KXAN has hired a new news director.

Chad Cross, who has been the news director at KWCH in Wichita since 2008, is joining the Austin NBC-affiliate.  He replaces Michael Fabac, who departed KXAN in May after five years leading the station’s newsroom.

A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Cross joined KWCH in 2002.  Cross worked as a reporter, anchor, producer, and assignment editor there before being named news director.

As Austin media blogger Jim McNabb points out, Cross is much younger than many of the people he will manage at KXAN.