Portland Reporter Maggie Vespa Leaving KGW in March

Portland reporter Maggie Vespa said she is leaving the NBC affiliate KGW next month.

Vespa has worked at KGW since 2014. She announced the news on the station’s 6 p.m. newscast during the segment she hosts called The Story, which takes “a deeper, sometimes more opinionated look at current affairs and news.”

On her Facebook page she told viewers she was stepping down “effective today” she also said she was “handing the reins to my esteemed colleague Pat Dooris,” and added she “couldn’t be prouder of our innovative, intelligent, scrappy show. And I have no doubt Pat will kill it.”

While Vespa told viewers she couldn’t say where she was headed, she did say “it would have to be something truly exceptional to walk away from this station, and this city, and this show, frankly, because they’re all just incredible.”

Before working at KGW, Vespa was a general assignment reporter for KGUN in Tucson, Ariz. She started her career at WEEK–WHOI in Peoria, Ill.

KGW news director Greg Retsinas told OregonLive that Dooris “knows Portland and Oregon, and the issues and challenges the community faces. He is a great journalist to take on the back-and-forth daily conversation that is The Story. His commentary last night decrying the city leadership’s response to the weekend violence was a prime example of why he’s a good fit for the show. Watch for some new segments and features on that show soon.”