Mr. Kurtz asked his panelists if they thought Mr. Westin was pushed or nudged out of his job by Walt Disney president Bob Iger. Did they have a falling out over Christiane Amanpour? Maybe, but in any case, the future of news has a lot of Skype interviews and that's not really Mr. Westin's style.

Mr. Westin wrote that he was leaving to pursue other professional opportunities. "I've always admired those few who know when it's time to move on. This is the right time for me," he wrote.

The New York Times' Bill Carter reported Monday that there were also financial pressures behind the move. In February ABC News shed nearly 400 jobs and, according to Mr. Carter, there is still pressure on Mr. Westin to increase the division's profit margins.

"I won't pretend that all of this will be easy," Mr. Westin wrote to his staff when announcing changes to the division, including buyouts, in the spring. "But I do truly believe that it will be good for ABC News. I believe in this institution. I believe in its mission and in its future."

Following the announcement, Mr. Westin told The Observer that the cuts were affecting every level of the company.

"I'm never going to talk about any individuals' salaries, because it wouldn't be fair," Mr. Westin said. "But I can tell you without reservation, we've been addressing that for a few years now, quietly behind the scenes. The economic reality has effected everyone's compensation."

In the last year Mr. Westin oversaw the transition of George Stephanopoulos to Good Morning America, Christiane Amanpour to This Week and Diane Sawyer to World News Tonight.

Mr. Westin told The Observer that he had full confidence in Mr. Stephanopoulos and his GMA team going into the spring.

“I’m hopeful that if you talk to me in six months or a year that the audience will have responded,” said Mr. Westin. “This is way early going. But the way I look at it, we are in better shape than I would have predicted at this point.”

Network president Anne Sweeney has arranged for Mr. Westin to stay on through the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition. Mr. Westin is expected to address the staff today.

"Topics include everything from Tiger Woods, to Apple’s iPad," an ABC News blog announced today. "Each topics page showcases ABCNews.com reporting at the top and partner content just below with an emphasis on related topics and photos."

According to a blog post from Daylife, ABC News will now be pulling in material from "over 8,000 of the web’s best mainstream and blog sources."

The news of the aggregation agreement comes at a time when ABC News is shedding a hefty portion of its editorial staff in an ongoing round of severe cutbacks.

Today, Mr. Westin, the president of ABC News, officially announced that the network had hired Christiane Amanpour as the new anchor of the Sunday public affairs program, This Week.

The high-profile D.C. gig has been vacant since the fall when George Stephanopoulos replaced Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America.

During the intervening months, speculation has been rampant about who would fill the job made famous by David Brinkley. Along the way, everyone from Jake Tapper to Terry Moran to Jonathan Karl to Barbara Walters to Elizabeth Vargas to Matthew Dowd have taken turns filling in.

In the end, past was precedent and Mr. Westin bypassed the young up-and-comers, such as Mr. Tapper, in favor of a more established star, CNN's Ms. Amanpour.

In a note to staff today, Mr. Westin announced that Mr. Tapper would serve as the interim host until August, when Ms. Amanpour would take over.

"Christiane will join us from CNN where, for two decades she has reported from the world's major conflicts, including those in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Rwanda, and the Balkans," wrote Mr. Westin. "She has received every major broadcast journalism award.  A formidable interviewer, she has sat down in global exclusives with many of the world's leaders and military chiefs from the Middle East, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan to Africa, Europe and the United States."

Just as Mr. Stephanopoulos' appointment to GMA raised questions about his suitability for morning television, Ms. Amanpour's appointment to This Week is sure to raise questions about her suitability to the beltway-centric position after building a career based largely on reporting from overseas.

In his note to staff, Mr. Westin suggested that This Week would tweak its format once Ms. Amanpour comes on board. "With Christiane we have the opportunity to provide our audiences with something different on Sunday mornings," he wrote. "We will continue to provide the best in interviews and analysis about domestic politics and policies.  But now we will add to that an international perspective."

Whether that's a smart strategy for, at last, catching up with perennial Sunday morning ratings champ Meet the Press remains to be seen.

"Our programs are stronger today than they were ten years ago," wrote Mr. Westin.

Ten years ago, Peter Jennings was still the anchor of World News. Ted Koppel was still at the helm at Nightline. And broadcast TV was still largely unchallenged by cable news and the Internet.

Are the ratings for ABC News programs actually better in 2010 than in 2000?

