David Westin Tells ABC News Division He’s Resigning

by Jon Bershad | 9:33 pm, September 6th, 2010

» 26 comments

Earlier this evening, the New York Times broke the news that David Westin, the president of ABC News since March of 1997. The Times cited a staff member as saying Westin’s retirement has to do with “a long-running conflict” with management at the Walt Disney Company over the “financial standing of the news division.” Mediaite has received the email Westin sent to his staff, thanking them for the “great privilege” of working with them over the past 13 years as well as a comment from Anne Sweeney, President of Disney-ABC Television Group.

The two full emails are below starting with Sweeney’s:

From: Sweeney, Anne X.
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2010 9:05 PM
Subject: David Westin’s Transition

For the past 13 years, David proved himself a tireless advocate for ABC News, effectively guiding the group through some of the most seismic industry, and divisional, changes imaginable. During that time, he helped reinvent our News organization, and positioned us for great success going forward. While it will be sad to see David leave, his desire to pursue other professional endeavors is understandable, and commendable, and I know you’ll join me in wishing him nothing but the best. I’ll be announcing a new leader for ABC News in the near future.

Here is a copy of David’s original email.

Anne

_____________________________________________
From: Westin, David L.
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2010 5:47 PM
To: ABCTV News ALL
Subject: Transition

Dear Colleague,

A month ago I told Bob Iger and Anne Sweeney that the time has come for me to step down as President of ABC News. Leading you has been a great privilege and a solemn responsibility — a responsibility that I tried to fulfill for over thirteen years by doing what I believed was best for this important news organization. I will root for your continued success long after I am gone.

I’ve always admired those few who know when it’s time to move on. This is the right time for me. Over the last nine months, we’ve put in place new anchors on all of our programs. At the same time, we went through a very difficult transformation made necessary by changes in our business and its economics. I am confident ABC News is better positioned for the future than it has been at any time since I came here in March of 1997.

As rewarding as I’ve found my time here, there are some other things I want to do professionally — things that I cannot explore while fulfilling my responsibilities here. I’m announcing my decision now so that I can pursue those possibilities, something I couldn’t do in fairness to all of you until I’d told you of my plans to step down. I have agreed to remain your leader through the end of the year to ensure that Anne has the time she needs to find the right successor and that there is an orderly transition. So, I’m not going anywhere for the time being. I will need your support during this interim period to make sure that we continue to move forward.

I have only the highest regard for the company of which we are a part, for its leadership, and – most important – for all of you. I am grateful for your letting me be part of this great organization for so long.

David

ABC News, David Westin

juan

Remember, ABC ran an all day Infomercial for ObamaCare!
Arkansas Steve

Westin seems like a nice guy, wrote a nice letter.

Also, he picked Amanpour over Jake Tapper…..
he promoted hour after hour of Obama propaganda on ABC News…..
even if his job was secure, he saw the writing on the wall and didn’t want to have to defend the indefensible during Novemberl….
Big Eddie

Somebody’s got to take the fall for the Amanpour debacle . Somebody ‘s got to play the sap .
felixw

ABC could really improve its credibility and ratings if they used this changing of the guard as a chance to bring in a diverse group of journalists. Let me suggest some wild ideas. How about hiring a few reporters who aren’t ardent leftwing Democrats? How about reporting all the news, including stories that might embarrass the party in power? How about showing more than one side of contentious issues? How about getting rid of the stultifying political correctness that permeates every news broadcast every day?

Of course, the chances of these things happening are slim and none…..but if they did, ABC News would easily out distance NBC and CBS within a few months.
the real john t

felixw said:
How about hiring a few reporters who aren’t ardent leftwing Democrats?

You RWers are simply pathetic. If a news show doesn’t bash Obama 24/7 like Fox then they are all left wing shows according to you. Grow up idiot.
felixw

Quite sad to see what’s happened at ABC News. Recently ABC News announced the lay off of 400 people, or 25% of its employees. They could have taken a different approach, eliminated the pervasive bias in their broadcasts, and turned around the whole operation. As the success of Fox News shows, if you give people an honest news broadcast that doesn’t hide stories and spin every issue to the left, you can grow your audience and make plenty of money in the process. But the sad ideologues at ABC would rather shrink and fire and fade away rather than give up their ideological bias. ABC could still turn things around, use this transition as a way to fix their flailing brand, and maybe stand for something more than mindless cheerleading for Democrats. But don’t hold your breath.
the real john t

felixw said:
As the success of Fox News shows, if you give people an honest news broadcast that doesn’t hide stories and spin every issue to the left,

HAHAHAHAHA!. No Fox news hides and spins every story to the right.

