Fox News anchor Shepard Smith is leaving the network he has been a part of since it launched in 1996, a move that comes amid growing tensions between the channel’s opinion-show hosts and the news team.
One of the most visible on-air personalities at Fox News, Mr. Smith was a key hard-news voice for the network. Besides hosting a daily program, he was managing editor of breaking news as well.
Mr. Smith in a statement said he asked Fox News management to let him leave the network and “begin a new chapter.” He added, “It’s been an honor and a privilege to report the news each day to our loyal audience in context and with perspective, without fear or favor.”
A spokesman for Mr. Smith said the decision to leave was the news anchor’s alone and not a result of recent clashes with the opinion side.
Mr. Smith is resigning just over a year after Fox News extended his contract. His deal had several years left to run and his annual salary was around $15 million, a person familiar with the pact said.
Andrew Tyndall, a television news consultant, said Mr. Smith’s departure means a narrowing of the ideological diversity among the top ranks of Fox News Channel talent. “Smith [along with Bret Baier and Chris Wallace] has been cited as holdouts of journalism-trumping-partisanship,” he added.
Although the opinion and news sides of Fox News—like many news operations—are often not on the same page, it is unusual for there to be on-air sniping at each other. When the late Roger Ailes helmed Fox News, such public back and forth between news and opinion were practically nonexistent. That started to change after Mr. Ailes exited amid allegations of sexual harassment in 2016, and it has accelerated during the Trump presidency.
Tensions escalated in recent months between opinion show hosts, such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, and the news team. Mr. Smith has often traded shots with Mr. Hannity over coverage of President Trump.
Last month, Messrs. Smith and Carlson took aim at each other. Mr. Carlson was critical of remarks Fox News contributor Andrew Napolitano made on Mr. Smith’s show about Mr. Trump’s legal situation following news that the president in a July phone call pressed the president of Ukraine to investigate the son of former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Mr. Smith responded in a subsequent show that “attacking our colleague, who is here to offer legal assessments, on our air in our work home is repugnant.”
Mr. Smith also drew criticism from Mr. Trump. In an August tweet, Mr. Trump wrote: “Watching Fake News CNN is better than watching Shepard Smith, the lowest rated show on @FoxNews.”
Asked by reporters about Mr. Smith’s departure on Friday afternoon, Mr. Trump asked: “Is he leaving because of bad ratings?”
“I wish him well,” the president added.
While Mr. Smith’s show was one of the lower-rated programs on Fox News, it easily dominated its competition and averaged more than one million viewers in the middle of the day, when the number of households watching television is lower than in prime time or the morning. “Shepard Smith Reporting” averaged 1.3 million viewers for the third quarter of 2019, easily beating MSNBC and CNN, according to Nielsen.
Fox News President Jay Wallace said Mr. Smith’s “integrity and outstanding reporting from the field helped put FOX News on the map” and added that he had “the ability to transport a viewer to a place of conflict, tragedy, despair or elation through his masterful delivery.”
Fox News parent Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.
Fox News didn’t name a successor to Mr. Smith. His show will be rebranded “Fox News Reporting.” Trace Gallagher and Jon Scott will be among the rotating anchors in the hour.
“He will be taking an extended period of time off to spend with his family. He is not retiring,” the spokesman for Mr. Smith said.
“Under our agreement, I won’t be reporting elsewhere at least in the near future,” Mr. Smith said during his final show Friday. The terms of his departure include a noncompete clause, the person familiar with his current deal said.
In his on-air goodbye to viewers Friday, Mr. Smith said, “Even in our currently polarized nation, it is my hope that the facts will win the day, that the truth will always matter, that journalism—and journalists—will thrive.”
Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com