Will he stay or will he go?

From the New York Times:

By JACQUES STEINBERG
Charles Gibson, whose contract as anchor of “World News” on ABC is due to expire soon after the presidential election, said in an interview this week that the network had asked him to remain on the job for the foreseeable future, and that he was considering doing so.

Asked if he wanted to continue on “World News,” Mr. Gibson, 65, said: “I honestly don’t know. We’re in negotiation at the moment.”

The apparent wooing of Mr. Gibson by his bosses at ABC stands in stark contrast to his status in late 2005, when the network passed him over as the successor to Peter Jennings on “World News,” choosing instead to split the job between Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas. The following spring, after Mr. Woodruff was injured in Iraq and nearly died, and Ms. Vargas announced she was pregnant, the job went to Mr. Gibson after all.

Should Mr. Gibson and ABC reach agreement, that would keep him on “World News” for several years, the fallout would be felt most immediately by his colleague Diane Sawyer. Ms. Sawyer, 62, has been rising hours before dawn for nearly a decade to co-host “Good Morning America,” an assignment she has always described as temporary. (Until his exit for “World News,” Mr. Gibson had been Ms. Sawyer’s co-host.) Were Mr. Gibson to depart “World News,” she would be an obvious candidate to replace him, if she wanted to. Ms. Sawyer’s contract with ABC is believed to be up sometime toward the middle to end of 2009.

Ms. Sawyer’s options outside ABC News are likely to become clearer in the next six to eight months. If Katie Couric leaves the anchor chair of “CBS Evening News,” a possibility she and her bosses have discussed, Ms. Sawyer would undoubtedly be high on CBS’s wish list of replacements, though it is not known whether the job would interest her. Ms. Sawyer would also be a lead candidate to take on a prime-time show on CNN — perhaps Larry King’s 9 p.m. slot, should he ever give it up — but Ms. Couric, a morning-show rival from her days on “Today,” could also be in contention for that job.