Update: PBS has confirmed that the position will go to Jeffrey Goldberg. Goldberg will be the new moderator of Washington Week, which will be renamed Washington Week with The Atlantic.
He begins his new assignment on Friday, August 11.
“We are thrilled to embark on this next chapter for Washington Week with the addition of Jeffrey Goldberg as moderator and The Atlantic as an editorial partner,” said Sharon Percy Rockefeller, president and chief executive officer of WETA and President of NewsHour Productions.
“As the longest-running news and public affairs program on primetime television, Washington Week is known for its incisive and thoughtful roundtable conversations featuring the sharpest minds in news – a reputation that will only be enhanced with Jeffrey and The Atlantic joining as partners,” she continued.
Goldberg added, “Washington Week holds a special and rare place on television, to have a space for civil and extended conversation about the issues affecting the news and our world. Gwen built this show into an institution, continued by Robert and by Yamiche, and I’m honored to carry on this tradition as The Atlantic embarks on this partnership.”
Sara Just, Washington Week and PBS NewsHour’s senior executive producer and a WETA SVP added, “We are delighted to be working with The Atlantic and Jeffrey Goldberg, whose depth, intellect and, yes, wit, are such ideal fits for this program and its next chapter. Together, I am confident we will bring the most insightful conversations about today’s many urgent news stories that can be found on television and online.”
Original: The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg is in advanced talks to become the new host for PBS’s Washington Week, according to a report from Semafor.
Washington Week has been without a host since February as a result of Yamiche Alcindor’s departure. Alcindor said she wanted to focus on her commitments at NBC News, where she is the network’s Washington correspondent, and finish her upcoming memoir.
Semafor reports that the weekly news program has “been in talks to bring on a strategic partner to help on the show.”
Washington Week did not comment on Semafor’s report when contacted by TVNewser.
Goldberg has been with The Atlantic since 2007, starting as a national correspondent for the magazine. He became the magazine’s 15th editor-in-chief in 2016, and during his tenure, The Atlantic has won several awards, including its first-ever Pulitzer Prize in 2022. Also, in 2022 it received the National Magazine Award for General Excellence from the American Society of Magazine Editors, the top award in the industry.
Our parent publication Adweek named him publishing editor of the year in 2020, and The Atlantic was also named magazine of the year.
Meanwhile, Washington Week has been using a rotating cast of PBS NewsHour journalists as well as from the Washington press corps to host the show on an interim basis as the search continues.