NEW YORK (AP) – As ABC News president in 2006, David Westin appointed Charles Gibson anchor of the network’s flagship “World News.” Nine years later, Gibson returned the favor.
He recommended Westin for a job as anchor of Bloomberg Television’s new morning show, “Bloomberg Go,” which debuts Monday at 7 a.m. After many years behind the scenes in television, Westin will step in front of the camera for three hours each weekday morning. He and co-anchor Stephanie Ruhle will talk about the day’s news filtered for a business audience.
Justin Smith, chief executive of Bloomberg Media, was considering revamping the network’s morning lineup when he kicked around ideas over lunch with the now-retired Gibson. When the talk turned to anchors, Gibson asked, “how willing are you to step outside the box?”
“We were looking for something out of the box,” Smith recalled. “That was the founding principle of our search.”
Gibson suggested Westin, and he checked a lot of boxes: smart with wide-ranging tastes, knowledgeable about business and television and familiar to company founder Michael Bloomberg. Westin’s job at ABC often required him to be the subject of on-air interviews, like when Peter Jennings died and Bob Woodruff was injured in Iraq.