Elizabeth Christopherson

Retiring NJN anchor Kent Manahan is expected to be named as Acting Executive Director of the New Jersey Network.

The New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority will hold a special meeting on Thursday to appoint retiring NJN news anchor Kent Manahan as the Acting Executive Director of the New Jersey Network.  Manahan would replace Elizabeth Christopherson, who announced last month that she was resigning after fourteen years. 

The Star Ledger got it right last April when it gave a thumb's-up to the NJN management plan to wean “the state's only public television station off the government dole” (Editorial 4/30/07).

The Ledger’s perspective – whose own management knows a little about diminishing revenue sources: “With Gov. Jon Corzine and legislators scouring the budget for savings on every line on every page, the NJN proposal should be embraced - wholeheartedly.”

The plan, championed by soon-to-be-ex NJN Executive Director Elizabeth Christopherson, proposed to transform NJN from a state licensed entity to a community licensed franchise.

At the time and more recently, some inside observers, off-the-record, claimed the station’s real management – the Governor and the legislature – do not have the political will to deal with the static from a unionized workforce.

Jim Hooker

State House Correspondent Jim Hooker will succeed Kent Manahan as anchor of NJN News effective January 2009, according to Michael Aron, interim director of NJN News and Public Affairs. 

“After careful deliberation and consultation, I am pleased to name Jim Hooker as anchor of NJN News Aron announced. “Jim is a seasoned journalist with deep background in the issues and politics of the state and credibility in the state capitol. He has represented NJN nationally and abroad, and at forums around the state. He brings weight and years of experience to the anchor chair. Jim also will be managing editor of the news and will be influential in the overall direction and tone of the newscast.”

“As NJN News State House correspondent, Jim Hooker brings two decades of award-winning reporting to build on the legacy that Kent Manahan has established as anchor,” said Elizabeth Christopherson, executive director of NJN Public Television and Radio. “We are delighted to recognize other members of the NJN award-winning team: Mike Curtis, the current producer of NJN News, who has been promoted to executive producer, and Peggy Micucci, assignment editor, who will be executive editor.”

In a surprise email message to all employees, Elizabeth Christopherson advised the NJN staff of her resignation as its longest-serving Executive Director, effective December 1, 2008.  

In the email released late Monday afternoon, Christopherson wrote:

“I wanted to call a staff meeting at this late hour to share the following news with you in person, but I know so many of you are getting ready for the news and working in preparation for tomorrow’s Election Day coverage.

So I am writing you this email because I want you to hear this news from me. I am scheduling a staff meeting on Wednesday at 2:30 PM., and will let you know where the meeting will be held.

It has been an extraordinary privilege to work with you at NJN and to have contributed to a mission so vital to our state. So it is with a heavy heart that I share with you that I will be resigning effective Monday, December 1, 2008.”

According to the Governor’s press secretary, Sean Darcy, the Governor was “surprised by the announcement.” Darcy stated the Governor did not ask for Christopherson’s resignation.

Steering NJN's ship away from rocky financial uncertainty won't be easy. In fact, it may not even be possible according to the some of the folks on deck.

"It's difficult to steer a ship if the crew is in mutiny," stated NJN's Interim News Director Michael Aron.

Aron was commenting on the NJN proposal to transition the station from a state-licensed entity to a community licensed broadcaster.  The audience and the mission of NJN would remain largely unchanged from the perspective of Elizabeth Cristopherson, NJN's executive director. However the station would no longer have to rely on diminishing state funding  (not to mention fickle politics)  to pay its way into the 21st century. 

Selecting the next NJN anchor will certainly be a different process than what happens at the major networks, local affiliates and other public community broadcast stations.

Aside from grappling with its talent loss - filling the shoes (um, heels) of Emmy award winning anchor Kent Manahan - NJN's anchor search will be hampered by deep cuts, budget uncertainty and buyout restrictions.

Of the handful of state employees at NJN who opted for the early retirement package, all but one -- if not all -- may have to be filled from the inside. By law, the early retirement provisions stipulate that only 1 in 10 buyout positions can be filled from outside the state payroll.

For some folks like Senior Political Correspondent Michael Aron and now interim News Director, that may mean wearing two hats for a lot longer.

Wearing that extra hat also means Aron will likely be at the center of deciding who will become the next NJN anchor.

According to Elizabeth Christopherson, NJN's Executive Director, "there is a firewall between management and our news room" in describing how the anchor selection will be a personnel decision for the News Director to make.

Despite all the recent downsizing news at The Record and Star Ledger, similar economic pressures at New Jersey's only statewide television station have virtually been ignored by the media. Aside from the headliner early retirements announced and the station's budget proposal to wean itself off state's coffers back in May, very little attention has been paid to the pressing financial predicament at NJN.

"We are at an urgent point in our history," emphasized NJN Executive Director Elizabeth Christopherson. "Being so lean for so many years makes you creative, but it is also like living on an oxygen tank. If you turned it off now, we will not be able to be sustainable."

The decision to pick Kent Manahan as the anchor of the New Jersey Network nightly news ultimately rests with the station's executive director, Elizabeth Christopherson.  While the Governor appoints members of the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority, staff decisions - like picking an anchorman - rests entirely with the Christopherson.  She will also name a new News Director to replace Bill Jobes, who is retiring at the end of the month.

Manahan, who has been with NJN for 31 years, makes about $125,000 a year.  That's the same salary as other senior NJN employees, including Christopherson (who may receive additional money as the head of the NJN foundation), and senior political correspondent Michael Aron.  Aron is not expected to be interested in the anchorman job.

One Democratic legislator, an unabashed supporter of public television and a self-described NJN news junkie, says that Executive Director Elizabeth Christopherson and her NJN development team showed poor judgment whenthey asked Anne Evans Estabrook to tape a public service announcement just as she was embarking on a race for the United States Senate.  The legislator, who says she is supporting Frank Lautenberg for re-election next year, suggested that the savvy Christopherson must have known that Estabrook was running for the Senate -- the first mention of Estabrook's candidacy on NJN News came two months before the PSA was taped -- and said that by placing fundraising first, Christopherson gives the impression that NJN is "willing to trade free air time for donations."

Questioning why the state needs to fund a public television station at all, Assemblyman Joseph Pennacchio wants the New Jersey Network to launch an internal investigation of their decision to feature Anne Evans Estabrook on a 60-second public service announcement that has aired about forty times over the last few months.

The Morris County Republican also says Estabrook should resign her position as a Trustee of the NJN Foundation while she is mulling a bid for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination. Pennacchio is also thinking about running.