News Directors

Detroit independent station WADL, which launched a 9 p.m. newscast in January, has hired Matt Stevens as news director.

Most recently, Stevens was a senior correspondent at WOIO in Cleveland.

“This is an opportunity to return to my home state and to work with a fabulous group of people,” said Stevens, who grew up in Michigan and graduated from Western Michigan University. “I’m looking forward to serving our viewers.”

“This is the start of many great things to come,” WADL general manager Matt Uhl promised, announcing the addition of Stevens.

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After two years as vice president of news and content at WTVJ, Lane Michaelsen is leaving the Miami NBC O&O, an NBC spokesperson confirms t0 TVSpy.

Michaelsen told Rick Gevers & Associates he wanted to “see what else is out there.” His departure comes just three days after NBC named Manuel Martínez the new president and general manager of WTVJ.

Michaelsen joined WTVJ in 2009 from WUSA, where he was vice president in charge of the information center. He was previously news director at WTSP in Tampa and KTHV in Little Rock-Pine Bluff.

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced this week that Scott Livingston, currently the news director of the company’s flagship station, WBFF in Baltimore, has been named vice president of news for the station group.

In his new role, Livingston, who has been WBFF’s news director for the past ten years, will lead the 41 Sinclair stations that air local news.

“We are pleased to promote Scott into this well-deserving position,” Sinclair president and CEO David Smith said, announcing the promotion.  “Scott has been charged with the ultimate goal of ensuring that each of our news operations is delivering high-quality, informative news stories that matter to our local audiences and make a difference in their respective markets.” Read more

In the debut episode of mediabistroTV’s “My First Big Break,” TV news luminary Brian Williams revealed that he owes much of his success to Betty Endicott, who gave him a shot as a reporter with WTTG in the early 80s.

Williams, who worked as a chyron operator for WTTG before being tapped for an on-air job, recalled that Endicott made “what might have been the last gut call in television.”

So who is Betty Endicott?

Endicott began her broadcasting career as a reporter for KSTP in Minneapolis-St. Paul, before moving on to WRC in Washington, D.C. Read more

SJL Broadcasting announced today that WTVG news director Brian Trauring has been tapped to oversee news operations for all of the company’s stations.

Trauring will continue serving as WTVG’s news director as he takes on the additional title of executive news director for SJL Broadcasting.

In the newly created position, Trauring will, according to the announcement, “oversee strategic planning and work with news directors and staffs at the local level.”

Trauring, who has been WTVG’s news director for the past ten years, will be working with WJRT in Flint, MI; WICU-WSEE in Erie, PA; and WENY in Elmira, NY.

Calling it “traumatic to people at KUSA,” news director Patti Dennis has done her best to ensure that viewers don’t see the video of KUSA anchor Kyle Dyer being bitten by a dog during the station’s morning show Wednesday.

Dennis told TVSpy this week that, following the on-air incident, she contacted the news directors of every station in Denver, imploring them not to air footage of the bite.

While it appears most stations respected Dennis’s request, at least one, Fox-affiliate KDVR, aired footage of the bite.

In addition to trying to keep the video off the air, Dennis attempted to keep the video off the internet this week. Read more

Carolyn Mungo has been named executive news director at WFAA, the ABC-affiliate in Dallas. She will begin later this month.

Mungo joins WFAA from KRIV, the Fox O&O in Houston, where she was the assistant news director.

“The demands of a major market newsroom take a special set of skills,” Mungo said in a statement. “I am well aware of the challenges because I have lived them.”

Mungo replaces Michael Valentine, who left his post at WFAA earlier this month to become vice president of content for the station’s parent company, Belo.

In her new movie, “Big Miracle,” actress Kristen Bell plays a local TV reporter and, in a recent interview with New York magazine, she spoke about growing up with a news director dad.

Bell’s father, Tom Bell, worked as a news director at KPHO in Phoenix and currently serves as the ND at WOAI in San Antonio.

“I grew up going to the station with him and being able to play with the teleprompters, knowing the behind the scenes of news directing,” Bell told New York.  “And it’s very similar to acting. He had a lot of hesitancy because he knew the rejection that was possible. He had been the one forced to reject people.”

After two years as assistant news director at KRIV in Houston, Carolyn Mungo is leaving the Fox O&O, Houston media blogger Mike McGuff reports.

Mungo declined to reveal where she is headed. “I can say I am very excited about my future,” she told McGuff.

Before joining KRIV, Mungo was a reporter at KHOU, Houston’s CBS-affiliate. In 2005, she moved into the role of managing editor at KRIV. She was named assistant news director in 2009. Mungo’s last day at the station was Friday.

WITI has tapped John LaPorte to lead its newsroom.  The Milwaukee Fox-affiliate announced today that LaPorte, the station’s news content manager, has been named vice president of news.

He replaces Jim Lemon, who left the station in December after six years as its news director.

Before joining WITI in 2010, LaPorte served as news director at WEAU in Eau Claire, WI.  He also spent several years at Milwaukee NBC-affiliate WTMJ, working as an executive producer and eventually serving for a year as the station’s news director.

“John has many years invested in the news business and the Milwaukee market,” WITI president and general manager Chuck Steinmetz said, in announcing LaPorte’s promotion, “and over the past several weeks I had the opportunity to see just how competitive and compassionate he is about this newsroom and his craft.”