining competition for network news divisions because of the ad dollars at stake. Just more than a year later, Good Morning America started beating Today. Earlier this month, GMA won its sixth quarter in a row in both total viewers and the younger viewers advertiser covet. Goldston arrived at ABC News from ITV’s Tonight with Trevor McDonald, attached to correspondent Martin Bashir, whose series of interviews with the pop star Michael Jackson was edited by Goldston into a controversial, immensely popular documentary-length film broadcast in 2003. Bashir, who was a Nightline anchor until 2010, resigned in December from his job as an MSNBC host amid an outcry over criticism he had leveled at Sarah Palin.
Goldston’s installment in the top spot at ABC News follows a broader management shakeup at Disney. In March the company announced the surprise departure of Anne Sweeney, an 18-year company veteran who oversaw news and entertainment divisions responsible for almost $12bn in revenue. Sherwood was tapped as Sweeney’s replacement.
