Bob Wright Planning To Restructure NBC’s Cable News Efforts; Looking For A “News Czar” With Overall NBC News Oversight

Bob Wright, chairman and CEO of NBC Universal, is looking for a “news czar, with overall responsibility for all of the news operations, including the flagship NBC broadcast-news operations,” sources tell Newsweek Magazine in an online exclusive.

The must-must read says: “NBC has made overtures to at least three top media players in recent weeks, according to executives close to the recruitment efforts.” Wright has been personally involved in some of the recruitment efforts, Johnnie Roberts reports. Newsweek sources “described the overtures as directly linked to a yet-to-be-announced plan to restructure NBC’s cable-news efforts and an effort to rethink the company’s entire approach to the news business.”

> “This is quite amazing,” an NBC insider e-mailed TVNewser this morning. “If — and that’s a big IF — the people at GE have decided to change things, there will then be HUGE changes to the traditional structure of NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and West Coast. Anyone who thinks GE will let this mess go on much longer as currently designed, is nuts.”