New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter is jumping to CNN as host of its Sunday morning magazine show, “Reliable Sources.”
Stelter, who has covered TV and entertainment for the Times since 2007, will also be a senior media correspondent for CNN, contributing to its web site and cable channels.
His hiring follows a new ratings low for CNN earlier this month, adding to the pressure on network president Jeff Zucker, who is coming up on one-year anniversary.
“CNN is re-imagining media coverage at what is the best time ever to be covering media, and I’m very happy to be a part of it,” Stelter said in a statement.
Stelter has been trying out as a regular guest host since Howard Kurtz left earlier this year for a gig at Fox News. NPR media reporter David Folkenflik and former CNN Washington bureau chief Frank Sesno were also in the running.
He is the third high-profile departure for the Times executive editor Jill Abramson in as many months. Nate Silver, the star statistical columnist, took a job at ESPN, while technology columnist David Pogue decamped for Yahoo.
Stelter created TVNewser, a blog covering the media business in 2004, when he was still in college. Just six months later, he sold it to Mediabistro.com.
After graduating, he joined the Times. Earlier this year he published his book about the competitive morning show race, “Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV.”