Former NBC CT anchor Natalie Morales has announced she is leaving NBC News after 22 years. The news came in an internal memo delivered at the end of last week. Morales hinted at a “new adventure” but did not provide details. She will continue to contribute to Dateline through the rest of this year. Several reports suggest she is joining CBS to be a co-host of The Talk.
Morales’ parting memo points out her start at NBC CT (and indeed she was discovered by then-WVIT News Director Liz Grey Godbout)…
…meanwhile, back where it all began for Morales, here in Connecticut…
WNTH anchor Ann Nyberg just keeps going in the same place she has always been. One of her latest stories previews a coming book on the Hartford Whalers, by NHL.com writer Patrick Pickens. It’s due out later this month.
It was a bad weekend for Carlos Watson of OZY Media. After a bizarre scandal revealed last week by the New York Times, OZY announced it is shutting down. By the end of the weekend Watson, once a darling of the mainstream media, resigned from his position on the board of NPR.
We watch stories happening elsewhere for signs of trends that could find their way here.
Today we look to Chicago where Chicago Public Media, best known for its primary property WBEZ, is moving forward with plans to acquire the Chicago Sun-Times. A statement from CPM says the deal would, “create one of the largest local nonprofit news organizations in the nation and be a national model for the future of local journalism.”
When you consider the Connecticut media landscape, it is ripe with potential deals and partnerships that could create influential news organizations with the power and resources to replace the influence lost by the once, all-important, major daily newspapers.
Connecticut Public Media and the CT Mirror comes to mind. Any television station and the Hartford Courant. Any Hartford or New Haven based radio station and the Courant. The Hartford Business Journal and any number of larger media companies. We are not talking about news sharing agreements, we are talking about actual acquisitions.
Given the rise of the internet as a news dissemination channel, the long ago separation of WFSB(then WTIC-TV) and WTIC-AM/FM, and the break-up of the short-lived news gathering merger of Fox 61 and the Courant, look like historic mistakes.
