ABC polling director goes independent, bags ABC as client

But Langer will maintain close ties to ABC, as responsibility for the network’s news polling unit has transfered to his new company.

ABC’s news division president David Westin explained: “This new arrangement maintains ABC News’ commitment to covering the beat of public opinion through a structure that’s at once more cost-effective for us and opens new opportunities for Langer Research. When Gary proposed it, we saw it quickly as a win/win.”

Langer’s team at LRA includes research analysts Julie Phelan, a specialist in research methods and statistics, and David Tully, formerly of the research consultancy InterMedia and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Senior advisers to the firm include Jon Krosnick of Stanford University, Robert Shapiro of Columbia University and consulting adviser Patrick Moynihan, a former senior polling analyst at ABC News, now assistant director of the programme on survey research at Harvard University.

Langer will continue to write his blog, The Numbers, on ABC News.com.