Elizabeth Christopherson

Selecting the next NJN anchor will certainly be a different process than what happens at the major networks, local affiliates and other public community broadcast stations.

Aside from grappling with its talent loss - filling the shoes (um, heels) of Emmy award winning anchor Kent Manahan - NJN's anchor search will be hampered by deep cuts, budget uncertainty and buyout restrictions.

Of the handful of state employees at NJN who opted for the early retirement package, all but one -- if not all -- may have to be filled from the inside. By law, the early retirement provisions stipulate that only 1 in 10 buyout positions can be filled from outside the state payroll.

For some folks like Senior Political Correspondent Michael Aron and now interim News Director, that may mean wearing two hats for a lot longer.

Wearing that extra hat also means Aron will likely be at the center of deciding who will become the next NJN anchor.

According to Elizabeth Christopherson, NJN's Executive Director, "there is a firewall between management and our news room" in describing how the anchor selection will be a personnel decision for the News Director to make.

Despite all the recent downsizing news at The Record and Star Ledger, similar economic pressures at New Jersey's only statewide television station have virtually been ignored by the media. Aside from the headliner early retirements announced and the station's budget proposal to wean itself off state's coffers back in May, very little attention has been paid to the pressing financial predicament at NJN.

"We are at an urgent point in our history," emphasized NJN Executive Director Elizabeth Christopherson. "Being so lean for so many years makes you creative, but it is also like living on an oxygen tank. If you turned it off now, we will not be able to be sustainable."

The decision to pick Kent Manahan as the anchor of the New Jersey Network nightly news ultimately rests with the station's executive director, Elizabeth Christopherson.  While the Governor appoints members of the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority, staff decisions - like picking an anchorman - rests entirely with the Christopherson.  She will also name a new News Director to replace Bill Jobes, who is retiring at the end of the month.

Manahan, who has been with NJN for 31 years, makes about $125,000 a year.  That's the same salary as other senior NJN employees, including Christopherson (who may receive additional money as the head of the NJN foundation), and senior political correspondent Michael Aron.  Aron is not expected to be interested in the anchorman job.

One Democratic legislator, an unabashed supporter of public television and a self-described NJN news junkie, says that Executive Director Elizabeth Christopherson and her NJN development team showed poor judgment whenthey asked Anne Evans Estabrook to tape a public service announcement just as she was embarking on a race for the United States Senate.  The legislator, who says she is supporting Frank Lautenberg for re-election next year, suggested that the savvy Christopherson must have known that Estabrook was running for the Senate -- the first mention of Estabrook's candidacy on NJN News came two months before the PSA was taped -- and said that by placing fundraising first, Christopherson gives the impression that NJN is "willing to trade free air time for donations."