We took a look.

After some digging, we came up with season averages (October 1999 to September 2000) from ten years ago based on Nielsen data for each of the major shows on ABC News. So based on the 25-54 year old demographic on which news divisions sell ads is ABC News, in fact, doing better than a decade ago?

The short answer: no.

Here's a snapshot of the relevant data based on comparisons with the most recent available weekly averages in the 25-54 demo:

World News, season average 1999-2000: 3,450,000
World News, average, week of 2/15/10: 2,270,000
Down 34.3 percent

Good Morning America, season average 1999-2000: 1,990,000
Good Morning America, average, week of 2/08/10: 2,120,000
Up 6.5 percent

Nightline, season average 1999-2000: 2,250,000
Nightline, average, week of 2/08/10: 1,890,000
Down 16.0 percent

This Week, season average 1999-2000: 1,020,000
This Week, average, week of 2/08/10: 797,000
Down 21.9 percent

This afternoon, ABC News President David Westin sent out the following memo to staffers:

Over the past several years, we've seen a lot of changes -- changes at ABC News and in the news industry overall. I'm proud of the way we've responded both to unexpected transitions in our programs and to the economic realities of our business. We've adapted quickly and effectively and - above all - put our audiences first. Our programs are stronger today than they were ten years ago. This is a credit first and foremost to the men and women at ABC News.

But all of us are good reporters. We can see that our entire society is in the middle of a revolution -- a revolution in the ways that people get their news and information. The digital age makes our business more competitive than ever before. It also presents us with opportunities we couldn't have imagined to gather, produce, and distribute the news. We can have great success in the new world - but only if we embrace what is new, rather than being overwhelmed by it.

The time has come to anticipate change, rather than respond to it. We have a rare opportunity to get in front of what's coming, to ensure that ABC News has a sound journalistic and financial footing for many years to come, and to serve our audiences even better. But we must move boldly and promptly. In the past, we've sought out less expensive ways to replicate what we've always done. The time has come to re-think how we do what we are doing.

To that end, we anticipate that between now and the end of the year ABC News will undergo a fundamental transformation that will ultimately affect every corner of the enterprise. We will be guided by one central principle: In everything, we will ensure that we put our audiences first - providing them with first-rate journalism covering the things that matter the most to them in ways no one else does. And, we will do it with a business model that ensures we will be here for our audiences for many years to come.

The transformation will have six basic components:

1. In newsgathering, we intend to dramatically expand our use of digital journalists. We have proven that this model works at various locations around the world. We believe we can take it much further;

2. In production, we will take the example set by Nightline of editorial staff who shoot and edit their own material and follow it throughout all of our programs, while recognizing that we will continue to rely upon our ENG crews and editors for most of our work;

3. In structure, we will combine our weekday and weekend operations for both Good Morning America and World News;

4. In special events, we will rely upon our program staff through the day and night to cover unexpected events and marshal personnel from across the division to cover scheduled events;

5. In newsmagazines and long-form programming, we will move to a more flexible blend of staff and freelancers so that we can respond to varying demand for hours through the year; and

6. Overall, we will eliminate redundancies wherever possible.

An essential part of this intended transformation will be extensive training in the new technology - whether in the field or in-house. This is an extension of the digital bullpen training we've undertaken already, but it will be on a scale that we have not seen before. This training program and changes it will make possible in all of our operations will make ABC News the place to work in the digital age. We won't just be preparing people for the new world; we will be living in it.

When we are finished, many job descriptions will be different, different skill sets may be required, and, yes, we will likely have substantially fewer people on staff at ABC News. To ease the transition, we are offering a voluntary separation package to all full-time, U.S.-based, non-union, non-contract employees. Information and details of the program will be sent to your home address in the next few days. The response to this voluntary program will determine the extent to which we will need to make further reductions. I encourage everyone to talk with their supervisor if they have any questions.

Any voluntary separation offers for union-represented employees will be in accordance with our obligations under the applicable labor agreement. Whatever changes we make overseas will be done in compliance with local laws and, where required, include management consultation in advance.

Throughout this process, I will keep you informed of where we are and where we are going with the transformation. Tomorrow, I will discuss this on the 9:30 call, and we will be holding meetings with various groups of staff in New York. Kate O'Brian and I will be in Washington next week to explain what we are planning in person and to take questions. Either Kate or David Reiter will be travelling to the bureaus in the coming days to do the same.

