‘Dateline’ Producer Will Head NBC News

Neal Shapiro, executive producer of NBC News’ “Dateline NBC,” on Thursday was named president of NBC News, effective June 4. He replaces Andrew Lack, who was promoted to NBC President earlier in the week.

When Shapiro joined “Dateline NBC” in 1993, the newsmagazine was in terrible shape. The year-old program, which had finally given NBC a shot at a successful newsmagazine--after 17 previous failures--was reeling from the admission that producers had rigged footage for a report on exploding General Motors trucks.

NBC made a humiliating apology and several employees were fired. Embattled NBC News President Michael Gartner resigned.

Into the fray stepped Shapiro, who had been broadcast producer at ABC’s rival “PrimeTime Live.” He brought “Dateline” stability and eventually cloned it into what is now a three-night-a-week mainstay of the NBC schedule. Some critics complained that the show’s topics were too hyped and occasionally stretched too thin as the program tried to fill so much time. Nonetheless, “Dateline” prospered, both financially and editorially, bringing in numerous awards, including a recent prestigious George Polk award.

In his new job, Shapiro, who is 43, will face an opposite challenge: How to keep an already successful news division on top at a time when the relevance and role of network television news are changing rapidly.

The morning “Today” show, the “NBC Nightly News With Tom Brokaw” and Sunday’s “Meet the Press” are dominant. MSNBC has the smallest audience of the three all-news cable channels, but it is an advertiser-friendly younger audience. But both Brokaw and “Today” co-anchor Katie Couric have looming contract expirations. Whether viewers even want to see a nightly dinner-time newscast is in question long-term.

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Shapiro said Thursday that he came to NBC eight years ago because “the challenge of producing my own show interested me. Indeed, ‘Dateline’ was in a very tough state of affairs, but I thought that whatever I would do would probably improve it.”

When “Dateline” was just one hour and three or four stories a week, he said, “there was a lot of time to pore over every little detail.” When the show expanded to multiple nights, “I had to cultivate a group of superb senior producers,” and his role turned more to “articulating a vision” for the staff, skills that will translate for his new role.

He says his new job isn’t just about keeping things running smoothly, but also making the news division “much bigger. There are opportunities everywhere,” he said, both inside and outside NBC. He declined to be specific.

Nor would he talk about looming contract negotiations. As for MSNBC, he said, “they’re already doing a great job. It’s up, it’s running.” But he said he looked forward to exploring such issues as “are there chances to try new and different things? We’re already a player in the demographic group that pays the bills, but is there an opportunity to do more there? Are there new and different uses for the journalism products we have? Is there more in terms of technology to play with?”

Before joining NBC, Shapiro, who is married to ABC News correspondent JuJu Chang, spent four years at “PrimeTime Live.” He joined ABC News in 1980.