One year into one the most high-pressure jobs in broadcast television, NBC News President Deborah Turness is shaking off its sleepy, staid image and pushing the network to embrace a forward-thinking, digital age approach to news gathering and
In a lengthy interview with The New York Times on Monday, Turness didn’t mince words on the need for change at NBC News, and promised that more was on the way.
“People in the organization from top to bottom recognized that NBC News hadn’t kept up with the times in all sorts of ways, for maybe 15 years,” she told the paper’s Bill Carter.
Turness was brought over from the UK’s ITN by NBCUniversal News Group boss Patricia Fili-Krushel, who wanted to move the broadcast news division into the future. An old colleague describes Turness as bringing “rock-chick swagger” into the newsroom.
Among her early wins in the first year on the job: convincing Matt Lauer to stay on the job after a few tumultuous years at Today.
Her next big task will be giving the once-mighty Meet the Press a makeover.
It’s been on a steady slide since the sudden death of longtime anchor Tim Russert in 2008. Current host David Gregory confirmed his impending exit this month, and Chuck Todd is set to take the reins.
Turness told the Times that she intends to inject some “edge” into the Sunday morning political show, and envisions more of a “coffeehouse conversation” than the one-on-one interviews that have been the show’s bread-and-butter for decades.
Read More: The New York Times
Brief Take: With CBS steady and ABC gaining growing numbers of viewers with its shift towards tabloid territory, Turness has been working hard to give NBC News a 21st Century makeover, while retaining its reputation for journalistic integrity.
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