Brian Stelter Joins CNN, Will Anchor Reliable Sources



CNN has announced that Brian Stelter will join the network, anchor Reliable Sources, and serve as Senior Media Correspondent. Stelter, who currently writes for the New York Times, will leave the newspaper before the end of the month and anchor his first show of Reliable Sources on December 1, 2013. However, this will not be his first time hosting, as he has guest-anchored in the past as CNN searched for a new anchor.

News broke yesterday from the Los Angeles Times that CNN was in advanced negotiations with Brian Stelter to join the network. Stelter had widely been seen as the frontrunner for the position that Howard Kurtz vacated when he joined Fox News. However, he had said he would not leave the Times for a television job. Although that changed this morning when Stelter announced the move on Twitter.

The media insider website did ask what Stelter’s hiring meant for CNN’s media coverage because Stelter’s title is “Senior Media Correspondent.” CNN currently does not have any other media correspondents.

Read CNN’s press release below.

CNN has named The New York Times media industry reporter Brian Stelter host of Reliable Sources, the network’s weekly show that focuses on the top media stories and news analysis each Sunday at 11:00amET on CNN/U.S.  Stelter will also serve as a senior media correspondent for CNN Worldwide, reporting on trends, personalities, and companies across the media spectrum — from news to entertainment.  He will report daily on CNN/U.S., CNN International, CNN.com,CNNMoney.com, and across CNN’s vast mobile and social landscape, feeding and flowing into his show and creating a multiplatform, global media beat for CNN.

“Brian has emerged as one of the top media reporters in the country and will be a great addition to our many platforms,” said Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide.  “He grew up in the digital space, and has covered the media industry for his entire career.  Brian has a keen understanding of this field – as both a journalist covering the industry and as an innovator – first, by creating his own digital platform, and second, by also leveraging the countless ways information is disseminated to enhance his storytelling.  I’m thrilled to welcome him to CNN to this newly broadened role.”

Stelter will be joining CNN from The New York Times, where he has worked since 2007, and has covered television and digital media for the Media & Advertising and Arts sections of the newspaper and for the newspaper’s blog, Media Decoder.   In 2013, he published The New York Times best-selling book “Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV (2013),” about the competitive world of morning news shows.

“It is an honor to take the helm of Reliable Sources, the very best of a very small number of programs about the media’s role in society,” said Stelter.  “I’m equally excited about reporting throughout the week on CNN’s many digital platforms and television networks.  CNN is reimagining media coverage at what is the best time ever to be covering media, and I’m very happy to be a part of it.”

Stelter created TVNewser, a blog covering the television news industry, in 2004, while a college freshman at Towson University.  Six months later he sold TVNewser to Mediabistro.com, though he continued to edit and write for the blog for three additional years.  He joined The New York Times in 2007, after graduating from Towson with a degree in mass communications with a concentration in journalism.

About CNN’s Reliable Sources

CNN’s Reliable Sources is a weekly television program that takes a critical look at the media each Sunday at 11:00amET on CNN/U.S.  The topical discussions and guests on each show review print, digital, film, and broadcast media coverage of politics, sports, entertainment, and general news.  CNN launched Reliable Sourcesin 1992.

About CNN

CNN Worldwide is a portfolio of two dozen news and information services across cable, satellite, radio, wireless devices and the Internet in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. Domestically, CNN reaches more individuals on television, the web and mobile devices than any other cable TV news organization in the United States; internationally, CNN is the most widely distributed news channel reaching more than 271 million households abroad; and CNN Digital is a top network for online news, mobile news and social media. Additionally, CNN Newsource is the world’s most extensively utilized news service partnering with hundreds of local and international news organizations around the world. CNN is division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company.


About Tyler

Tyler is the chief media reporter for TKNN, with the news organization since its founding in November of 2010. He has previously served as chief political reporter and chief political anchor for TKNN.

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