Posted: Fri., Jun. 13, 2008, 1:18pm PT

ABC News shuffles 'Nightline' staff

D.C. bureau gutted, transferred to New York

ABC News has transferred about a dozen “Nightline” jobs from the D.C. bureau to New York, leaving only a skeletal crew in Washington as the network restructures overall production and graphics, an official at the net said.

Confirming an initial report by Daily Variety sister publication Broadcasting & Cable on Friday afternoon, the official said that “Nightline” correspondents Terry Moran and John Donvan would remain in D.C. with an unspecified but small number of producers who will concentrate on editorial. Actual production will now be based in New York.

Reason given for the transfer is the Alphabet’s fall plans to go with HD production, operations for which are headquartered in New York. ABC’s Sunday morning public affairs talker in D.C., “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” is aired in HD, but the show is broadcast from a special studio in the Newseum, not from the Washington bureau.

The D.C.-to-New York transfer of jobs is not the first to hit the “Nightline” staff. It previously happened in 2005, following the departure of then-anchor Ted Koppel and his chief producer Tom Bettag for Discovery.




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