Next up for two NBC News anchors

Jane Pauley and Soledad O’Brien, two of the most high-profile news personalities at NBC, will soon be taking on new assignments in different arenas.

Pauley, a 27-year veteran of NBC News who last month left her co-anchor post on “Dateline NBC” after 11 years, announced Thursday that she would be hosting a daytime syndicated talk show, “The Jane Pauley Show,” to launch in fall 2004.

Meanwhile, O’Brien, an anchor of “Weekend Today,” will join CNN in July to co-host the cable network’s morning show, “American Morning.” O’Brien, who has been with NBC News since 1991, will co-anchor the show with current host Bill Hemmer.

Both anchors were praised Thursday by top NBC executives.

Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Entertainment, said in a statement on Pauley’s new show: “This will be one of the most exciting things to happen to daytime in a long time. On a personal level, I am thrilled that Jane is doing this.”

NBC News President Neal Shapiro said of O’Brien: “We applaud all of Soledad’s contributions to NBC News. This is a great opportunity for her, and we wish her all the best.”

Pauley’s decision to take on the intense and hectic task of hosting a syndicated talk show so soon after her departure from “Dateline” caught some insiders by surprise. Pauley had indicated that she was leaving to spend more time with family and would only do occasional TV projects.

“Yes, a lot of people thought I would be taking it easy, and that’s what I thought I would be doing,” Pauley said in a phone interview. “But I didn’t leave the impression I wouldn’t be doing anything. I went to talk about possible projects with [NBC Enterprises President] Ed Wilson really as a courtesy to NBC. I had no interest in a talk show. I left the meeting thinking that a talk show made a lot of sense.”

Before hosting “Dateline,” Pauley spent 13 years as anchor of NBC’s “Today,” She has also been an anchor of the Sunday edition of “NBC Nightly News” and hosted “Real Life With Jane Pauley” and the MSNBC retrospective program “Time & Again.”

She said the new show would not be specifically news-oriented but would incorporate her expertise in that area. Although she said she and Wilson are still defining the show, she said it would have elements similar to “Oprah Winfrey” or “Dr. Phil.”

She quipped, “All I have to do is be the best Jane Pauley I can be.”

O’Brien said she was thrilled with her new venture. “It will be a challenge, in all the best ways. Timewise it will be very different. I will be going from three hours a week on the weekend to 15 hours a week Monday through Friday.”

During her stint at the network, O’Brien has contributed to “Today” and weekend editions of “NBC Nightly News.” She also anchored the weekend coverage of the war in Iraq.

She added that she hoped her new job “will enable me to tackle more hard news. I have wanted more opportunities to do that.”

O’Brien had been one of the notable women at NBC who had been mentioned along with Ann Curry and Kelly O’Donnell as a possible heir to Katie Couric whenever she leaves “Today.”

Her departure marks the second anchor loss for “Weekend Today.” Co-anchor David Bloom died in April of an apparent pulmonary embolism while covering the Iraq war.

Various correspondents will rotate in the anchor spots for the next several weeks until replacement anchors are named, network officials said.