WETA Names Atlantic Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg Moderator of Washington Week

ARLINGTON, VA (August 2, 2023) – Sharon Percy Rockefeller, president and chief executive officer of WETA and President of NewsHour Productions, today announced Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, as the new moderator of Washington Week. The Atlantic will join NewsHour and WETA as an editorial partner on the show, to be rebranded as Washington Week with The Atlantic. Goldberg’s tenure as moderator will begin on Friday, August 11, 2023.

Goldberg has been the editor in chief of The Atlantic since 2016, and in that time its journalism and audience have both reached new heights with the magazine winning Pulitzer Prizes in each of the past three years. He retains that role as moderator of Washington Week.

“We are thrilled to embark on this next chapter for Washington Week with the addition of Jeffrey Goldberg as moderator and The Atlantic as an editorial partner,” said Rockefeller. “As the longest-running news and public affairs program on primetime television, Washington Week is known for its incisive and thoughtful roundtable conversations featuring the sharpest minds in news – a reputation that will only be enhanced with Jeffrey and The Atlantic joining as partners.”

Jeffrety Goldberg will moderate Washington Week with The Atlantic 

Goldberg added, “Washington Week holds a special and rare place on television, to have a space for civil and extended conversation about the issues affecting the news and our world. Gwen built this show into an institution, continued by Robert and by Yamiche, and I’m honored to carry on this tradition as The Atlantic embarks on this partnership.”

Sara Just, Washington Week and PBS NewsHour’s senior executive producer and a WETA SVP added, “We are delighted to be working with The Atlantic and Jeffrey Goldberg, whose depth, intellect and, yes, wit, are such ideal fits for this program and its next chapter. Together, I am confident we will bring the most insightful conversations about today’s many urgent news stories that can be found on television and online.”

The partnership arrives at a pivotal moment ahead of the 2024 general election and solidifies Washington Week as the primary source of objective reporting and insightful analysis from leading journalists about the biggest events impacting the lives of Americans.

Goldberg will be the tenth moderator in Washington Week’s 56-year history following NBC News Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor who departed the program earlier this year; CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa, who held the position from 2017 to 2021; and Gwen Ifill, who moderated the program from 1999 until her untimely death in November 2016.

Paula Kerger, PBS President and CEO, also noted, “With this partnership, Washington Week will remain the premier destination for viewers in search of astute analysis of the most important political and policy issues facing our nation. We are especially pleased to welcome Jeffery Goldberg as moderator, bringing a wealth of experience and credibility to this important role. At a time when our nation is in desperate need of thoughtful, respectful discussions that bridge political divides, we are very proud to continue to build on the legacy of Washington Week.”

“I would like to congratulate Sharon Rockefeller, president and chief executive officer of WETA, for entering into this groundbreaking editorial partnership with The Atlantic,” said Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “Jeffrey Goldberg will build on the strong tradition of Washington Week, which plays a critical role in strengthening our democracy by providing timely and thoughtful analysis of the week’s news. His award-winning experience as editor in chief of The Atlantic, and his long career at The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and other media – as well as his regular guest appearances on television and radio – will serve him well as the new moderator of Washington Week.”

Washington Week is executive produced by Stephanie Kotuby, who also serves as a senior editorial producer at PBS NewsHour. It is a NewsHour Production at WETA and airs Fridays (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org, and the PBS app.

Washington Week is known for its depth, balance, and civil discourse and is ranked the most objective and credible weekly news and public affairs show on television by Erdos & Morgan. The program features a roundtable of journalists who provide analysis of the week’s major national news stories and their impact on the lives of Americans. Washington Week is the longest-running primetime news and analysis program on television and was recognized for its journalism excellence with a 2008 Peabody Award, among other honors.

Washington Week moderators prior to Ifill included John Davenport, public affairs director for WETA and the show’s inaugural moderator; Lincoln Furber, former CBS newscaster; Max Kampelman, prominent Washington, D.C. attorney; Robert MacNeil, the then future co-anchor of The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour; Paul Duke, veteran NBC journalist; and Ken Bode, former NBC and CNN correspondent.

Goldberg joined The Atlantic in 2007 as a national correspondent and in 2016 was named the magazine’s 15th editor in chief. During his editorship, The Atlantic has set new audience and subscription records, and won its first-ever Pulitzer Prizes in each of the past three years. In 2022 and in 2023, The Atlantic received the National Magazine Award for General Excellence from the American Society of Magazine Editors, the top award in the industry. In 2020, Goldberg was named editor of the year by Adweek, which also named The Atlantic magazine of the year. The Atlantic’s journalism in this time has helped its readers make sense of the world’s most complicated issues and shined a light on injustices the world over.

Goldberg is a regular guest on NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, and NPR programs, including Face the Nation, Morning Joe, and The Lead with Jake Tapper. Before joining The Atlantic, Goldberg served as the Middle East correspondent, and then the Washington correspondent, for The New Yorker. Earlier in his career, he was a writer for The New York Times Magazine and New York magazine. He began his career as a police reporter for The Washington Post. Goldberg is the author of Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror. A former fellow of the American Academy in Berlin, he also served as a public-policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and as the distinguished visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Goldberg is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Magazine Award for reporting, the Daniel Pearl Award for reporting, the Overseas Press Club Award for human-rights reporting, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Prize for best investigative reporting.

Media Contact: Nick Massella, nmassella@newshour.org

About Washington Week
Washington Week is a production of NewsHour Productions LLC, a wholly-owned non-profit subsidiary of WETA Washington, DC, and The Atlantic. Major funding for Washington Week is provided by Consumer Cellular, the estate of Arnold Adams, the Yuen Foundation, Sandra and Carl DeLay-Magnuson, Rose Hirschel and Andy Shreeves, Robert and Susan Rosenbaum, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS. For more information about Washington Week, visit pbs.org/washingtonweek and follow on social media via @washingtonweek and facebook.com/washingtonweek. Follow Jeffrey Goldberg on Twitter via @JeffreyGoldberg. An electronic press kit for Washington Week, including downloadable photos for promotional use, is available at pressroom.pbs.org.

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