(Knock knock) "Hello, I'm with NBC CT …"

NBC CT is introducing a new 10-person consumer and investigative unit. According to a press release, the new team will serve as the largest of its kind in the Connecticut market (and given the fact that most investigative journalism has been severely cut, we would concur with this claim):

Sharon Butterworth, the station’s former Managing Editor, will lead the new consumer and investigative team.  Butterworth has been with NBC Connecticut for three-and-a-half years and previously worked for ten years at the ABC station in Miami, with her last position as Executive Producer. Monica Buchanan, a “go-to” general assignment reporter with WVIT since 2007 has transitioned into the investigative role along with reporter Jeff Stoecker who has been a solid and versatile member of the news team since 2009. NBC Connecticut newcomers Christopher Coffey and Sabina Kuriakose join the unit as well.  Coffey, most recently with the Fox affiliate in Austin, Texas, brings more than a decade of consumer and investigative experience and Kuriakose comes to NBC Connecticut from YNN in upstate New York where she reported throughout New York’s capital region. Station veterans and Emmy award-winning photojournalists Darryl Vallez and David Michnowicz will provide energetic images and perspective to the investigations along with Dan Lee, the station’s world-traveled photojournalist who has shot video for NBC in China and other locations around the world. The team’s News Associate, Denny Alfonso, recently joined NBC Connecticut with previous experience on the TODAY Show and also as the CNN en Espanol Radio correspondent in NYC.   As a Colombian reporter he brings additional language skills and international perspective. Another member of the unit will be announced soon.

 The investigative unit addition is part of NBCUniversal’s massive investment into its 10 owned stations, which includes hiring more than 130 new people, adding more local news, establishing new consumer and investigative units and purchasing new equipment, including trucks, in an effort to boost the news gathering capabilities at the stations.