Ms. O’Brian, a 30-year veteran of ABC, has overseen all news gathering for the network news division since 2007. A spokesman for Al Jazeera said Ms. O’Brian would have full responsibility for the new channel’s strategy and editorial operations.
Ms. O’Brian will report to Ehab Al Shihabi, Al Jazeera’s executive director for international operations, who has been overseeing the creation of the American channel in the absence of a president or senior leadership team. On Monday, he was named the interim chief executive, making him responsible for everything but the editorial decisions.
The continued involvement of Mr. Al Shihabi was expected, but the appointment of Ms. O’Brian is a surprise; her name was not mentioned in any of the speculation about who Al Jazeera might pick to run the American channel.
“Kate’s arrival speaks volumes about what we intend to do and how we intend to do it,” said Mostefa Souag, the acting director general of Al Jazeera, in a statement. “She is a highly experienced and award-winning journalist who fully understands what Americans want to see and hear when they watch the news.”
The announcement of Ms. O’Brian’s appointment follows a personnel search that began shortly after Al Jazeera acquired Current TV — the low-rated channel co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore. That acquisition, announced in January, provided Al Jazeera with something it had been seeking for years: access to tens of millions of American viewers.
Ms. O’Brian will inherit a mostly formed news organization, with hundreds of new employees in New York, Washington and elsewhere. Those employees have been producing practice newscasts and preparing stories that will be shown after the channel has its debut on Aug. 20.
The channel also has a partly formed programming schedule, centered on “America Tonight,” a nightly broadcast that Al Jazeera says will distinguish it from other news channels.
Ms. O’Brian said in a statement, “As I bring everything I learned to this new role, I’m looking forward to showing the Al Jazeera viewers that there is a strong demand for the type of in-depth reporting for which Al Jazeera is so well known.”
The channel also appointed three other TV news veterans to top posts on Monday. David Doss, a CNN veteran known for his work on Anderson Cooper’s prime-time program, was named senior vice president for news programming; Marcy McGinnis was named senior vice president of news gathering, a role similar to the one she held at CBS News for years; and Shannon High-Bassalik, formerly of CNN and MSNBC, was named senior vice president for documentaries and programs.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/business/media/new-leader-for-al-jazeera-america.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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