Ann Curry is officially parting ways with NBC, an NBC News source confirmed with The Huffington Post Tuesday.
The veteran anchor announced Tuesday that she is ending her run as a full-time employee to become founder of a new media startup seeded by NBCUniversal, and will continue to report non-exclusively for NBC News. Curry's new role "allows her the freedom to report on any platform and on any network, including NBC News, as well as any online or 'over the top' channels," the press release stated.
"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. "In today’s world of fragmented media, this is the time to seize the opportunity to improve the way we distribute and even tell stories. I want to expand my drive to give voice to the voiceless to emerging platforms and produce both scripted and non-scripted content, in addition to continuing to report on-air about stories that matter."
Curry's announcement comes more than two years after her messy ouster from "Today" in 2012. Since that tearful on-air goodbye, Curry has remained with the network under the role of "Today" anchor-at-large and NBC News national and international correspondent, making appearances on "Meet the Press" and "Nightly News."
"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," Curry continued. "It has been a privilege to work with so many good and talented people at the network and I look forward to what we will do ahead."
Page Six first reported Curry's impending exit on Tuesday, writing that she was expected to announce her decision sometime soon, despite a long-term contract with NBC News.
Last year, sources at NBC News predicted that Curry would leave the network at the conclusion of her current contract. While she has stayed relatively quiet about her movement at the network, Curry's former "Today" partner, Matt Lauer, has spoken out about the nature of her removal as co-anchor.
“I don’t think the show and the network handled the transition well. You don’t have to be Einstein to know that,” Lauer revealed to The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz in March 2013. “It clearly did not help us. We were seen as a family, and we didn’t handle a family matter well."