It’s been quiet, too quiet on the local TV news front, so thought I’d check in at KSTP and WCCO to see what’s cooking with the stations’ respective searches for replacements to news directors Chris Berg (let go in early August) and Jeff Kiernan (resigned in early September). The responses were as different as the competitors’ approaches to news.
Hubbard Broadcasting VP/KSTP general manager Rob Hubbard said he’ll take his time finding a replacement for Berg at the ABC affiliate. Hubbard’s been so happy with former assistant news director Lindsay Radford’s interim performance that, “I didn’t even make a phone call” until Radford went out on maternity leave several weeks ago.
He called Radford a “solid candidate” for the position. Interim news director duties are now being handled by I-Team overseer Dana Benson, a former KSMP news director and WCCO news manager himself.
Hubbard said that Berg had done “a fantastic job bringing the station back to a newsy focus” [best illustrated by the station’s superlative bridge collapse coverage], but that he wanted Berg’s replacement to focus on adding more context to news stories.
Conversely, WCCO spokeswoman Kiki Rosatti said the CBS-owned station would have liked a replacement for Kiernan “last week.” In the interim, Kiernan’s duties are being handled by John Daenzer with assistance from Mike Kaputa. Rosatti said station general manager Susan Adams Loyd is “looking everywhere” for a replacement.
However, unlike Hubbard, WCCO wants someone who will “fit in with and improve” the existing news focus and structure, rather than change it.
The only names that have surfaced so far as potential WCCO replacements are former KSTP’ers Scott Libin (news director pre-Berg), now on the faculty at the Poynter Institute in Florida, and his former assistant Mark Ginther, currently assistant news director at WFAA in Dallas.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply