Since August, three out of the four news directors in Indianapolis have exited their posts. The Indianapolis Business Journal takes a look at the unusual timing of the vacancies and talks to the one remaining news director, WXIN’s Lee Rosenthal, about the departures:
“I ran a TV news operation for 25 years, and I do not recall ever having seen a market, any market, that has had three news directors gone at one time,” said Mike Cavender, executive director of Radio Television Digital News Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association. “It will be interesting to see what impact these new hires will have coming on board around the same time.”
“It’s certainly an unusual situation, but it doesn’t totally surprise me,” said Dave Rust, the former director of broadcast and electronic media at Indiana University and a nine-year TV news veteran. “That job today is a pressure cooker.”
Advertisement“TV news directors are kind of like quarterbacks. They get too much credit when things are good and too much blame when things go bad,” WXIN’s Rosenthal said.
WISH’s Patti McGettigan and WRTV’s Kevin Finch were both fired; Keith Connors is leaving WTHR to pursue other options.