CNN managing editor Mark Whitaker quitting

ABC News anchor Chris Cuomo defects to CNN

1/29/2013
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK  — With Jeff Zucker taking over at CNN, the network's managing editor says he is quitting. But the company is adding ABC  News "20/20" anchor Chris Cuomo to the staff.

Mark Whitaker is a former Newsweek editor who also worked at NBC. He said in a memo to the staff today that with a new leader who has his own “forceful ideas,” he thought it best to step aside.

CNN says Zucker will take over Whitaker's role overseeing the editorial content of CNN. There will not be a new managing editor.

Whitaker joined CNN in 2011 as executive vice president and managing editor, responsible for editorial content. Prior to that, he was the Washington bureau chief for NBC News.

Chris Cuomo is leaving the ABC for CNN, where he is expected to host a new morning show.

The news came today from his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as he spoke on a radio show.

It's the second high-profile defection from ABC to CNN in a little more than a month as new CNN boss Jeff Zucker works on building a new team. Jake Tapper left ABC at the end of December, and he's developing his own evening show for CNN.

Cuomo was the newsreader at ABC's “Good Morning America” for several years, but he was passed over for a bigger role on the network's top-rated morning show.