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Key links:
Primary website:
newshour.pbs.org
Primary Twitter:
@NewsHour

PBS NewsHour is an hour-long nightly television news program known for its sober, in-depth reporting.

The program is produced by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions in the studios of WETA in Arlington, Va. PBS distributes the program on more than 300 member stations nationwide. It ran on a $27 million annual budget as of 2011.

The NewsHour was created in 1975 as The Robert MacNeil Report and later became The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour to include the program’s co-host, Jim Lehrer. In 1995, after MacNeil retired, the program was renamed to The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer. In late 2009, the program underwent an overhaul and renamed itself again, to PBS NewsHour.

The 2009 changes included a merger of the show’s television and online staff and a revamped website with more blogs and social media involvement. An anchor rotation was added to the nightly broadcasts, removing Lehrer as the sole anchor. Former CBS and ABC News reporter Hari Sreenivasan was hired as the program’s first “online and on-air correspondent.” The program also formed an international reporting partnership with the online startup GlobalPost. In announcing the changes, Lehrer reiterated the show’s guiding principles, saying they would remain unchanged.

The NewsHour was reported in 2013 to be considering producing a weekend edition for the first time. The edition would be based in New York rather than Arlington and would be funded by the New York public television station WNET.

The program launched a free iPhone app in 2010, which includes news articles, video, and headlines from other public media outlets. NewsHour content is also available in PBS’ iPhone and iPad apps.

The NewsHour is funded primarily by corporate underwriters, which are clearly identified on its website, as well as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and membership dues from local PBS stations. The program has faced a severe funding shortfall in recent years, precipitated by the loss of a major corporate sponsor. As of 2013, it had just one corporate underwriter, BNSF Railway.

The NewsHour has crowdsourced the translation of its political videos into more than 50 languages through its viewers.

Lehrer announced he would retire from anchoring in June 2011, having hosted some 8,000 broadcasts and moderated 11 presidential debates over 36 years. His was the longest run of an national news anchor.

Other well-known NewsHour personalities include senior correspondents Gwen Ifill, Ray Suarez, Judy Woodruff, Margaret Warner, and Jeffrey Brown.

Recent Nieman Lab coverage:
Oct. 12, 2012 / Adrienne LaFrance
For politically playful news orgs, the 2012 election means social interactivity — Media companies experiment with creating elections tools for social engagement. ...
Aug. 29, 2012 / Adrienne LaFrance
PBS NewsHour’s viewers are translating its videos into 52 languages (and counting) — The challenge: Find a way to tell the world these translations are out there....
June 3, 2011 / Mark Coddington
This Week in Review: The Times’ changing of the guard, the news article’s future, and PBS is attacked — Every Friday, Mark Coddington sums up the week's top stories about the future of news. This week: Jill Abramson takes over at The New York Times; a debate over the merits of a news article in an age of tweets; PBS gets h...
March 15, 2011 / Justin Ellis
News portal, super aggregator, and curator: new plans for PBSNews.org — PBS finds itself with what could be the definition of a "good" problem. Here's the scenario: Under the PBS umbrella you'll find news shows like PBS Newshour, Frontline, and Nightly Business Report, among others, all prod...
Sept. 10, 2010 / Jon Sawyer
Jon Sawyer on what the Pulitzer Center has learned about angel investing in international journalism — [Our sister publication Nieman Reports is out with its latest issue, which focuses on the current state of international reporting. There are lots of interesting articles — check out the whole issue — but we're highl...

Recently around the web, from Mediagazer:

Primary author: Andrew Phelps. Main text last updated: March 7, 2013.
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