I won't pretend that all of this will be easy. But I do truly believe that it will be good for ABC News. I believe in this institution. I believe in its mission and in its future. As always, I will need your help in making sure that we are as strong as we can be for many years to come.

Thank you.

So what do you do when one of your reporters actually falls in love with a top administration member?

Earlier this year, Bianna Golodryga, a lissome 31-year-old financial reporter for ABC News, attended that reliable magnet for trouble that is the White House Correspondents Dinner in D.C., where she sat next to Peter Orszag, the 41-year-old, suspiciously hairlined head of the Office of Management and Budget and a top economic adviser to the president. Soon, they were dating. When things eventually got serious, Ms. Golodryga informed her bosses of the budding romance. According to ABC News spokesperson Jeffrey Schneider, ABC News executives, including president David Westin and standards chief Kerry Smith, immediately huddled up to discuss the development, decided there was no drastic cause for concern and agreed to keep an eye on the situation. Months passed, and eventually, on Dec. 29, the network seemingly put its seal of approval on the relationship when Ms. Golodryga appeared on Good Morning America and announced her engagement to Mr. Orszag.

The announcement, in turn, touched off a series of articles about Mr. Orszag’s previous love life (convoluted by D.C. standards!) and grumblings here and there that ABC had a conflict of interest. Since joining ABC News from CNBC in 2007, Ms. Golodryga has covered a wide range of financial issues, including certain topics, went the theory, such as government job reports and housing numbers that are regularly used to gauge the relative success or failure of the president’s economic policies—policies that, since January of this year, have been shaped in part by Ms. Golodryga’s fiancé.

Would ABC reassign Ms. Golodryga?

Short answer: no. According to ABC’s Mr. Schneider, Ms. Golodryga will continue to cover economic issues in New York. “We are certainly hyper-aware that there could be the perception of a conflict of interest,” said Mr. Schneider. “It is something that our executives and producers are all aware of. Bianna would be the first person to turn down an assignment if there was potential for any conflict.

“Broadcast journalism is a very collaborative process,” he added. “Bianna is never in the position of being the sole editor of the work that goes on here. There are many checks in place. And our standards-and-practices senior vice president pays close attention. We have plenty of aggressive reporters covering the administration, covering the budget. We hired Bianna because of her expertise in financial reporting.”

And so, here comes Ted Koppel. Maybe.

Politico reports that Mr. Koppel--who friends say would prefer to be secretary of state--is in talks with ABC News President David Westin about taking over for George Stephanopoulos on This Week.

It makes sense. Mr. Koppel isn't doing much these days, and Mr. Westin likes a big name. And it's not mutually exclusive with one of ABC's other reporters--cough, Jake Tapper, Terry Moran--eventually taking over. After all, NBC used Tom Brokaw for a spell in the wake of Tim Russert's death.

Of course, it may not be happening at all. As Steve Krakauer at Mediaite notes, the story's already changed several times. And a response like this, from Mr. Westin, doesn't inspire tremendous confidence:

I will pull back the veil to the limited degree of telling you - for the benefit of your readers - that just about every specific that you have is false.

In 2009, not so much.

Today, yet another bricks-and-mortar media bibliothèque fell victim to the digital age.

This afternoon, in an email to his staff, David Westin, the president of ABC News, announced that ABC News will be converting its existing research library on the second floor of its 47th street building into a smaller, more cyber-focused "Digital Research Facility."

"Our extensive, hard copy library filled with periodicals and other materials is no longer necessary in the digital age," wrote Mr. Westin. "The time has come to re-shape that library to reflect today’s world."

Back in October of 2008, Mr. Westin sent out a memo to staff, announcing a series of cost-saving maneuvers, including the cancellation of all print subscriptions for magazines and newspapers. Today's announcement would seem to further move the news organization beyond the printed word.

"You will continue to receive the same exceptional service as you have in the past," he added. "But we’re developing, with an outside research consultant, a state of the art research system tailored to our particular needs.  When this new system is completed, you will be able to get the information you need and conduct your own searches from your desktop."

Mr. Westin went on to inform his newsroom that the changes will result in a "reduced staff" but that some of the current library staff would be staying on through the transition and "perhaps beyond."

"Once we’re through the transition, we will be donating our current hard copy periodicals to a library in need," he added. "These materials have served us well, and we hope they will do the same for a deserving community."