After 18 years as a sportscaster for WCPO, Dennis Janson is taking on a new role at the Cincinnati ABC affiliate. Starting this summer, Janson will be a columnist on the air and on the station’s website.

“A chance to be part of the cutting edge efforts being exerted on our digital platforms is particularly intriguing,” Janson said in a statement. “And there will be a role for me on-air with an edge of its own.”

“Dennis has tremendous knowledge of the area, is well connected and can get people thinking,” WCPO VP-GM Jeff Brogan said. “The days of local media having columnists are nearly extinct and we feel Dennis is positioned to fill that void by bringing insight and context to our users and viewers.”

News of a new role for Janson was first reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer‘s John Kiesewetter.

The E.W. Scripps Company has named Jeff Brogan vice president and general manager of Cincinnati ABC affiliate WCPO. He was serving as interim general manager after Steve Thaxton left in January.

“WCPO has a long history of agenda-setting journalism that serves the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky community,” said Brian Lawlor, senior vice president of the Scripps television division in a statement. “As a seasoned media executive who values creative storytelling and impactful journalism, Jeff will now have the opportunity to work in his hometown to help define the role of a local media organization in this new digital era.”

Before coming to WCPO, Brogan was in a corporate role at Scripps, overseeing news strategy at several of its owned stations.  He began his career at WXIX in Cincinnati and began working for Scripps in 2000 when he got a job as a producer at WCPO. In 2004, he was promoted to executive producer. He was named assistant news director in 2008. Two years later, he was promoted to news director of Scripps NBC affiliate WPTV in West Palm Beach, FL.

Michael Garber has been hired as news director at West Palm Beach’s WPTV-WFLX, the stations confirmed to TVSpy today.

Garber has been news director of WTLV-WJXX, the Gannett duopoly in Jacksonville, since 2008. Prior to that, he was news director at WLTX in Columbia, SC and assistant news director at KGUN in Tucson.

Garber begins in West Palm Beach on May 29. He replaces Jeff Brogan, who was promoted to senior director of news strategy and operation for Scripps in March.

This is Garber’s second stint with Scripps. He was the lead sports producer at WFTS in Tampa/St. Pete in the late 1990s.

Jeff Brogan is leaving his post as news director at WPTV to oversee news strategy and content development for all of Scripps’ 19 stations.

Scripps announced today that Brogan has been named senior director of news strategy and operations. In the role, Brogan will work in tandem with Lana Durban Scott, Scripps’ current senior director of news strategy and operations, on helping the company’s stations develop their content and strategic plans.

Brogan joined WPTV, Scripps’ NBC-affiliate in West Palm Beach, in 2010. The station is now searching for his replacement as news director. Read more

WPTV has entered into a news partnership with the Palm Beach Post.  The West Palm Beach NBC-affiliate announced this week that it will work with the newspaper on news stories for TV, print, and the web.

Calling the move a “no-brainer,” WPTV news director Jeff Brogan said that the collaboration would improve news gathering. “If we’re combining our strengths with the Palm Beach Post‘s strengths, I think we’ll get better reporting,” he said.

The E.W. Scripps-owned station has existing news partnerships with South Florida’s Sun-Sentinel and Scripps’ Treasure Coast Newspapers but the new Palm Beach Post partnership will be–at least in principle–the most signifiant.  Under the agreement, WPTV will feature a front-page story from the Palm Beach Post during its 11 p.m. newscast as well as during its morning newscast that airs on Fox-affiliate WFLX.

“It’s a powerhouse partnership that delivers the best of both worlds for readers and viewers in our area,” said Tim Burke, publisher and executive editor of the Palm Beach Post. “We’re bringing the visual medium of WPTV to Post readers and the large newsgathering force of Palm Beach Newspapers to WPTV viewers.”
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