‘PBS NewsHour’ seeks new owner

MacNeil-Lehrer Prods., owner and co-producer  of The PBS NewsHour, is in talks with Washington D.C. public TV station WETA about taking it over.

The station already is the co-producing partner of the program currently is owned by the production company founded by its original anchors, Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil. These days, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions is majority owned by Liberty Media, noted the New York Times. WETA’s maybe best known as the home of Ken Burns.

This summer, NewsHour named Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill co-anchors of the weekday program — and  Hari Sreenivasan  would anchor of a new weekend edition produced by New York’s public TV station WNET — weeks after some NewsHour was laid off staff and domestic bureaus shut.