NY TIMES MEDIA REPORTER STELTER JUMPS TO CNN

Brian Stelter, one of the youngest reporters hired in recent years by the New York Times, will be leaving the newspaper to become the senior media correspondent for CNN, where he will also become host of the cable network’s Reliable Sources. “I’ll be reporting every day for CNN, CNNI, CNN.com, and I’ll flow it all into @CNNReliable on Sundays,” Stelter confirmed via Twitter today (Tuesday) after word of his ship-jumping was leaked by Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times. Stelter, 28, started the informative media news blog TVNewser while still an undergraduate at Towson University in Maryland and was hired by the Times following his graduation in 2007. He has been one of several guest hosts of Reliable Sources, including NPR’s David Folkenflik and former CNN Washington bureau chief Frank Sesno, who have presided over Reliable Sources since former host Howard Kurtz left CNN earlier this year and headed for rival Fox News, where he now hosts a similar show, Media Buzz. In a statement, CNN President Jeff Zucker praised Stelter as “one of the top media reporters in the country and will be a great addition to our many platforms.” In an interview with the Washington Post last July Stelter said, “I would not leave the Times for a television job.” But Zucker apparently made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Stelter will face formidable competition from predecessor Kurtz. On Sunday, Nov. 3, Kurtz drew an audience on Fox News that numbered 911,000, while Reliable Sources, which aired opposite it at 11:00 a.m., drew just 391,000.