Ann Curry to exit NBC News for good

Maria Puente | USA TODAY

Ann Curry, whose humiliating dismissal from the Today show in 2012 was a PR disaster for her and for NBC, is leaving the network that her fans believe treated her shabbily.

Curry announced in a statement she is leaving the network as a full-time employee to begin a new relationship with NBCUniversal that allows her to report on any platform and on any network, including NBC News.

She also is developing a media start-up, seeded by NBCUniversal, to provide reporting and content to be distributed over multiple platforms.

"This is about reaching for the edge of the future in journalism, which we know is undergoing an irrevocable transition," Curry said in the statement. "I am excited about working to become a valuable link between traditional media and what is to come."

The New York Post was first to report Tuesday that Curry would leave the network following weeks of negotiations to end her contract, reportedly worth up to $12 million a year. The New York Daily News also confirmed she is leaving, calling it "the longest goodbye in network TV news."

Curry, who worked for NBC for 25 years, has done only a handful of special reports for the network, as a national and international correspondent and anchor-at-large, since her tearful departure from the morning show in June 2012. She was said to be dissatisfied doing so little, even for a lot of money.

Yet her departing statement was gracious.

"I am sincerely grateful to NBC News for allowing me to offer viewers a vast and diverse body of work, including a depth of humanitarian reporting I understand still resonates," she said. "It has been a privilege to work with so many good and talented people at the network."

Curry worked for Today for some 15 years, and finally was named a co-host in 2011.

NBC's handling of Curry's exit from Today made network execs look clumsy and panicky, causing a backlash that also splashed co-host Matt Lauer and even her replacement, Savannah Guthrie.

But throwing her out did not help Today regain its long-running status as the top-ranked morning show. Its fall in the ratings was said to be one of the reasons why network officials decided to get rid of Curry, just one year after she got the co-hosting gig.

The Daily News said Curry's new company will be modeled on Soledad O'Brien's company; the former CNN anchor also makes and sells documentaries to outlets as wide-reaching as HBO, Al Jazeera and CNN.