ABC News President Kim Godwin Out at Network

ABC Information president Kim Godwin is out on the community.

Debra OConnell, president, Information Group and Networks at Disney Leisure, and Godwin shared the information in inner memos despatched to employees Sunday evening.

Godwin instructed employees that after reflecting on her tenure, “I’ve determined to retire from broadcast journalism.”

“Anybody who’s captivated with what we do is aware of there’s no different enterprise prefer it, so this was not a straightforward or fast determination,” Godwin continued. “However after appreciable reflection, I’m sure it’s the proper one for me as I look to the long run and prioritize what’s most vital for me and my household.”

In her memo, OConnell stated that she would lead ABC Information within the interim.

“In the intervening time, I’ll oversee ABC Information and I’m wanting ahead to working with the management workforce as we forge a brand new path ahead collectively,” OConnell wrote. “Thanks in your endurance and understanding via this era of transition.”

Godwin joined ABC Information in 2021 after a protracted profession as an government and producer at CBS Information.

Nevertheless, she was layered in February of this 12 months, with the Disney veteran OConnell tasked with merging ABC Information and the ABC TV stations enterprise. Godwin had signed a brand new deal to stay at ABC Information at the moment, although the restructuring restricted her authority considerably.

Her tenure had confronted some public challenges, maybe most notably the suspension and finally the firing of GMA3 co-hosts Amy Robach an TJ Holmes final 12 months. She had additionally been a goal of grumbling from employees, although few nationwide newsroom leaders have been spared from that in recent times.

On Saturday, the Nationwide Affiliation of Black Journalists launched a press release addressing a few of the studies, writing that “there appears to be an intentionality to quote nameless sources as Godwin’s detractors, coupled with the usage of derogatory or stereotypical phrases to explain her. In the meantime, these studies are completely ignoring sources and information that talk to Godwin having vital assist contained in the group.”

The NABJ added that it deliberate to fulfill with ABC and Disney executives to debate the matter.

Learn OConnell’s and Godwin’s memos under.

NOTE FROM DEBRA OCONNELL TO HER TEAM:

Group,

I needed to share Kim’s notice under. Dana and I want to take this chance to specific our deepest gratitude to Kim for her service as president of ABC Information. Kim has navigated this workforce via consequential instances in our world, and he or she did so with respect for the model and career – and for that and extra, we thank her.

Our fame and credibility are hard-earned, and we’d additionally prefer to acknowledge the extraordinary work you ship every day. Because the No. 1 information community for 12 consecutive seasons and counting, ABC Information is residence to the perfect within the enterprise. From morning via daytime, night and past, this workforce stands prepared 24/7 to serve our nation with the information, individuals and occasions that form our world.

In the intervening time, I’ll oversee ABC Information and I’m wanting ahead to working with the management workforce as we forge a brand new path ahead collectively. Thanks in your endurance and understanding via this era of transition. Since assuming this function in February, my objective has been – and can proceed to be – to offer this workforce with the means mandatory to construct on our success and keep on the proud custom of ABC Information right into a future stuffed with alternative and innovation.

In case you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to succeed in out to me or your senior leaders.

Thanks,

Debra

KIM GODWIN NOTE TO ABC NEWS:

Good night ABC Information,

Forty years in the past, I started my profession recent out of school as an keen and enthusiastic government producer at WTXL in Tallahassee, the place I used to be liable for the 6 and 11 p.m. information. The employees was so small, on busy information days, I needed to exit and report too. Little did I do know then what extraordinary alternatives lay earlier than me as I started to chart a path via a career the place only a few ladies – and even fewer ladies of coloration – had been in management roles. So, I understood and appreciated the profound significance of being the primary Black girl to guide a nationwide broadcast information community after I accepted the function as president of ABC Information a little bit over three years in the past. It’s each a privilege and a debt to those that chipped away on the ceiling earlier than me to guide a workforce whose model is synonymous with belief, integrity and a dogged willpower to be the perfect within the enterprise.

Now, 4 many years and numerous miles later, having labored in any respect three broadcast information networks and 10 native stations in 9 cities, I’ve come full circle from that small however mighty ABC affiliate in Florida’s panhandle. I’ve determined to retire from broadcast journalism. After matriculating via j-school at my beloved Florida A&M College, I’ve been lucky and blessed sufficient to have achieved nearly each job there may be on this enterprise, together with anchor, investigative reporter, information director, subject producer, community/particular occasions government producer and extra earlier than shifting on to the manager ranks. Anybody who’s captivated with what we do is aware of there’s no different enterprise prefer it, so this was not a straightforward or fast determination. However after appreciable reflection, I’m sure it’s the proper one for me as I look to the long run and prioritize what’s most vital for me and my household.

ABC Information was No. 1 after I joined the workforce and I’m proud to say we’re nonetheless No. 1 – an achievement that’s been punctuated in current months with the very best honors our career has to supply, from the Edward R. Murrow Award for General Excellence in Tv, to the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award for our groundbreaking “Energy of Water” sequence, to our first-ever Primetime Emmy Award nominations for “Fairly Child: Brooke Shields” and “Aftershock.” And simply final week, our Uvalde documentary, “Print It Black,” received Greatest Characteristic Documentary on the Dallas Worldwide Movie Pageant, the place it premiered. I’m notably pleased with our unprecedented Uvalde 365 venture, an unparalleled yearlong dedication to documenting the emotional journey of a group after a mass taking pictures.

In 2022, we had been all overjoyed to obtain 41 Emmy nominations, probably the most in 53 years. We now have the highest morning information present, daytime community present, night newscast and Friday information journal. We’re constantly No. 1 in all main dwell TV occasions, together with, most lately, “Eclipse Throughout America,” in partnership with Nat Geo. And our applications can often be discovered within the High 10 on Hulu.

Past awards and scores, our success is maybe finest measured within the individuals of ABC Information. That is an distinctive workforce doing distinctive work – collectively. You might be finest at school in each class, and it’s been nothing wanting superior to see you sort out task after task, delivering complete protection from around the globe to our viewers at a time when truthful reporting is crucial to the way forward for our nice nation.

We take pleasure in masking all communities and assembly our audiences the place and after they want us, and no endeavor higher exemplifies this than ABC Information Reside. After I began, it was the little streaming practice that would; now, due to your laborious work and dedication, it’s a giant practice that may – and does, on daily basis. Collectively, on Hulu final season, we launched “Affect X Nightline,” a weekly information journal whose episodes are often among the many most watched content material on the platform.

We must be particularly pleased with our success with ABC Information Studios, which we constructed from the bottom as much as develop into what’s now a premiere nonfiction and documentary studio, making greater than 120 hours of award-winning content material a 12 months. We additionally established the primary local weather unit among the many broadcast information networks. So many inventions and initiatives in what feels just like the blink of a watch. Collectively, we dedicated to a cultural shift, the place individuals might be their genuine selves, feeling seen and heard, whereas doing their finest work. For all these causes and extra, I depart ABC Information and this career with the sincerest sense of pleasure, accomplishment and gratitude. My coronary heart is stuffed.

I want to thank Dana Walden and Debra OConnell for at all times making certain we had the sources and assist to do our jobs. And at last, thanks ABC Information for the love, assist and inspiration. Through the years, a whole bunch of you’ve despatched emails, texts, and made cellphone calls which have lifted my coronary heart. On this consequential election 12 months, as we glance to the months forward, the significance of what we do can’t be overstated. Keep in mind, there may be pleasure in journalism.

I go away with my head held excessive and need all the workforce continued success.

#oneabcnews

In religion and favor,
Kim