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Crystal Cotti leaves Fox 7 Austin
KTBC reporter Crystal Cotti has announced her departure from Austin’s Fox 7 News. The McGregor, Texas native, a full-time KTBC employee for 6 years, declined to renew her contract, which came up for renewal this month.
“It was a very open process,” Cotti says. “They came to me and said, ‘We’d like to renew your contract.’ I thought about it for about a week and told my news director that I needed to be home more with my family. And they totally understood and were very supportive.” Cotti is married to Texas State Representative Mark Strama; the couple has two daughters, a 3-year-old and a 6-month old.
Cotti, who started at KTBC as a morning reporter and graduated to the City Hall beat, says her plans to leave were not long in the making.
“I had thought about what it would be like,” she says, “but I had not made that decision until they came to me and said, ‘We’d like to renew you and we need an answer.’ So, to be fair and give them time to find a replacement, of course, I wanted to let them know as soon as I’d made the final decision.”
Cotti will be have her hands full at home. In addition to spending more time with her kids, she is starting a home-based video production business. “I’m going to be editing videos for small businesses and families, home videos,” she says, “because I love the storytelling aspect and I still want to have a creative outlet.” The broadcasting experience she gained at KTBC should help in that endeavor. “It’s going to be storytelling using video and that’s what I did at Fox,” she explains. “I’m excited about it.”
She expressed thanks to the viewers who have followed her career and she hopes that they will continue to watch. And she had kind words for station management, too.
“This is a business that is notoriously stressful and my bosses at Fox were absolutely as understanding and flexible with me as they could have been,” she says. “I’m very thankful for that because this industry isn’t always known for that.”
No word yet on a replacement for Cotti, who has promised to keep us apprised of her future endeavors.
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By Simian Pundit
January 30, 2010 4:05 PM | Link to this
Bring back Arzow!