Paul Friedman has been named VP of CBS News. Mr. Friedman will oversee the hard news coverage of the division. He is a former ABC News executive and former NBC News producer.

His hiring rounds out the senior executive news team of CBS News and CBS Sports President Sean McManus, who recently hired Steve Friedman to be VP of morning news operations, including the “Early Show.” The third person on Mr. McManus’ senior news team is CBS News veteran Linda Mason, the senior VP of standards and special projects.

“Paul brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to this new role at CBS News,” said Mr. McManus in the announcement Wednesday.

Mr. Friedman spent 21 years at ABC, rising to executive VP and managing editor of news coverage before he left in 2003. He has been an adjunct professor of journalism at Columbia University and New York University and executive producer of The Wall Street Journal’s “The Journal Report” on PBS from 2003 to 2005).

Before moving to ABC Mr. Friedman worked at NBC News for 14 years during which he served stints as executive producer of a number of key shows.