Crystal Retiring From 'NewsHour'

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Les Crystal, president of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, will retire effective Aug. 31, but will remain a senior advisor to the company through the end of this year.

Crystal joined the news operation in 1983 after a 20-year career at NBC News, including as executive producer of Nightly News and president of the division.

He expanded the half-hour MacNeil/Lehrer Report to an hour and shepherded it to numerous Emmys and a Peabody award, as well as helping triple funding for the show to $7 million annually, according to the company. He was named president of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions in 2005.

"I am very proud of my contributions to the launch of the Newshour as the country’s first hour-long daily television news broadcast and its continued success as a mainstay of serious journalism," Crystal said in a statement.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.