KIRO7 News Director Laura Evans is out, reportedly escorted from the building Monday after a three year run. Staff was told the department is 'going in a different direction.' Came here from the Cox station in Dayton and previously ran the KING newsroom as an interim ND for a time One insider put it this way, "She burned the place down." If memory serves, she left KING when Pete Saires got the vacant ND job, moved to Dayton in late '21 and then came to KIRO in spring '23. KIRO just moved its long-running noon news to 11 a.m and just a week later she is gone. I wonder if she lost a battle between her and the GM over switching time slots with a soap opera. Hmmmm. Final straw?
As I reported in a previous post, Fox 13 has two positions open, morning EP and Digital Editor Lead, so maybe she could immediately land on her feet, complete the Seattle TV superfecta (she worked at KOMO according to a Cox bio) and give Fox some competitive intel.
Developing story, stay tuned.
And all she was probably doing was following orders from corporate. One would hope this is the first step towards a sale but I honestly doubt it.
ReplyDeleteApollo/Cox supposedly still wants to sell all of their television stations, including KIRO. But the Nexstar/Tegna debacle might end up holding them back for quite some time while the industry waits to see what comes out of that. It could very well change who Apollo/Cox can sell what to.
DeletePriming the pump??
DeleteIt could if Nexstar is allowed to keep most or all of Tegna. It has the potential to make it easier to sell all of the Apollo/Cox stations to a single new owner regardless of what market overlaps that new owner might have.
DeleteHard to say. These things take so long to close under normal terms. It is very odd that they just switched the noon news to 11 a m. Wonder if she balked and that became a problem with the GM. If Pat Nevin gets the axe then that would be a real sign. Cox could put an interim GM in his spot and let the newsroom run itself. Remember, they fired Managing Editor Rick Boone after just four months. Newsroom in disarray. And the patchwork plan covering Mariners ALCS and Super Bowl created a punchline even if corporate cut the sports dept. Eric Thomas hire wasted. Too many negatives and no positives.
ReplyDeleteWhoever suceeds Evans will be walking into a newsroom in desperate need of reinvestment. I wish them the best of luck. They will need it.
DeleteAs for Evans, I am sorry to see her go (losing a job in this economy is eapecially rough), but I am not surprised. KIRO's newsroom has been struggling under her leadership. I don't want to put all of the blame for KIRO's woes on her as it may very well be Apollo/Cox that is causing the problems. If Nevin is dismissed, that could tell us a lot about where KIRO's troubles are coming from.
In full agreement here. I am also sorry to see her go, she may have gotten a raw deal here but Wayne I think is correct, if the GM gets the pink slip then that might be a big clue. About Cox/Apollo selling, it has been reported by the national guys that Nexstar may be interested in the station in Pittsburgh, so maybe Apollo should just focus on selling the stations one by one in order to get around the FCC. It's too bad CBS probably wouldn't be in the mix to buy 7 because they really need to be IMO the ones doing it and pairing them with 11
DeleteSometime down the road, one of the 4 local news stations throws in the towel on news and my guess is it will be KIRO first. The audience pie is shrinking and it won’t cut into four decent pieces forever. Maybe they do some fake hubbed news, but a real local newsroom? There won’t be four in Seattle for much longer.
ReplyDeleteI agree. KIRO is on borrowed time especially with major impacts by Bari Weiss and new owners. CBS just sold two hours of late night time to Allen Media for a comic show and a game show. Mornings always suck, Doukopil DOA and 60 Minutes next to fall. KIRO will become an Indy at some point. KSTW.always looming as an O&O
DeleteIf KIRO doesn't turn things around soon, they may just end up being the first television newsroom in this market to close since the downfall of KSTW's 10:00 news in 1998 (I don't really count KSTW's short-lived "Seattle Now News" in 2022 and 2023 as being a true news department since it was largely national content presented out of New York with local headlines mostly read by a KPIX CBS News Bay Area presenter from San Francisco and a single local reporter in Seattle).
DeleteKIRO ex-staffer I know said when she got walked out it was one of the best days the station has had in years. Sad to hear on both her level personally and to know the newsroom is in that state of mind.
ReplyDelete