Photo: David Muir/ABC News

ABC News lost one of its own on Sunday, as veteran audio engineer Trevor Barker passed away at age 59. Barker, based in South Africa, worked with Peter Jennings, Diane Sawyer, David Wright, Terry Moran and David Muir, among many others over his career at ABC.

Barker traveled the world for the network, covering genocide and revolution in Africa, to the election of the new Pope just earlier this year.

“I first met him in Jabul Saraj, Afghanistan, in 2001 when he joined me in the long wait for Kabul to fall,” said Wright, who worked with Barker last March in Rome for the election of Pope Francis, in a statement. “Even then, he was like Crocodile Dundee with a sound kit, a grizzled veteran who with good humor and steady nerves made tough experiences easier on novice war correspondents like me.”

You can see an ABC News video tribute to Barker here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

As the fire raged, a driver pulled out his camera phone and began recording. He wasn’t expecting what happened next. After the explosion shakes his vehicle, you hear screams and then his daughter: “Dad, I can’t hear. I can’t hear. Please get out of here.” Watch here.

An eyewitness told DallasNews.com “It was a small fire and then water sprayed the ammonia nitrate, and it exploded just like the Oklahoma City bomb.” The 18th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing is tomorrow. In fact, this part of Texas was in the news 20 years ago this week, when the final siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco began, resulting in the deaths of 76 people. West, TX is about 20 miles north of Waco.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Brian Williams will anchor “NBC Nightly News” from Boston tonight.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

All three evening newscasts were expanded Monday after a pair of explosions killed at least two people at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

The newscasts began shortly after President Obama addressed the nation from the White House press briefing room at 6:10pmET. NBC’s Brian Williams, ABC’s Diane Sawyer and CBS’ Scott Pelley had been anchoring coverage on their respective networks since the news broke shortly after 3pmET. ABC News and NBC News took brief breaks from their respective special reports just before the official start of the evening newscasts at 6:30pmET.

CBS News had Terrell Brown reporting from the scene and Don Dahler reporting from Massachusetts General Hospital. At the beginning of “Evening News,” correspondent John Miller took a few minutes to “clarify all these reports we’re seeing about a suspect in the media.” Saying he wanted to “proceed very carefully from here on out,” Miller reported that the person who was detained is a Saudi national who was seen running from the scene. “That may mean a lot, that may mean nothing at all,” Miller cautioned, noting that many people were running away from the blasts.

On NBC News, Williams was joined by Katy Tur in Boston, Chuck Todd from Washington D.C. and Pete Williams on the Boston police investigation. Williams interviewed an eyewitness, Serdar Ozturk, who saw the explosion from the finish line. “People’s faces instantly changed from smile to tears, and fear,” he told Williams. “People started running for their lives.”

ABC News had reports from senior national correspondent Jim Avila, senior Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas and Linsey Davis from the scene. Sawyer also checked in with Alex Perez in Chicago and Cecelia Vega in Los Angeles about security precautions in place in those two cities. “World News” ended with a montage of still photos from the scene. “We thank you so much for watching tonight,” Sawyer said. “Boston, as you know, is one of America’s great cities, filled with resilience and spirit. So on this day, when something terrible happened, we wanted to remind you of all those who rushed to help.”

All three networks have more extended coverage planned. Williams will anchor a special report at 10pmET on NBC, Terry Moran will anchor “Nightline” live at 12:35amET on ABC, and Pelley remained on the air with “Evening News” through 8pmET.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The cable news networks pivoted to breaking news in Massachusetts shortly after 3pmET Monday afternoon as two explosions went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Fox News was the first cable news network to report the news at 3:06:18 p.m., followed just seconds later by CNN at 3:06:53 p.m. MSNBC reported the news at 3:08:45 p.m. All three cable news networks were several minutes minutes behind the first reports of the explosions on Twitter.

Fox News and CNN are relying on live pictures from Boston local stations. MSNBC has video from New England Cable News, which is owned and operated by NBC Universal.

