ABC News has announced new management roles within its streaming news service ABC News Live, ABC News Long Form and ABC Audio.
David Hatcher has been named ABC News Live executive producer. In this role, he’ll be building out and overseeing the streaming news service’s morning news programming block, including breaking news, weekdays from 6 a.m. – 12 p.m. ET.
For Hatcher, it’s a bit of a homecoming. He produced Eyewitness News This Morning for the network’s flagship station, WABC, back in the mid-1990s.
He spent the last year as executive producer of the BuzzFeed News morning news show AM2DM on Twitter.
“David has an unequivocal passion for storytelling and a distinct eye for streaming news programming, which will be a huge advantage as we grow,” ABC News Live senior ep Justin Dial said in a statement. “I’m excited to see what he and the team he builds will create in the coming months.
ABC Audio vp and general manager Stacia Philips Deshishku has announced that Eric Johnson will become director and executive producer of podcast programming, beginning mid-March.
Johnson most recently served as senior broadcast producer at GMA, where he was a part of the program’s 7 a.m. leadership team. That’s now two GMA producers who have left the 7 a.m. hour since the start of the year, the other being Roxanna Sherwood, now part of the ABC News Long Form team as senior ep.
A 13-year veteran of ABC News, Johnson won a duPont Award as co-producer of Diane Sawyer’s interview with Caitlyn Jenner and multiple Emmys for projects including his role as senior producer of ABC News’ Town Hall The President and the People: Race in America.
“Each day I see how hard our incredibly talented podcast teams work as they build our growing podcast roster,” Philips Deshishku said in a statement. “Over the years we’ve had great success creating award-winning, smart programming, including The Dropout, Start Here, Ten Percent Happier, Truth and Lies: Jeffrey Epstein, Have You Seen This Man? and much more. Eric will help us continue to expand and evolve as we forge into the future. I can’t wait to see what’s next.”
Third, ABC News Long Form announced that Mike Kelley will become vice president, platforms.
Kelley will work closely with Sherwood, and will be responsible for the business strategy of ABC’s long form docs and docu-series that we will distribute to partners in the Disney television and streaming ecosystem.
Kelley arrives at ABC News from ITV Studios Global Distribution, where he was svp of sales, Americas. Kelley has an established working relationship with Beth Hoppe. Like the ABC News Long Form chief, he spent time at PBS, where he held executive level positions in programming, business affairs and content operations.
Hoppe was PBS’ general manager and chief programming executive before arriving at ABC News as senior vice president of Long Form in March 2018.
“Mike is a multi-talented media executive with an impeccable track record, and I’m excited to have him bolster the Long Form group’s business and content distribution strategy,” Hoppe said in a statement.