Hari Sreenivasan (click on photo at right for high-resolution version), an anchor for ABC News, is leaving the ABC for a new network and a new part of the country. He will become an on-air correspondent for CBS News, one of the handful of South Asian network-level correspondents.
Hari Sreenivasan will become a CBS News correspondent and will be based in the organization’s Dallas bureau, it was announced by Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports. The appointment is effective March 12.
He's currently on vacation. Reached via cellphone in Seattle, one of the places he called home for a while, Sreenivasan answered three quick questions.
SAJAforum: Congrats on the move! Why this change now?
A: I am just excited about the opportunity to be out in the field and to report. The anchoring experience at ABC was great but I have always wanted to be in the field and CBS has given me an amazing chance to tell stories.
Q: Your family is from South India, but what's it going to be like to cover this South?
A: I think the south is an underreported region on national news and I am looking forward to changing that a little. My region is going to be pretty wide, from Colorado to Louisiana to Kansas and parts south. I hope to find stories beyond the breaking news we cover in the region.
Q: Any tips for young folks wanting to be on-air correspondents and anchors?
A: Dont' strive to be an anchor, learn how to be a good reporter and producer first. Great anchors aren't made behind a desk but by experiencing and reporting the world. Anchoring might make your family proud, but reporting and producing is good for the soul.
See the press release below and some Hari Sreenivasan resources:
- Official CBS bio
- 2005 interview with JournalismJobs.com
- 2001article on the aftermath of 9/11
- 2002 article: Requiem for a Mustache
- Wikipedia entry
- Here's the hi-rez version of CBS photo
[ Press release ]
HARI SREENIVASAN WILL BECOME A
CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT BASED IN DALLASHari Sreenivasan will become a CBS News correspondent and will be based in the organization’s Dallas bureau, it was announced by Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports. The appointment is effective March 12.
Sreenivasan was a co-anchor of ABC’s “World News Now” and “America This Morning” since August and has reported for “World News Tonight” and “Nightline.” He has covered a range of stories including hotel bombings in Amman, Jordan, and the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. Sreenivasan was a correspondent for ABC NewsOne, the Network’s affiliate news service, and joined ABC News as an anchor for ABC News Now in February 2004.
Previously, he was a reporter for KTVU-TV Oakland, Calif. (2002-04). Sreenivasan served as an anchor and senior correspondent for CNET Broadcast in San Francisco, Calif. (1996-2002) and was a reporter for WNCN-TV Raleigh, N.C. (1995-96).
He is the recipient of the 1997, 1998 and 1999 Outstanding Broadcast Story Award presented by the South Asian Journalists Association, an organization for which he served as a board member from 2001-04. Sreenivasan also is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association.
He was born in Mumbai, India, where he also spent his early childhood. Sreenivasan was graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 1995 with a degree in mass communication and minors in politics and philosophy.
[For the record, since everyone asks, Hari Sreenivasan and I are not related. For a while, there were two Sreenivasans at ABC - he was the taller, thinner, better looking, single Sreenivasan. Now ABC is Sreenivasan-free.]
