The announcement, made on the “Today” show on Tuesday morning, is a significant moment in Ms. Shriver’s move away from political life. Ms. Shriver, a member of the Kennedy family, was the first lady of California while her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was governor from 2003 to 2011. She and Mr. Schwarzenegger separated in 2011 after he admitted that he had fathered a child with a member of their household staff a decade earlier.
Until Mr. Schwarzenegger ran for governor, Ms. Shriver was a familiar face on NBC as a correspondent on the network newsmagazine “Dateline.” Her formal homecoming was foreshadowed last month when she contributed to NBC’s coverage of the selection of the new pope.
“Through her reports, her books, her events, her activism and the powerful social community that she has built, Maria Shriver has become a leading voice for empowering women and inspiring all of us to be architects of change in our lives,” said Pat Fili-Krushel, the NBCUniversal News Group chairwoman, in a statement on Tuesday. “We are delighted that Maria will play such a key role in our efforts to examine this important topic, and all of us at the NBC family are excited to welcome her home.”
In Ms. Shriver’s new role, she will not appear regularly on any one NBC program, but will be on a variety of them and will produce and anchor prime-time special reports. Her appearances will not be limited to NBC’s network news programs; they could also come on the cable channels MSNBC and CNBC and on the company’s sports shows. Her other title will be editor at large for women’s issues for the Web sites owned by NBC News, indicating that she will contribute to those as well.
Responding to questions via e-mail on Tuesday, Ms. Shriver said she worked with Ms. Fili-Krushel “and the NBC News team to create a new role that supported the work I’ve been doing and allowed me to take it all forward.”
NBC briefly partnered with Ms. Shriver in 2009 when she published a study titled “The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything,” about the increase of women in the workplace and its effects. When the next such report is released next year, NBC will have “exclusive broadcast access” to it, the network said in a news release.
Ms. Shriver will remain in Los Angeles, and she said that she would not give up any of her outside work.
While the NBC positions are not full time, Ms. Shriver said, “knowing me and my love of reporting, I imagine it will fully occupy my mind.”
She added: “I see it as a partnership that will evolve over time and give me an ongoing outlet for many of the stories I want to tell. Like so many women, I’m trying to craft a life that allows me to do meaningful work and keep a focus on my family, which will always be my No. 1 job.”
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/business/media/maria-shriver-to-return-to-nbc-news.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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