BTW, ABC still doubles Fox in viewers.
felixw

the real john t said:
You RWers are simply pathetic. If a news show doesn’t bash Obama 24/7 like Fox then they are all left wing shows according to you. Grow up idiot.

It’s not me John. It’s the American public that wants honest news and not Democrat spin. Check out the trendline:

http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/123019/2180710/2185616/080324_PB_chart.jpg

Meanwhile check out the trend for Fox News:

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/original/totaldaytotalsmall3.jpg

You may not like it, John. But those are the facts. And if you want to change the trend, you need to figure out how to convince the audience to switch from news to propaganda.
felixw

the real john t said:
BTW, ABC still doubles Fox in viewers.

Broadcast news outlets had a 50 year head start on Fox. But the trend lines are clear. ABC is losing viewers and Fox is gaining them. Check out the trend lines in the two graphs in my previous post. At the current rate, Fox will start surpassing the ratings for the broadcast networks within the next 36 months.
Morgan

It is also a good idea to never forget the collective contribution of ABC, CBS and NBC/MSNBC (read General Electric) for the election of Barak Obama in the Fall of 2008.

In these times when we rail against the dollar damage of BP in the Gulf, we should recognize their damage is far smaller than the damage to the world economy by the mainstream media: by NOT VETTING (yet even ABETTING) our presidential candidates, allowing an inexperienced unqualified candidate to become a player in the world economy. The damage done to the world and to ourselves personally far exceeds the outrage heaped upon BP.

While we can mitigate some of this damage in November, we should all hold these media outlets personally accountable for their share of the damage.
Firstrate

both parties, Ds & Rs are biased. Fox is biased, ABC is biased….where is just REPORTING?
The Real Royal King

Felix, I have to say your post is moronic even by your standards. FOX doesn’t come near, doesn’t even approach the number of viewers ABC News has. And, it never will. Couple that with ABC’s new global outreach via BBC News and BBC World, and you are comparing a whale to a minnow. Do you really believe this crap you spew, or are you paid to do it?
The Real Royal King

Firstrate said:
both parties, Ds & Rs are biased. Fox is biased, ABC is biased….where is just REPORTING?

I agree with you. BBC America and PBS are excellent, objective news sources. Some real journalism at work.
the real john t

The Real Royal King said:
BBC America and PBS are excellent,

I too agree with that.
alehaycraft

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RRK still is off the meds. Send the guys in the white coats.

If they guy at ABC has resigned then what is the guy at NBC going to do? Jump out of the window?
CBS will just throw Katie out the window. They should ask her what she reads first and if she can see Alaska from her house.
NORBIT

THEY’RE GOING DOWN!

One Professional Left propaganda network at a time!

Pretty soon it’ll be ALL FOX, all the time!!!
JimBob

Sounds like a wonderful opportunity for Phil Griffin! Look at what he
has done for MSNBC!
The Real Royal King

gordonbloyershow said:
RRK still is off the meds. Send the guys in the white coats. If they guy at ABC has resigned then what is the guy at NBC going to do? Jump out of the window?CBS will just throw Katie out the window. They should ask her what she reads first and if she can see Alaska from her house.

NORBIT said:
THEY’RE GOING DOWN! One Professional Left propaganda network at a time! Pretty soon it’ll be ALL FOX, all the time!!!

JimBob said:
Sounds like a wonderful opportunity for Phil Griffin! Look at what hehas done for MSNBC!

All the Marys in Heaven Know, I hate to destroy your delusional, deny you your fantasies and rob you of your denial, but a few facts might be helpful here for our reasonable and rational colleagues.

NBC News: 7.2 Million Viewers, not including MSNBC.
ABC News: 6.6 Million Viewers, not including viewers through the BBC News and BBC International affiliation.
CBS News: 4.9 Million Viewers.