> More: The broadcast networks also broke in with news of the explosions. CBS News was first at 3:10pmET, followed by ABC News and NBC News at 3:13 p.m. Scott Pelley is anchoring on CBS, Brian Williams on NBC and Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos on ABC.

> More: Matt Frucci, the incoming executive producer of CNN’s new morning show, is doing eyewitness reports from the scene for the network. Wolf Blitzer is anchoring. And on Fox News, Shepard Smith is talking with WGBH’s Emily Rooney, former network executive and daughter of Andy Rooney.

> More: Anderson Cooper is on his way to Boston and will anchor at 8pmET and 10pmET.

> More: Here’s affiliate video of one of the explosions, as seen on CNN:

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker wins for journalistic excellence.  The awards will be presented at the annual dinner April 27. Fox News White House correspondent Ed Henry is the current president of the WHCA. This is the fourth year in a row the WHCA has honored an ABC correspondent. Jake Tapper won it the last three years. Tapper is now with CNN.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Pope Francis marked the start of his papacy with an inaugural mass at the Vatican this morning. The cable and broadcast networks that had special reports anchored coverage of the event, which began around 4:30amET, from New York.

CNN covered the mass during an expanded version of “Early Start,” with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin anchoring beginning at 3:30amET. Fox News’ special report, anchored by Shepard Smith, began at 4:20amET. Chris Jansing anchored on MSNBC beginning at 4:30amET.

On the broadcast networks, ABC’s Terry Moran anchored beginning at 3:51amET. Cecilia Vega and Ron Claiborne reported from Vatican City. On NBC, Savannah Guthrie anchored beginning at 4:31amET, with Keir Simmons in Vatican City. CBS News did not air a special report, but correspondent Vinita Nair did live shots from St. Peter’s Square for the network’s affiliates during the inaugural mass. CBS also streamed the ceremony live on its website.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

On hiring talented people:

“I think it’s a lot intuitive, but there are a lot of mistakes. After all, I deserve to do community services. I am the person who brought Nancy Grace to television.”

He also shared this funny anecdote about Cynthia McFadden and Terry Moran, both now on ABC’s “Nightline.”
continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

ABC’s Diane Sawyer will broadcast “World News” from the Vatican beginning this evening. Sawyer is joined in Rome by Terry Moran, Josh Elliott, David Wright, Cokie Roberts, Rob Claiborne and Cecilia Vega. The network plans to broadcast special reports for the cardinals’ twice-daily votes.

CBS’ Scott Pelley will also be live from Vatican City starting today. Norah O’Donnell and Charlie Rose will host “CBS This Morning” live from Vatican City, with CBS News correspondents Allen Pizzey and Mark Phillips contributing to coverage.

Chris Jansing and Lester Holt will lead coverage for NBC News and MSNBC from Rome.  Anne Thompson, Keir Simmons, Claudio Lavangna and George Weigel will also contribute to NBC-MSNBC coverage. Both networks will provide special reports for the cardinals votes. Jansing and Holt also led coverage of the last papal conclave in 2005, which Jansing talks about in a lengthy Q&A with Inside Cable News.

On Fox News, Shepard Smith will anchor from Rome. He will be joined by correspondents Amy Kellogg and Lauren Green to cover the conclave. Bryan Llenas will be reporting for Fox News Latino.

Chris Cuomo and Anderson Cooper will lead CNN’s coverage from Rome. Ben Wedeman, Miguel Marquez, Dan Rivers and Becky Anderson will report, along with CNN en Español’s Adriana Hauser and Jose Levy. CNN Vatican analyst John Allen will also contribute to coverage.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

George Stephanopoulos and Terry Moran will lead the network’s coverage of the Pope’s departure, anchoring “Good Morning America” from the Vatican on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as two special reports Thursday morning. Moran will anchor “Nightline” from Rome on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as contribute to the network’s coverage. David Wright, Ron Claiborne, Cokie Roberts and Christiane Amanpour will also report from the Vatican.

