*ABC News president Kim Godwin has been demoted despite getting her contract renewed, the New York Post reports.
In an article titled “Staffers cheer ABC News shakeup as President Kim Godwin’s days could be numbered: sources,” Alexandra Steigrad wrote …. “The Disney-owned network elevated veteran exec Debra OConnell on Wednesday to helm a new division that would encompass ABC News — putting Godwin under her — amid softening ratings at top-ranked shows ‘Good Morning America’ and ‘World News Tonight with David Muir.‘ . . .”
Per journal-isms.com, Stephen Battaglio at the Los Angeles Times, wrote: “The division’s signature shows, ‘ABC World News Tonight With David Muir’ and ‘Good Morning America,’ remain the most-watched morning and evening news programs on television but have seen their audiences erode with the decline of linear TV due to the migration to online video. Both programs have lost more than 20% of their viewers in the 25-to-54 age group that advertisers target, more than its competitors at CBS and NBC.”
One source told the Post, “The mood after the announcement was very light and happy. People are relieved. They feel the network can get back to its glory days with Debra coming in.”
Godwin was appointed president of ABC News almost three years ago, but her “tenure at the network has been a bumpy one, filled with missteps, legal threats from laid-off staffers and softening ratings at “GMA” and “World News Tonight,” ” the Post writes.
A source told the Post, “Everyone here knows that Kim Godwin is on email at 4:30 morning, in the building working nonstop 24 hours a day and available 24/7.”
“ ‘I’ve been at ABC News for 20 years now under four different presidents and I’ve never had a stronger relationship than with Kim,’ said Jonathan Karl, chief White House correspondent and co-anchor of the Sunday morning political show ‘This Week,’ ” per journal-isms.
“Since joining ABC News, Godwin has tried to create a gentler office culture. She ends her emails with ‘People Are Our Priority’ and is known for leading happy birthday singalongs for employees.”
Per journal-isms.com, Joe Flint and Isabella Simonetti wrote for The Wall Street Journal, “Godwin’s supporters counter that as the first Black person to run a broadcast network news division, she is the target of constant second-guessing by a cadre of longtime ABC News staffers who set out to undermine her from day one.
“Many of the employees who were pushed out last spring were part of a clubby culture at the network, they said, and their management style clashed with the culture of inclusion and collaboration Godwin sought to build. . . .”
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