Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Former Weather Channel executive Jennifer Rigby has been named the new 11 Alive news director, replacing Ellen Crooke, who was promoted by Gannett to help run news operations for 46 stations nationwide.
According to a memo sent out yesterday to staff by general manager John Deushane:
For the past four years, Jennifer has been with The Weather Channel as VP Live Programming, Senior Director Coverage and Talent and MultiMedia Content Director…the latter in which she was charged with merging the divergent efforts of www.weather.com with TWC. Immediately before that, she was a Senior Consultant with Smith Geiger and worked with newsrooms and group heads across the country and Canada. The lion's share of her previous work was at various Cox stations where she served as news director in Dayton, Pittsburgh and for 5 years at WSB. [She was at Channel 2 Action News as news director from 2002 to 2006.]
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Rigby has a good reputation from what I hear and knows Atlanta well. She brings online and on-air experience, which Gannett values.
Crooke moves on up but will remain in Atlanta. She came on the scene from Buffalo in 2009 with a philosophy that her station would transcend the "if it leads, it bleeds" mentality.
While 11 Alive has largely remained mostly a third-place finisher in viewers, she did provide more substantive coverage of issues and took home awards galore, from 21 Edward R. Murrow Awards to 150-plus Emmy nominations.
"There have been high’s and low’s regarding television ratings over the past five years," Crooke wrote me back in August at the time her departure was announced, "depending on several factors including network programming. But that’s why I love working for a company that is more progressive than to just look at antiquated metrics as a basis for success in journalism. Most people are getting their news online, on their phone or tablet…and our growth and innovation presenting great news content for those consumers has been tremendous."
Crooke had a fair share of supporters and detractors within the newsroom. Some loyalists embraced her aggressive style and need for staff to drop everything when breaking news happened and come together.
The hours needed to keep her happy didn't please everyone. For instance, anchor Ted Hall returned to Knoxville last year after seven years in Atlanta partly because of lifestyle choice. And former chief meteorologist Mike Francis infuriated Crooke when he couldn't be reached one Saturday morning when a major winter storm was approaching Atlanta. He was let go soon after.
But she took chances - some beefy, some silly. There's the infamous "Wizometer" to measure how nice a day it is from 1 to 11. She created Commuter Dude to follow traffic and potholes and road hazards. She cheekily dubbed the investigative team the Center for Investigative Action (CIA), though it's now just called the Investigators. She allowed Brenda Wood to provide commentary at the end of her newscast. (The Atlanta Press Club, of which I'm a board member, is inducting her into the Press Club Hall of Fame tonight.) She gave Doug Richards permission to keep writing his excellent blog about the local news business.
Her last big move was bringing HLN's Vinnie Politan to mornings. It's too early to say if that will be a success or not.
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