Vargas, Woodruff to share anchor desk at ABC

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Even though they will be a team, Vargas and Woodruff frequently won’t be in the same studio. Westin said ABC News intends to be more aggressive in sending an anchor to the site of major stories.

“When a big story breaks, one person will take the (anchor) seat and the other will head to the airport,” Woodruff said.

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With its plans to remake “World News Tonight” for separate time zones, ABC is making an aggressive effort to seek West Coast viewers. ABC occasionally updates “World News Tonight” for later time zones when there are changes to a major story, but generally cities like Los Angeles see a broadcast that is three hours old.

Woodruff and Vargas will anchor separate broadcasts at 6:30, 8:30 and 9:30 in the Eastern time zone. ABC will also be able to tailor the newscasts, for example airing a story with particular West Coast interest that might not be on the eastern newscast, said Jon Banner, “World News Tonight” executive producer.

“Our audience on the West Coast has had to put up with decades of stale news,” he said, “and we intend to change that.”

Woodruff and Vargas will also anchor a daily Webcast with top stories and a preview of “World News Tonight” that will be offered to wireless phone users. They’ll contribute to “The Blue Sheet,” a daily blog produced by the evening news team.

ABC is part of entertainment and media company The Walt Disney Co. CBS is part of Viacom Inc., while NBC is owned by General Electric Co. Westin said Disney chief Robert Iger, a former ABC executive, and Anne Sweeney, head of ABC, both offered their ideas on the transition but that the decision was his.

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