EX-CBS NEWS CHIEF JOYCE RESIGNS POST AT NETWORK

Edward M. Joyce, removed last December as president of CBS News after only two years in the job, is calling it quits at CBS after 32 years with the network. CBS said Friday that he has resigned to pursue other opportunities.

Joyce, 53, a native of Phoenix, joined CBS in 1954 as a radio reporter at CBS-owned WBBM-AM in Chicago. He had been a senior vice president at CBS Worldwide Enterprises, the company’s international sales arm, since leaving CBS News.

He had been executive vice president of CBS News when his boss, Van Gordon Sauter, picked Joyce to succeed him as CBS News president in 1983. Sauter, 50, returned to head the news division Dec. 5, when Joyce was reassigned to the CBS Broadcast Group.

The unusual move came after much-publicized reports of low morale in the news division and complaints by some key staffers that Joyce had grown aloof and autocratic.

Joyce joined the executive ranks of CBS in 1966, when he became news director of WCBS-AM and helped create its all-news format. He later served as vice president and general manager of three CBS-owned television stations, including what now is KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.

His resignation, effective immediately, was made in a letter to CBS Broadcast Group president Gene F. Jankowski in which Joyce said he was “interested in exploring other opportunities in areas that offer new challenges. . . .” He did not elaborate.

“For his years of dedication, talent, loyalty and friendship, he has our very fond wishes for success in his new endeavors,” Jankowski said in a prepared statement.