When Al Jazeera purchased Current TV, Time Warner Cable removed the channel from its lineup, citing the new ownership and the fact that they would be paying for a different product than the one they originally negotiated.

Now, it seems that Al Jazeera America may get another chance to launch in WTC households. The Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone reports that negotiations between the two companies are negotiating. There is no sure thing, but it certainly sounds as though AJAM may at some point return to the channel space it lost when Current was acquired.

Elsewhere, USA Today looks in-depth at AJAM’s launch, and asks whether American TV news viewers are interested in the product.

After Mike Viqueira was hired as White House correspondent for Al Jazeera’s new American television venture, the former NBC News veteran braced for a barrage of negative reaction on Twitter.

“I expected some comments from people unfamiliar with Al Jazeera,” Viqueira says. “Out of 300 comments I had on Twitter, there were maybe two that hinted at that.”

“That,” of course, refers to the lingering perception that Middle East-based Al Jazeera is anti-U.S. and a mouthpiece for terrorists, sentiments that took hold when it aired numerous Osama bin Laden videos in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and stories that were critical of the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq War. Indeed, for many Americans, the only encounter with the Al Jazeera brand came during those years.

Read more

The news that Al Jazeera America was hiring former NBC News anchor and correspondent John Seigenthaler took many in the business by surprise. Seigenthaler has been out of the public eye since leaving NBC in 2007, working as media consultant.

“I really didn’t have any intention of going back into journalism,” Seigenthaler tells TVNewser. “I was very happy with the consulting business that I had worked out with my family members.

Al Jazeera came to me and explained to me what they were doing, explained to me they were starting this new national news channel in the United States, and that they were opening 12 bureaus in the U.S., and they told me about their 70 bureaus worldwide, and their commitment to unbiased, serious reporting of the news and that they weren’t interested in the ratings,” he added. “As a journalist for 27 years, that is a dream come true.”

Jumping in he is. Later this month Seigenthaler will make his AJAM debut as the primetime news anchor, a big job for the nascent channel. Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done. When asked what his news program will look like, Seigenthaler laughs.

“I have been here for four days,” he says. “You know better than anyone, over the last five or six years, what we have seen is cutbacks, news organizations have cut back reporters and producers and editors, we have also seen a turn toward tabloid journalism. I think that Al Jazeera will be something very different than what you see on your traditional cable news channels or the networks on this country.”

Seigenthaler joins a “who’s who” list of journalists at AJAM, including former CNNers Ali Velshi and Soledad O’Brien, as well as veterans Joie Chen and Sheila MacVicar.

Read more

Al Jazeera America continues its string of big, splashy hires. The latest addition is former ‘NBC nightly News” weekend anchor John Seigenthaler, who will serve as the primetime news anchor.

Seiganthaler was an 11-year veteran of NBC News, reporting for all of its major programs and anchoring on NBC, CNBC and MSNBC. He reported on 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 London bombings and a slew of other stories for the company during those years.

He left NBC in not-so-positive terms in 2007, and became CEO of Seigenthaler Public Relations-NY.

“I’m proud to join a respected worldwide news organization that is committed to delivering high quality, objective and balanced investigative journalism,” Seigenthaler said in a statement. “While other networks and newspapers are cutting back, Aljazeera is growing. It’s exciting to be part of the launch of this unique cable news channel.”

Details below.
Read more

Al Jazeera America is adding more reporters to its ranks, this time building out new documentary and sports units. The docs unit will be led by Kathy Davidov as senior EP and Cynthia Kane as senior producer.  Davidov joins AJAM from Nat Geo Television, where she was executive VP of production, while Kane comes from ITVS.

AJAM’s sports unit will be helmed by Neal Scarbrough as senior EP and Jeff Green as EP. Scarbrough comes from Comcast, where he was VP of digital media for Versus (now NBC Sports Network), and previously served as the head of AOL’s sports unit. Green is a holdover from Current TV, where he was supervising producer of special events,. he was previously involved in the launch of the YES Network. AJAM will launch a weekly sports show by the end of the year, with a weekend sports program planned for 2014.

More on both units, below.
Read more

Al Jazeera America continues to staff up with abandon, announcing three new hires for “Real Money with Ali Velshi.” The new correspondents are Patricia Sabga, Stacey Tisdale and Duarte Geraldino, and all three will appear regularly on the daily half-hour newsmagazine.

