Ives, looking concerned.
For the fourth time in the last two months a well-known name at WNPR is leaving for parts unknown(and that is not a Bourdain reference).
Tucker Ives, an on-air and online producer with the station, announced on Twitter that his last day is today (Friday August 20). Ives’ departure follows that of WNPR business reporter Harriet Jones and producer Betsy Kaplan earlier this summer. In each case, “whatever comes next” for Kaplan, Ives, and Jones, was undetermined at the time of their individual announcements. We have been promised updates when appropriate.
The Laurel has also learned, from sources with sophisticated understanding of WNPR operations, that Where We Live producer Carmen Baskauf left last week.
Though there seems to be no connection, the personnel changes follow a decision several months back to discontinue the weekly on-air program NEXT, which was produced by the New England News Collaborative from Connecticut Public headquarters in Hartford. NEXT host Morgan Springer had announced her decision to leave internally before the public announcement of the “sunsetting” of NEXT.
The changes make 2021 a summer of disruption for the otherwise close-knit WNPR team and raise questions about what’s next for one of Connecticut’s essential news gathering organizations.
