CBS Declines to Renew News Prez's Contract

October 26th, 2005 1:09 PM

The last casualty of the CBS Memogate scandal happened earlier today. Andrew Heyward, the long-time president of CBS News will no longer be directing the organization:

CBS announced Wednesday it is replacing embattled CBS News President Andrew Heyward with Sean McManus, chief of CBS Sports, who will keep both jobs.

Heyward served more than 10 years as head of the legendary news division, and it was a surprise to many in the industry when he kept his job in the fallout from the network's botched investigation into
President Bush's National Guard service.

CBS still hasn't named a replacement for Dan Rather, who stepped down in March as anchor of the third-rated "CBS Evening News," and network chief Leslie Moonves had expressed discontent over ideas presented to him for revamping the broadcast.

Heyward presided over the delicate transition at his best-known broadcast, "60 Minutes," replacing founder Don Hewitt at the helm without any real impact in the show's popularity. He also established the spinoff "60 Minutes II," which was canceled this spring due to poor ratings. [...]

McManus will take over as news chief on Nov. 7, one day after [fired producer Mary] Mapes's book on the episode is due to be published.