NBC, the broadcast network, yesterday named the former editor of Newsweek magazine, Mark Whitaker, as senior vice president for news, a job that will make him the No. 2 executive in the network’s news division.
Mr. Whitaker, who worked at Newsweek for 25 years, will assume oversight of NBC’s daily editorial and newsgathering work under the president of the division, Steve Capus.
NBC executives said no one had been performing Mr. Whitaker’s assignment on a full-time basis since Bill Wheatley left two years ago.
Mr. Whitaker was the top editor at Newsweek from 1998 to 2006. More recently he served as vice president and editor in chief of new ventures at the Washington Post-Newsweek company’s interactive division. He also served as president of the American Society of Magazine Editors from 2004 to 2006.
In a telephone interview yesterday Mr. Whitaker acknowledged that he has no previous experience on the television side of journalism, other than supervising NBC’s use of Newsweek correspondents on many of its news programs.
“I had lots of dealings with NBC News in the course of placing our people on TV for them,” Mr. Whitaker said. “But the TV part of the job will be new for me….”
[Via NY Times]