Sabga is the former chief business news anchor for CNN Headline News, and is also a former CNN correspondent and NBC News foreign correspondent. Tisdale is the former financial correspondent for PBS “Need to Know,” and is former business correspondent for CBS News. Geraldino is a former analyst, and has contributed to Bloomberg TV, CBS News and American Public Media.

More information on all three below.

Meanwhile, Glenn Beck‘s TheBlaze is adding a White House correspondent. Fred Lucas, who had been the White House correspondent for CNSNews, will join TheBlaze in the same role, while Sara Carter joins as senior Washington correspondent. Video of Beck announcing the hires below.
Read more

Al Jazeera America launches in just a few weeks, and the channel is hard at work constructing new sets in New York City and Washington DC. NewsCastStudio has a mock-up of what the NYC space will look like.

“The main New York City studio features two desks, an editorial area and a large Eyevis projection wall,” the site reports.

You can see the mock-up to the left, and a picture of the set under construction here.

Al Jazeera America continues to staff up adding correspondents to report from 12 U.S. news bureaus.

Al Jazeera America will have correspondents in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

“It is critical for Al Jazeera America to have bureaus strategically placed throughout the U.S. so that we can cover the news from wherever it happens,” said Marcy McGinnis, Al Jazeera America’s senior vice-president of newsgathering. McGinnis says the correspondents will be tasked with reporting on “a wide range of local, state and regional stories within the context of what it means for the rest of the country.”

TVSpy reported yesterday that Allen Schauffler (above, second from left), the weekend anchor at NBC affiliate KING in Seattle for the last 20 years, will head up the Northwest bureau. The network is still looking for correspondents in New York and San Francisco. But here’s who else is joining:

Read more

Former ABC “Good Morning America” news anchor and senior correspondent Antonio Mora is joining Al Jazeera America to host a nightly current affairs talk show called “Consider This.”

“Consider This” will air weeknights on AJAM, and will feature newsmaker interviews, panel discussions and interactive segments where viewers can take part via social media.

“Antonio has enormous experience as a reporter, anchor and interviewer,” said Paul Eedle, Al Jazeera America’s deputy launch manager in charge of programs in a statement. ”His enquiring mind and warmth on screen will make ‘Consider This’ a home for smart conversation with a wide variety of people across the country,”

Mora was most recently and anchor for CBS4 in Miami. More below.
Read more

Al Jazeera America has named Joie Chen the anchor of its primetime newsmagazine, “America Tonight.” Chen is a CNN and CBS News veteran, and most recently worked as a media consultant in Washington DC. She left CBS News in 2008, as we reported at the time.

Before joining CBS Chen spent more than a decade at CNN and CNN International.

“I’m thrilled to create world-class journalism with some of the best in the business,” said Chen in a statement. “America Tonight will bring together the powerful and diverse voices of Al Jazeera America and stand out from other networks with its fearless, unbiased reporting,” she added.

Among the contributors to “America Tonight” will be Soledad O’Brien, as well as a number of correspondents AJAM recently added. It will air every weeknight at 9 PM, making it one of AJAM’s signature shows.

More below.
Read more

Al Jazeera America has filled one of the top two roles at the channel, as it adds ABC News veteran Kate O’Brian as its president. In her new role O’Brian will be responsible for leading AJAM’s newsgathering and programming. Even without a president, the channel has been staffing up and slating programs, so O’Brian will be joining a channel in progress.

AJAM is also on the market for a CEO, who will lead the channel’s business affairs. For the moment, the channel’s interim leader Ehab El-Shihabi will serve as CEO of AJAM. O’Brian will report to Al-Shihabi, and will eventually report to whomever gets the role full-time.

O’Brian’s hire was first reported by Brian Stelter in the NY Times.

AJAM also named CNN veteran David Doss senior VP for news programming, CBS News veteran Marcy McGinnis senior VP of newsgathering, and MSNBC veteran Shannon High-Bassalik as senior VP of documentaries and programs.

“While we will miss Kate’s insights, judgment and humor, we know that she is stepping into an important role and we wish her very best with this new challenge,” ABC News Ben Sherwood wrote in an email to ABC News staff today.

As TVNewser reported earlier this month, the channel will launch on August 20.

Sherwood’s note, and AJAM’s announcement, below.
Read more