Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil have been closely linked with the "PBS NewsHour" since the show's beginnings in 1975, for many years as its co-anchors and, since 1981, as the show's owners and co-producers through MacNeil/Lehrer Productions.
Now, with both men having stepped away from anchoring, their production company has decided to give up its ownership stake in the program, after struggling in recent years to raise enough funds to keep it going.
In an internal letter sent to the staff Tuesday, Mr. Lehrer and Mr. MacNeil said they were talking with the Washington public television station WETA, the program's co-producer, about taking over ownership of the nonprofit program, which is produced under contract for PBS. MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, which is majority owned by Liberty Media, is "offering to contribute to WETA our ownership stakes in the 'NewsHour' and all parts of MLP connected with the program," the letter said.
The letter said that WETA's president and chief executive, Sharon Rockefeller, greeted the offer with "delight and enthusiasm," but that many details remained to be worked out.
Mr. Lehrer, Mr. MacNeil and Ms. Rockefeller were not available for interviews. But in a statement, Ms. Rockefeller said, "We look forward to producing the program every night with the same standards of excellence in journalism our viewers expect and deserve."
In her own internal memo, she said that while the program was already closely aligned with WETA -- it is housed in WETA studios in Arlington, Va. -- "joining two entities into one organization is nonetheless a complicated endeavor. Discussions have only just begun."
In their letter, Mr. Lehrer and Mr. MacNeil cited "the probability of increasing our fund-raising abilities" as one reason for the change. But they said the "central driving force is that the two of us are increasingly no longer active in the day-to-day editorial decisions." Last month, Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff were named the program's co-anchors and managing editors, the first permanent anchors since Mr. Lehrer retired as anchor in 2011. Mr. MacNeil retired as co-anchor in 1995.
In the fiscal year ending June 30, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions fell short in raising corporate underwriting for the show, and had to appeal several times to PBS for emergency cash infusions, according to public television employees familiar with the financial situation. This summer, to shore up its finances, the program closed its Denver and San Francisco offices and laid off most employees there.