The ABC owned stations have formed a content team focusing on race and culture.
The station group says the team will publish stories from underrepresented and marginalized communities across multiple platforms for both daily news coverage and special projects in its New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham and Fresno markets.
“Embedding a content team across our stations which ensure intentional inclusion of balanced coverage underscores our commitment to inform and reflect the communities and audiences we serve,” said Wendy McMahon, president of ABC Owned Television Stations. “ABC is committed to featuring the stories and experiences of richly diverse communities that often go untold and yet bring an incredible perspective that must be heard.”
The team includes executive producers Nzinga Blake, Mariel Myers, Porsha Grant and multiskilled journalists Crystal Cranmore, Anabel Munoz, Will Jones, TaRhonda Thomas, Cory McGinnis, Julian Glover, Akilah Davis and Linda Ha.
Blake, Myers and Grant will identify culturally relevant topics to cover while Cranmore, Munoz, Jones, Thomas, McGinnis, Glover, Davis and Ha will tell hyperlocal stories that accurately reflect the voices and experience of diverse communities. ABC says the multiskilled journalists are embedded at each of the eight owned stations and play a crucial role in developing community relationships for deeper reporting.
“We continue to have ongoing and necessary conversations about diverse programming and representation,” said Jennifer Mitchell, svp of content development at ABC Owned Television Stations. “Our viewers are responding positively. In fact, when we produced the first installment of the Our America series, Our America: Living While Black, several of our stations received letters from community members expressing deep gratitude for taking the time to shine a light on the lives of Black Americans.”