Award-Winning News Producer Sara Just Named New “PBS NewsHour” Executive Producer

ARLINGTON, VA — WETA President and Chief Executive Officer Sharon Percy Rockefeller announced today the selection of Sara Just as Executive Producer of PBS NewsHour and Senior Vice President of NewsHour Productions LLC.  Currently the Washington Deputy Bureau Chief at ABC News, Just will join PBS NewsHour on September 2. She will oversee the daily operations of the nightly news program, which is co-anchored by Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff and is available nationwide on more than 300 PBS stations, on public radio in select markets, and on digital content platforms.

Just will report to Rick Schneider, President of NewsHour Productions LLC and Chief Operating Officer of WETA. Working closely with Rockefeller and Schneider, Just will set the strategic direction for the award-winning news show.

“We are delighted that Sara Just will be joining our WETA NewsHour team,” said Rockefeller. “An enormously accomplished, acclaimed journalist, Sara brings a tremendous depth of experience to NewsHour that encompasses management, broadcast production and digital expertise. Under Sara’s dynamic leadership, PBS NewsHour will reach new heights of excellence as we report the news each day, on the air and online, with the high standards the public expects and deserves.”

“I look forward to leading the PBS NewsHour, a cherished and trusted brand for journalism. I am honored to play a role in its journalistic legacy and bring that to the next generation as well,” said Just. “There is an ever-growing audience hungry for thoughtful, in-depth reporting and PBS NewsHour will continue to be an essential guide for understanding our complex world. We will create vital, engaging content for all audiences — on any platform or device.”

Just will come to WETA after more than 25 years at ABC News. Most recently, she served as ABC’s Washington Deputy Bureau Chief and Senior Washington Producer for Good Morning America. She previously spent 17 years at Ted Koppel’s Nightline, where she worked on a wide variety of award-winning foreign, domestic and political stories as well as an array of arts pieces and features. Just moved to ABC’s Digital department in 2006 and led ABCNews.com’s political coverage over two presidential campaigns. She also supervised the development of political online products and partnerships, bridged digital and television coverage out of Washington and launched the heralded ABC News-Yahoo News video series, Power Players. Just is the recipient of nine Emmy Awards, two duPont Silver Batons, two Peabody Awards and an RFK Journalism Award, and she is a three-time Webby Official Honoree.

Just will succeed Linda Winslow. Following a transition period, Winslow will retire after more than nine years as Executive Producer. A key member of the NewsHour management team, Winslow’s history with the program dates back to public broadcasting’s seminal coverage of the Watergate hearings and the original production of the show. Under Winslow’s tenure as Executive Producer, PBS NewsHour has grown into a multiplatform newsroom, and she has won numerous distinguished journalism awards for her work on the program.

In July 2014, WETA assumed management and control for PBS NewsHour, with the formation of NewsHour Productions LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of WETA. This transition followed the retirements of the program’s original founders, managing editors and co-anchors, Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil, who established the commitment to excellence in journalism that guides PBS NewsHour to this day.

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About PBS NewsHour

For more than 35 years, millions of Americans and citizens of the world have turned to PBS NewsHour for the solid, reliable reporting that has made it one of the most trusted news programs in television. PBS NewsHour is seen by over four million weekly viewers and is also available online, via public radio in select markets, and via podcast. PBS NewsHour is a production of NewsHour Productions LLC, a wholly-owned non-profit subsidiary of WETA Washington, D.C., in association with WNET in New York. Major funding for PBS NewsHour is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS and public television viewers. Major corporate funding is provided by BAE Systems, BNSF and Charles Schwab with additional support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Friends of the NewsHour and others. More information on PBS NewsHour is available at www.pbs.org/newshour. On social media, visit www.facebook.com/newshour on Facebook or follow @NewsHour on Twitter.

About WETA Washington, D.C.

WETA Washington, D.C., is one of the largest producing stations of new content for public television in the United States. WETA productions and co-productions include PBS NewsHour, Washington Week with Gwen Ifill, The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize, In Performance at the White House and documentaries by filmmaker Ken Burns, including the premiere this September 14-20 of The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. More information on WETA and its programs and services is available at www.weta.org. On social media, visit www.facebook.com/wetatvfm on Facebook or follow @WETAtvfm on Twitter.