Steve Hyvonen resigned Tuesday as news director at Orlando CBS affiliate WKMG after seven years at the station. “It’s been a fantastic seven years in Orlando packed with dozens of major news stories,” Hyvonen told the Orlando Sentinel‘s Hal Boedeker. “Local 6 has some of the most talented people I’ve ever worked with, and I wish the team success moving forward.”
Hyvonen’s resignation follows that of Skip Valet, who stepped down as WKMG’s general manager in June.
As Boedeker notes, Hyvonen once made national news for an in-house memo that landed him honors as “Worst Person in the World”:
But Hyvonen made headlines for a 2010 email asking staffers to identify “battery drainers” in the newsroom. Business Insider translated that move as “Florida TV news director asks staff to tell him who to fire.”
Hyvonen and WKMG dismissed the furor over the email and said the memo was just preparation for a staff meeting. But Keith Olbermann, then at MSNBC, put Hyvonen on the list for “Worst Person in the World.” Olbermann saw Hyvonen’s memo as “mandatory snitching.”