Posted by chicagomedia.org on April 03, 2008 at 09:42:42:
In Reply to: Diann Burns fired from CBS2, others posted by Morning Lemon on April 02, 2008 at 17:29:54:
Roseanne Tellez and newcomer Anne State will split Diann Burns' WBBM-Ch. 2 anchor duties and WMAQ-Ch. 5 import Ryan Baker will succeed lead sportscaster Mark Malone as part of a major news realignment at the CBS-owned station, which earlier this week sacrificed Burns, Malone and several other staffers in a cost-cutting sweep.
The new assignments will be effective as of April 14, staffers were told today.
Tellez, who has been Channel 2's early morning co-anchor since leaving Tribune Co.-owned WGN-Ch. 9 in 2004, now will front WBBM's 11 a.m. newscast with former weekend anchor Jim Williams and replace Burns alongside Rob Johnson on the station's 5 p.m. broadcast.
Tellez plans to go on maternity leave this summer, but what effect that will have on Channel 2's plans was not immediately clear.
Weatherman Don Schwenneker, who was brought in from Pittsburgh earlier this year to work weekends, moves to the 5 p.m. weekday show in place of Steve Baskerville, who will remain on the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. shows Monday through Friday.
Co-anchoring with Johnson weeknights at 6 and 10 in place of Burns, who was removed with half a year remaining on her $2 million-per-year contract, will be San Diego newscaster Anne State, whose hiring was announced by WBBM in February. The station maintained at that time she would replace Burns only on the 5 p.m. newscast despite speculation State would have more on her plate before the year was out.
Similarly, when Channel 2 announced two weeks ago it had hired sportscaster Baker away from NBC-owned Channel 5, WBBM management said it was creating a new morning sportscasting job just for him although he seemed a strong candidate eventually to replace Malone on the station's 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. weekday newscasts.
These abrupt, widespread changes are just the aftershocks of a massive wave of cutbacks at CBS owned-and-operated stations coinciding with the end of the year's first quarter. They are emblematic of budget crunches throughout traditional print and broadcast media, which are struggling to adapt in response to the loss of audience and revenue to the Internet and other digital platforms.
Locally, among the 17 Channel 2 news employees either fired or told their contracts would not be renewed Monday were lead anchor Burns, lead sportscaster Malone, anchor-turned-health correspondent Mary Ann Childers and reporters Katie McCall and Rafael Romo. One person from the station's sales department was also let go.
State has been at NBC-owned KNSD-TV in San Diego since 2002, co-anchoring a 10 p.m. newscast that KNSD produced to air on KSWB-TV, which like the Chicago Tribune, is owned by Tribune Co. That KNSD-produced KSWB news show is endangered, however, with Tribune Co.'s recently announced plan to switch KSWB's network affiliation from the CW to Fox in August and its intent to produce its own San Diego newscasts.
At Chicago's Channel 2, taking over for Tellez on the 5 a.m.-to-7 a.m. weekday newscast will be Krystyn Hartman, who has been a Sunday morning co-anchor and general assignment reporter, while Williams replaces the late Randy Salerno on the broadcast.
Traffic reporter and Saturday morning co-anchor Susan Carlson, who has filled in for Salerno since he was killed in a January snowmobiling accident, will become general assignment reporter for the evening newscasts.
Mike Puccinelli, who has been Channel 2's Naperville-based reporter covering the western suburbs, will be Suzanne Le Mignot's morning co-anchor on both Saturdays and Sundays.
Derrick Blakely, who was a weekend anchor for Channel 5 before joining Channel 2 in 2003, will replace Williams as Mai Martinez' co-anchor on weekend evenings. Meteorologist Mary Kay Kleist, who had been relegated to weekend mornings with the hiring of Schwenneker, regains her spot on all WBBM weekend newscasts.