Cleveland’s WJW has named Andy Fishman news director.
“Having Andy at the helm of our award-winning news department is something that so many of our FOX 8 staffers endorsed and encouraged based on his years of newsroom experience, leadership abilities and working knowledge of our city and all of Northeast Ohio,” Paul Perozeni, WJW VP & GM told The Cleveland Plain-Dealer.
According to The Plain-Dealer, Fishman had been working as the Cleveland FOX affiliate’s interim news director after former news director Sonya Thompson left to work for parent company Tribune Media Group.
Fishman arrived at Channel 8 in 1994 as executive producer of the station’s 5 p.m. newscast. He became the executive producer of the 10 p.m. newscast in 1997. Ten years later, he was named assistant news director.
“Even as Andy served as the interim news director these past several weeks, we worked in concert with Tribune in searching across the country for this important and vital position,” Perozeni said. “But in the end, the clear and obvious choice was, without a doubt, our own Andy Fishman.”
The recipient of 15 local and regional Emmy awards, Fishman lives in Solon with his wife, Andrea, and their two children.
“I’m obviously thrilled to be leading Northeast Ohio’s No. 1 news team,” Fishman said. “Having been born and raised here, I can’t remember a more exciting time to be in Cleveland: the Republican National Convention coming to town, LeBron, the Browns relevant again.”