Noah Oppenheim, the executive in charge of NBC’s morning show “Today,” has been elevated to president of the news division.
Oppenheim will replace Deborah Turness, who has been named to head a new international division of NBC News. NBC is forming the venture through a partnership with of Euronews, a global news service headquartered in Lyon, France.
The changes were announced Tuesday in a memo from NBC News Chairman Andy Lack.
Oppenheim has been a steadying influence on “Today” since he took over the program in 2015. He came in after the venerable program had been rocked by ratings losses that resulted from the clumsy handling of former co-anchor Ann Curry’s departure in 2012.
Since that time, “Today” has regained its ratings lead in the 25-to-54 age group that advertisers want to reach with news programming.
Oppenheim is also a screenwriter. He wrote the 2016 Fox Searchlight feature “Jackie.”
For Turness, the move will return her to Europe. The former British television executive arrived at NBC News in 2013, replacing Steve Capus. But her influence at the division diminished after the return of Lack, who was named as chairman of NBC News in 2015.
Lack, who ran NBC News in the mid- to late 1990s, was brought back to stabilize the division when it was in turmoil over the actions of its former “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams. Williams was removed from the anchor chair in June 2015 after an internal investigation found that he lied on and off the air about his reporting experiences during the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Williams is now an anchor on MSNBC, the cable news channel operated by NBC News.
Twitter: @SteveBattaglio