Judy Woodruff Prepares to Sign Off as a ‘PBS NewsHour’ Anchor
Judy Woodruff Prepares to Sign Off as a ‘PBS NewsHour’ Anchor
The world has changed for Judy Woodruff.
In a short period of time, the PBS NewsHour has morphed from a network and cable news channel to a multimedia brand. The recent addition of an online video to the network’s portfolio has solidified the public perception that the media brand is no longer in the news business, but a place where the nation debates issues.
This shift has been driven by the steady growth of the cable news network, the increased focus on digital media platforms and the recent acquisition of the American company BuzzFeed.
The NewsHour has also been a vehicle for change for Woodruff. The former NBC News anchor, who was fired during her tenure at NBC for what was ultimately her “unacceptable lack of judgment and competence,” has gone from being a top-rated anchor on the cable network, to the anchor of the most watched news program in television.
The NewsHour is also one of the few TV news networks where Woodruff has the ability to expand her expertise from the ground up. Today, as a PBS NewsHour anchor, Woodruff will have the luxury of being able to use her background in broadcast news to explore new ground and take on new programming. The move from anchor to an anchor-in-residence is a shift that she has wanted to make for a long time.
“The NewsHour is not your average TV news channel anymore and for those of us who are in the news business, it’s not business as usual,” Woodruff said in a phone interview with Think Progress. “But I am excited that it’s become a place where we can explore issues that don’t normally get a lot of attention in our local communities.”
Woodruff, who came out of Annapolis, Md., in 1980, has been a fixture on the PBS NewsHour since 2007 as a lead. In 2009, she was promoted to senior news correspondent, but she became a lead anchor in August 2013. Her promotion to co-anchor marked a return to lead roles and, as she was promoted to anchor in October 2014, her role expanded to include lead supervising the anchor-