FOX “News”: 1.6 Million Viewers.
MSNBC: .9 Million Viewers.
CNN: .516 Million Viewers, not including CNN International and CNN Airport.

So, a network with more than 6 times the viewership of FOX is going down?

It might seem that together your are simply moronic and sour wannabees.

The facts, alas the facts, woe the facts!

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jk76

I didn’t know who this dude was. Amazingly I still don’t care. News financial? pretty vague, how much news do they do? Do they still have the early morning couple hours? no commercials? do they pay people too much…like say a new turd on sunday morning?

maybe not enough Lohan stories, god forbid we’re not informed when she takes a dump
felixw

The Real Royal King said:
Felix, I have to say your post is moronic even by your standards. FOX doesn’t come near, doesn’t even approach the number of viewers ABC News has. And, it never will. Couple that with ABC’s new global outreach via BBC News and BBC World, and you are comparing a whale to a minnow. Do you really believe this crap you spew, or are you paid to do it?

Royal King, did you ever take a math class? Do you understand the difference between a shrinking audience (ABC News) versus a growing audience (Fox News)? Then again, maybe they need to put mathematics in the form of nursery rhymes in order for you to comprehend it.
The Real Royal King

felixw said:
Royal King, did you ever take a math class? Do you understand the difference between a shrinking audience (ABC News) versus a growing audience (Fox News)? Then again, maybe they need to put mathematics in the form of nursery rhymes in order for you to comprehend it.

Yes, I do, but I also realize that you are grossly overstating, even distorting, the “trends” and that you make no allowance for trend reversals, such as the aging FOX demographic. Couple that with the fact that cable “news”, as we now know it, will be as relevant as laundry blueing by 2020, and we have the indisputable conclusion that FOX is never going to catch up with ABC News before the metamorphesis leading us into the brave new world of news. I think it could well be said that cable “news”, FOX and otherwise, has never been all that terribly relevant, and it is less relevant than it was five (5) years ago. But, please, carry forward with your delusions.

WHEN’S O’BECKERHEAD’S NEXT “LIARS’ AND HERETICS’ REVIVAL”?
AND, WHERE AND WHEN BEST TO CO-OPT ANOTHER’S NAME AND ESSENCE?
I’M THINKING BETHLEHEM AROUND THE NEXT CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL,
AIM FOR THE TOP AND ASSUME NOTHING LESS THAN CHRIST’S REAL PRESENCE.
koko001

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felixw

The Real Royal King said:
Yes, I do, but I also realize that you are grossly overstating, even distorting, the “trends” and that you make no allowance for trend reversals, such as the aging FOX demographic. Couple that with the fact that cable “news”, as we now know it, will be as relevant as laundry blueing by 2020, and we have the indisputable conclusion that FOX is never going to catch up with ABC News before the metamorphesis leading us into the brave new world of news. I think it could well be said that cable “news”, FOX and otherwise, has never been all that terribly relevant, and it is less relevant than it was five (5) years ago. But, please, carry forward with your delusions.

You talk about delusions? Let me present some real numbers for your education.

In November 1980, 52 million people watched the network news on a typical evening. By 2008, the networks had lost more than half of these viewers. That’s right — even with increases in population, income, TV penetration — 27 million people had turned off the network news.

ABC News has been the biggest disaster of all. In the early 1980s, ABC News had almost 14 million people tune in each evening. Nowadays ABC News attracts around 6 million viewers. This represents a staggering loss of almost 60% of its viewers. That’s even worse than the decline in Obama’s favorability rating.

Meanwhile Fox has grown its audience by 60% — but it didn’t take 30 years. They did that in just the last four years alone.

And — in total contradiction to your assertion of the age of the audience — the median age of broadcast news viewers is much older than for Fox and cable news. According to Pew Research, the median ABC News viewer is 59 years old. Does that sound like a young demographic to you? Make me laugh with your bogus claims!

So who’s delusional, Royal King? Me, with my facts, or you with your fantasy that the moribund ABC News will triumph over Fox?

Stick with nursery rhymes, buddy. Numbers are apparently beyond your grasp.
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