ABC News is finalizing deals with New York Times reporters Jeff Zeleny and Susan Saulny, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. An official announcement is expected to come next week, as early as Monday or Tuesday. Zeleny and Saulny will be based in ABC’s Washington bureau joining a Beltway bench that already includes Martha Raddatz and Jonathan Karl.
News of the impending appointments was first reported by Politico. ABC News declined comment.
Although Zeleny and Saulny are print reporters, both appear with some frequency on television. And in an email to Politico, Times executive editor Jill Abramson noted that she is “well aware” that Zeleny "is terrific on television."
“I regularly send him mash notes after seeing him on TV,” Abramson wrote to Politico. “The second I asked Susan to focus on video during the 2012 campaign, I knew TV executives would come swooping down on her. She’s a tremendously gifted reporter and writer who, perhaps unfortunately for me, lights up any screen.”
Abramson concluded her note: “I hope both of them decide to stay at the Times and be part of our burgeoning digital video journalism.”
Alas, that does not seem to be in the cards.
