For TV, an Image Shift

Diane Sawyer will succeed Charles Gibson as the anchor of ABC's "World News." The arrival of Sawyer will comprehensively alter the long-established image of an avuncular male nightly news anchor. With Katie Couric, who took the CBS anchor position in 2006, two of the three main network news voices will be female, a role that in the past has punished others, like Barbara Walters and Connie Chung. For Sawyer, the promotion is the culmination of years of waiting. She took the morning job on a temporary basis, then stayed for 10 years, reviving ABC's morning franchise. But she was passed over twice for the evening anchor job.