Jennings to remain as anchor of ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’

Peter Jennings has signed a contract to remain as anchor of ABC’s flagship “World News Tonight” for an additional three years. Jennings and ABC News, which is in discussions to merge with CNN, also reached an agreement to form an independent news production company, PJ Productions. The company will have a commitment to produce at least four prime-time hours of the “Peter Jennings Reporting” documentary series per year, a series previously produced by the network. That deal runs five years.

ABC sources had said earlier that Jennings, whose contract expired this fall, had reached an agreement to stay, but that final details hadn’t been worked out. There was speculation that financially pressured ABC News had asked Jennings to take a pay cut, as it has demanded of many other employees, but an insider insisted that the subject “wasn’t an issue.” Details of his pay weren’t disclosed.

PJ Productions also has the right to produce programming for entities outside ABC. Jennings’ recent documentaries for ABC have covered such topics as the historical facts about Jesus and marketing policies of the pharmaceutical industry.

Jennings took over as solo anchor of ABC’s nightly newscast in 1983. Since then, he has squared off against CBS’ Dan Rather and NBC’s Tom Brokaw. Brokaw has said that he plans to step down as anchor of the “NBC Nightly News” after the 2004 elections. Rather recently extended his contract and says he has no plans to retire.