Jennifer Siebens has been named vice president and London bureau chief for CBS News, Sean McManus announced today. The appointment is effective Sunday.

Siebens has been Los Angeles bureau chief since 1986. She is succeeding John Paxson, who has manned the London bureau since December 1997. He is retiring on Friday.

"Siebens will be responsible for CBS News' editorial and logistical coverage of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia," the press release says. Click continued to read her bio...


"In addition to overseeing CBS News’ editorial and logistical operation in the Western United States for the past 20 years, she also served as Paris bureau chief (1984-86) and has covered Latin America extensively. In Los Angeles, Siebens coordinated coverage of many big news events, including natural disasters (the 2003 California firestorms, the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill), major trials (Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson, Rodney King), the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the 1996 Republican and 2002 Democratic conventions.

While based in Paris, her assignments took her from North Africa to Scandinavia, including the first super power summit between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva. Prior to that, she was a producer for the CBS EVENING NEWS in New York (1979-83), where she covered civil strife in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala and Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands, among other news events. Siebens was a producer for the CBS MORNING NEWS (1978-79) after having joined CBS News as a weekend news producer in January 1976. Before that, she produced the 6:00 PM and 11:00 PM newscasts at WBAL-TV Baltimore (1974-75).

Siebens was a teaching assistant to Fred W. Friendly at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism (1973-74). She was born in Stuttgart, Germany. Siebens was graduated from Oberlin College in 1972 with a B.A. in French and from Columbia University in 1973 with a Masters in journalism. She has two daughters."