"Mark Whitaker is ready for his third act," Marketwatch's Jon Friedman writes.

The new NBC News #2 is eager to try something different: "I loved being editor of Newsweek, and I realized how much I missed the news. It's exciting to be learning something really new and challenging. I turn 50 in the fall. I'm just young enough to have an interesting, fulfilling next chapter."

He says he'll consider his time at NBC a success when "people will feel that NBC is hot and it's on a roll..."