Zahn was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to a schoolteacher/artist mother and an IBM sales executive father.[3] She initially grew up in Canton, Ohio, with her parents and three siblings. The family relocated to Naperville, Illinois, as her father's job required them to move frequently. She once joked that "IBM" really stood for "I've been moved" [citation needed]. She attended Washington Junior High School in Naperville and later graduated from Naperville Central High School in 1974. Zahn also competed in several beauty pageants, making the semi-finals of the 1973 Miss Teenage America Pageant.[4][5] She continued her education at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, on a cello scholarship, and received firsthand knowledge of the news business by working as an intern at WBBM-TV in Chicago. She graduated in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. Zahn then spent the next 10 years working at local stations around the country, including WFAA-TV in Dallas, KFMB-TV in San Diego, KPRC-TV in Houston, WHDH-TV (then WNEV) in Boston, and KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.
National career
ABC
In 1987, Zahn accepted an offer to work at ABC News, initially anchoring The Health Show, a weekend program on health and medical issues. Within a few months she was co-anchoring World News This Morning, the network's early morning newscast, and anchoring news segments on Good Morning America as well as substituting for co-host Joan Lunden.
In 1999, after nine years at CBS News, Zahn moved to the world of cable news, joining Fox News Channel (FNC), where she anchored Fox Report, the network's nightly newscast. Months later, she helped launch her own prime time news program, The Edge with Paula Zahn.
CNN
Zahn began her work at CNN on September 11, 2001, joining anchor Aaron Brown in the coverage of that day's terrorist attacks as her reaction to the events she witnessed. Although not scheduled to appear on a CNN program, which was still in development, she began a regular morning news shift the next day. By January, she launched her CNN morning news program, American Morning with Paula Zahn.
Zahn in 2002
In 2003, during the Iraq War, Zahn moved back to prime time, hosting a two-hour program labeled Live from the Headlines which offered continuing coverage of the war and other events. Anderson Cooper took over the first of the two hours by early summer, and by September, her show, Paula Zahn Now, premiered.
On July 24, 2007, she announced her resignation from CNN. The final broadcast of Paula Zahn Now aired August 2, 2007.[6] The announcement came less than a day after CNN hired Campbell Brown, the former co-host of Weekend Today. Initially, guest hosts essentially continued Zahn's program under the title Out in the Open.[7] This was later replaced by election campaign coverage and ultimately Brown's program, Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull.
According to Zahn's goodbye letter penned to CNN staff, she stated "I plan to take a break between jobs and catch my breath before I take on my next role."[6] In a New York Times interview, which was conducted right after the announcement of her resignation broke, Zahn told Jacques Steinberg that "she had no idea what she would be doing next".[8]
WNET
On November 9, 2008, Zahn became the new co-host of SundayArts on New York City PBS stations WNET and WLIW. The program, which covers the fine arts scene in New York City, is now called NYC-ARTS and airs Thursday evenings.
Zahn has three children, Austin, Jared, and Haley, with Richard Cohen, a New York City real estate developer.[11] Cohen is Jewish and they are raising the children in his faith.[12]
The couple was in the news in 2004 when the nest of the well-publicized red-tailed hawkPale Male was removed from their Manhattan co-op building. Cohen, president of the co-op board, supported the removal; in 2001 Zahn had spoken approvingly of the hawk and its habit of feeding on rats and pigeons.[13]
In April 2007, Zahn announced she was divorcing Cohen after 20 years of marriage.[11] That same year, Zahn filed a lawsuit against Cohen alleging he had mismanaged 20 years' worth of her career earnings. The lawsuit was dismissed by the New York state court, ruling it "is not a commercial case, rather, it is a matrimonial dispute masquerading as a commercial dispute."[14]
^"Teenage America". Pageantopolis.com. 1964-05-19. Archived from the original on 2012-10-09. Retrieved 2012-10-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