Wright covered the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Benedict, while Roberts’ mother, Lindy Boggs, was the Ambassador to the Holy See from 1997-2001.

Diane Sawyer will lead the network’s coverage of the Conclave in March.
continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Westin argued that the Triumph was a story worth covering, and doesn’t fault CNN for giving it more airtime than its competition. Rather he argues, “the problem isn’t with what TV news covers, it’s with what it doesn’t cover. Or doesn’t cover nearly enough.”

Specifically, he says there should be more stories from war zones like Syria, and places often cut off from western society like North Korea and the Congo.

What’s more, it’s a story that can be told well on television. Some TV reporters have shown us this, as did my former colleague, Clarissa Ward, who recently received an Alfred I. Dupont Award for her reporting on Syria for CBS News. In fairness, the other national TV news organizations have reported intermittently from and about Syria. But none has shown the kind of enthusiasm and follow-through that we saw when it came to the cruise to nowhere in the Gulf of Mexico.

As it happens Westin’s former employee at ABC, “Nightline” anchor Terry Moran, is currently reporting from inside Syria, with another report from Damascus set to air tonight.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

NBC News correspondent/MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing, who also covered the last Papal transition will be leaving this afternoon for several days of reporting/anchoring and will also cover the election of the next pope. In a Media Beat interview, Jansing told us covering the death of John Paul II and election of Benedict was the most fulfilling assignment of her career: “It was just an extraordinary global event and also had some personal meaning to me.” Jansing will join NBC Rome correspondent Claudio Lavagna already on scene. Richard Engel will also report.

CBS has Allen Pizzey in Rome and London correspondent Mark Phillips will be joining him.

“GMA” Weekend Anchor Dan Harris, along with David Wright, Jeffrey Kofman, and Nick Schifrin will be reporting from the Vatican. Wright covered the 2005 transition. ABC’s Cokie Roberts, whose mother served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, will provide a historical perspective.

CNN’s Rome-based correspondent Ben Wedeman will cover and will be joined by Jim Bitterman, Max Foster and Jose Levy for CNN en Español are all en route.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Diane Sawyer

Tuesday’s “World News” and Wednesday’s “Good Morning America” will both be live from Washington. Terry Moran will also anchor “Nightline” from the capital after the speech and the Republican response.

More from ABC after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

(ABC’s ratings are based on a 30-minute broadcast, while CBS and NBC are based on approximately :50 minutes (prior to the final national commercial break of each program).

• Averages for 12:35am January 10, 2013:
  

Show	Network	Total Viewers	A25-54	A18-49
Nightline	ABC	1.613M	756K	549K
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon	NBC	1.606M	755K	631K
Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson	CBS	1.466M	689K	564K

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“Nightline” was born out of the Iranian Hostage Crisis. The temporary program “America Held Hostage: The Iran Crisis” launched November 8, 1979 — four days after the Americans were taken. Frank Reynolds was the original anchor. Ted Koppel, then ABC’s chief diplomatic correspondent, was a contributing reporter and would take over anchoring duties in March 1980 when the show became known as “Nightline.”

“[Former ABC News president] Roone [Arledge] had decided a long time before that any time a big news story [broke], ABC News was going to do a special broadcast at 11:30 at night,” Koppel told TVNewser in 2009. “And one day, it was his dream that there’d be a story that had such legs to it, that was so enduring, that he would actually be able to seize the time period.”

Koppel would anchor the program for 25 years, until late 2005. After Koppel left, the show began a three-anchor format with Terry Moran, Cynthia McFadden and Martin Bashir, later replaced by Bill Weir, with a much — in Koppel’s words — “frothier” format. Indeed, tonight’s final 11:35 show includes Barbara Walters‘ sitdown with Mariah Carey. Tomorrow’s first show at 12:35 includes McFadden’s sitdown with the stars of Django Unchained.

But the formula worked. “Nightline” has been the #1 late night show for the last three seasons.

Still, with the move to even later night, “Nightline” producers will be as busy as ever as the network has promised an hour in primetime every week beginning Friday, March 1.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.