It is being reported that CBS News evp of news Kim Godwin will become the next president of ABC News.
NBC reports that two sides (Godwin and Disney/ABC) are in “the final stages of negotiations” to make it official.
Disney/ABC TV declined to comment on this report. CBS News could not be reached for immediate comment.
When former news division president James Goldston announced he would be leaving ABC News at the end of March. we named the longtime CBS Newser the top external candidate for the vacancy.
It appears that will come to fruition.
When confirmed, Godwin comes the first Black executive to lead a broadcast network news division, and the second Black woman to be named a president of a major TV news outlet in 2021, with Rashida Jones officially taking the lead of MSNBC this past February.
Frankly, the choice makes total sense. Godwin is one of the most experienced executives working in TV news today. She served as a news director at a number of different local stations across the country before joining CBS News in 2007 as a senior producer on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley. She would later be promoted to senior broadcast producer on the CBS Evening News, and was eventually named the network’s evp of news. Godwin also served as the interim ep of The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell before the newscast moved to Washington D.C., and former Situation Room ep Jay Shaylor took the reins on a permanent basis in 2019. Godwin has also served as CBS News’ executive director for development and diversity during her time at the network.
Godwin has also been in charge of news for all of CBS local TV stations, a role that has taken on even more importance in light of the recent departures of CBS local execs Peter Dunn and David Friend following widely-reported allegations of creating a hostile and racist work environment.
Godwin started her career as an executive producer, producer, investigative reporter and news writer at television and radio stations in West Palm Beach and Tallahassee, Fla. She has won multiple Murrows, Emmys, duPonts, and NABJ recently honored her with its Ida B. Wells Award “for being a strong newsroom leader, for being an advocate for stories about communities in the country that might have been overlooked, for her work to create a diverse newsroom, and her focus on identifying—and advocating for—young journalists throughout their careers.”