First on TVNewser: Big changes are coming to the producer ranks at ABC News.
TVNewser has learned “Good Morning America” Senior Executive Producer Tom Cibrowski (above, left) is being promoted to senior VP of programs, newsgathering and special events. Taking his place at the nation’s No. 1 morning show is current “World News” EP Michael Corn (above, center). Taking Corn’s job at “World News” is “Nightline” EP Almin Karamehmedovic. Karamehmedocvic, who has been with ABC News since 1989, arrives at “World News” as the program sees its first anchor change in nearly five years. David Muir takes over for Diane Sawyer next week.
Karamehmedocvic, a native of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has deep roots in international reporting for ABC. In 2001 he was one of the first journalists to gain access to Tora Bora, Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden was holed up, and in 2003 was a U.S. Army embed during the invasion of Iraq. A replacement at “Nightline” will come later, we hear.
Corn leaves “World News” as the show has consistently been winning in the A25-54 demographic, while still trailing “NBC Nightly News” among total viewers. He joins “GMA” as that broadcast enters its third year as the No. 1 morning show.
The moves will be announced by ABC News president James Goldston this morning.
> More: Goldston’s notes to staffers, after the jump…
Team,
I am delighted to announce that Tom Cibrowski has been promoted to senior vice president, ABC News Programs, News Gathering and Special Events.
For many years Tom has been a true leader at ABC News. Tom and I served side by side in the trenches at GMA, and I have witnessed countless times his uncanny news sense, his tremendous command of breaking news, and his absolute mastery in the control room.
A veteran producer who has spent nearly 25 years at ABC, Tom has been part of our incredible GMA team for 13 years, the last seven as senior executive producer and executive producer.
With the steadiest hand, Tom took the program to new creative and journalistic heights and oversaw a winning reinvention of the morning show format. Under his leadership GMA unforgettably snapped NBC’s staggering 16-year streak at #1 and won four Emmys for Best Morning Show and the Murrow award for “Robin’s Journey.” He held the show steady during times of transition and change—and he leaves GMA #1 in every measure.
Tom joined ABC as a desk assistant and then served as a producer for our bureaus in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Seattle, covered the wars in Bosnia and Iraq, produced interviews with Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton.
From the Boston Marathon bombing to Hurricane Sandy, he was the mastermind behind our hard-charging coverage of breaking news at GMA. Plus, he made his mark on our international reporting many times, traveling to Iraq with both Diane and Robin and throughout the Middle East with Charlie Gibson.
In his new role, Tom will report to me and spearhead closer collaboration across our many programs, platforms and operations, and help us build an even stronger news division. He’ll lead ABC News into the future, driving all our platforms to tell even more great stories, cover the biggest events and do the most important journalism.
For many years, Tom has been a great leader at ABC News and a true friend. I know that he will take us to even greater heights.
Please join me in congratulating him on this exciting new role.
James
——————–
Team,
I have exciting news about new roles for Michael Corn and Almin Karamehmedovic, master storytellers and exceptional leaders in our news division.
As Tom Cibrowski steps away from GMA to become SVP, ABC News Programs, News Gathering and Special Events, Michael will become GMA’s new senior executive producer. I am thrilled that he is returning to the morning broadcast where he was a senior producer for eight years before joining World News.
Michael leaves World News as the program draws its biggest audience in five years and has just won back-to-back sweeps victories in the key Adults 25-54 demo for the first time in seven years. He has steadfastly carried on its greatest traditions and unwavering commitment to breaking news while keeping the broadcast fresh and relevant for our growing audience.
In his three years leading the extraordinary World News team as executive producer, the broadcast was unmatched on the big stories and launched new features like Real Money and America Strong that have kept viewers coming back night after night.
Michael and Diane traveled together to cover some of the biggest stories in recent history, including trips to Afghanistan, Newtown, the Gulf Coast after the B.P. oil spill, Memphis during historic floods and Joplin in the wake of devastating tornados. In 2013, Michael, Diane and the team won the Murrow award for Best Newscast – a great recognition for their tireless work and reporting.
Michael has deep ties at GMA, having been part of our morning team for nearly 10 years. He helped bring to life GMA’s Whistle-Stop Tour, which memorably took the show through seven states on a traveling broadcast studio on rails, produced the first live broadcast from inside the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta tracking the H1N1 “swine flu” virus, oversaw GMA’s signature investigative series, and manned the overnight desk for the broadcast for several years.
As Michael brings his considerable talents back to Good Morning America, I’m confident that he and the GMA team will lead the show in innovative new directions in the future.
Almin will be the new executive producer of World News. Since joining ABC News 16 years ago, Almin has worked closely with every anchor of World News since Peter Jennings. He is passionate about great journalism and has a keen eye for a unique mix of stories, exclusives and big interviews that make news.
Almin has reported for ABC News from more than 90 countries and from the front lines of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Russia, Sudan and Southern Lebanon. He has covered the biggest political stories and the drug wars in Mexico; lived among indigenous people in the Amazon; and, memorably, investigated exorcisms in Africa—winning eight Emmys, two Overseas Press Club Awards and two Genesis Awards for his outstanding work.
He was part of the first wave of producers trained to shoot, produce, edit, and get on the air from anywhere in the world. He has used those abilities to great effect at Nightline, infusing many reports with an intimacy and immediacy that bring our viewers even closer to the heart of a story.
Almin has led our mighty team at Nightline for four years, first as a senior producer and then as executive producer. On his watch Nightline has steadily gained viewers. Nightline won the last two major sweeps, drawing ABC’s largest overall audience in the time period during a May and July sweep in 12 years. The program won the 2014 Murrow Award for Hard News and was just nominated for an astonishing 13 Emmys, including Diane Sawyer’s unforgettable story from Strawberry Mansion high school and David Muir’s incredibly moving profile of an American doctor curing cataract blindness in Ethiopia.
I am confident Almin and David Muir will make a formidable team. Not only do they have a great history of working together, but they also share a similar immersive, urgent, all-access storytelling style. Their relationship was born very early in their careers at ABC News. While David was reporting live, Almin worked to get Peter Jennings on the air with him during the Saddam Hussein trial. As a Nightline senior producer, Almin has been involved in some of David’s most memorable stories, including breakthrough reporting on the famine in Mogadishu, Somalia, earthquake in Haiti and tornadoes in Oklahoma.
Diane leaves the broadcast in the strongest possible position. And I cannot wait to see the exceptional broadcast Almin, David and the amazing team at World News will bring to our viewers every night.
Michael and Almin will transition into their new positions over the next few weeks. Almin will continue to oversee Nightline along with the broadcast’s terrific team of senior producers until we appoint a new EP in due course.
GMA, World News and Nightline, collectively, have added well over a million new viewers in mornings, evenings and late night in the last two years, thanks in many ways to the leadership of Tom, Michael and Almin.
Most importantly, all three share my firm belief that we have an incredible opportunity to serve our audience with news that informs, inspires and empowers them.
With all of your support, hard work, and talent, Tom, Michael and Almin will ensure ABC News delivers exceptional journalism that helps our viewers better understand the world and change the future.
Please join me in congratulating them on these new roles.
James