Kim Godwin, the ABC News president who was the first Black woman to run a broadcast network news operation, is leaving the Disney unit amid increasing concern about the way she was managing the home of shows like “Good Morning America” and “World News Tonight.”
Godwin told staffers in a memo Sunday that she planned to leave. Her command had come under increasing scrutiny since a restructuring of ABC News and Disney’s ABC stations had her reporting directly to Debra OConnell, a Disney business veteran who iis seen as a valued operator at the company
While Godwin sought to improve the working atmosphere at ABC News, where anchors are known to feud with one another and jockey for positions as well as interviews, she became accused of remaining too distant from the staff and the unit’s many programs.
In recent months, “Good Morning America,” arguably the flagship show of the news division, has seen its standing among viewers between 25 and 54 — the demographic most coveted by advertisers — shrink noticeably. For the five days starting April 22, for example, “GMA” captured an average of 497,000 viewers in that age range — just 49,000 ahead of “CBS Mornings,” traditionally the perennial third-place entrant in broadcast TV’s morning wars. NBC’s “Today,” meanwhile, captured an average of 659,.000. “GMA” remains, however, the nation’s most-watched broadcast morning-news show.
More to come….
Source Agencies
