Jeff Harris, soon-to-be news director at Cleveland’s WEWS, starts at the Scripps owned ABC affiliate Monday.
Harris left Scripps’ Denver station KMGH in August. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports he’s no stranger to the Cleveland area.
Although Harris has spent the last six years as the news director at KMGH Channel 7 in Denver, he’s hardly a stranger to Northeast Ohio. A Cleveland native, he is a graduate of Cleveland Heights High School and Cleveland State University.
AdvertisementHis wife, Cecille, also is from Cleveland. They have two children.
KMGH, like WEWS, is an ABC affiliate station owned by the E.W. Scripps Company. Harris led the Denver newsroom to several honors, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Columbia-DuPont Award and local Emmys.
Harris is moving from the No. 17 television market to No. 19. According to Nielsen, the Denver area has 1.57 million TV homes. The Cleveland market has 1.48 million.
“This is all things coming together at the same time,” Harris said in a statement released Friday by Channel 5. “I’m excited and grateful to return to Cleveland. It’s a great opportunity for me personally and a perfect match for the company.”
Harris identifies himself as a “diehard Cleveland sports fan.” He worked at Channel 5 as investigative producer from 1997 until 2000, when he moved to Denver and KMGH as executive producer of special projects.
He left Denver in 2004 to become executive producer of special projects at KPIX Channel 5, the CBS-owned station in San Francisco. He returned to Denver and KMGH in 2008.
“Jeff’s knowledge of Cleveland, our culture and our competitors will benefit our station and community right away,” said Sam Rosenwasser, Channel 5’s vice president and general manager. “He’s a great leader and will help us continue to innovate and build deeper connections with our audiences on-air and online.”