There is no “last story”
Almost every journalist has that story they want to land before sailing away aboard the good ship Retirement. But Pauley’s career is unique in that she already filed her last story twenty years ago. After announcing her departure from Dateline, she received a call from Michael J. Fox requesting the honor of being her final interview. That conversation aired on May 13, 2003, as part of the special farewell episode, Jane Pauley: Signing Off.
Technically, that was the final interview for the “Jane Pauley” that arrived on the set of Today in 1975. Over the next two decades, Pauley pursued multiple career “reinventions” that included daytime talk show host, author and, ultimately, weekend anchor. (The one job she has yet to hold and still covets? Singer. “I still aspire to record an album,” Pauley reveals with a smile.)
And with no elusive “last story” left to pursue, she’s always open to the winds of change—an attitude that comes in handy when the news industry at large is seeing tremendous upheaval.
“I have some questions about where journalism is heading,” Pauley admits. “And I don’t know what the industry will look like [in the future]. But there is a very deep bench of talent out there, as anybody watching the Emmys will see. It’s an amazing world.”
And it’s a world that Jane—as well as “Janie”—remains a vital part of.