
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 18, 1994                   TAG: 9402180104
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

DIANE SAWYER WILL STAY AT ABC

After weeks of avid courting from rival television networks, ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer has decided to stay put.

Terms of Sawyer's new multi-year contract were not disclosed by the network Wednesday but, by some estimates, her salary will rise to between $5 million and $6 million per year. She reportedly had been earning nearly $3 million per year under the five-year contract that would have run out this month.

Sawyer will continue on ABC's "PrimeTime Live," the magazine show she has co-anchored with Sam Donaldson since its premiere in August 1989. She also will share anchor duties with Barbara Walters and Peter Jennings on "Turning Point," a magazine show that begins next month and be involved with yet another magazine show, "Day One," currently anchored by Forrest Sawyer. She turned down lucrative and imaginative offers from suitors that included NBC, CBS and Fox Broadcasting Co.

by CNB