Public Broadcasting Atlanta has named a chief content officer and a VP of development.
CCO Scott Woelfel will lead the development of news and content strategies across TV, radio and podcasts and will also lead producers and editors. He joined PBA Jan. 15.
Woelfel previously worked as an EVP of IfThenDigital, a marketing company. He began his career as a news producer for TV stations in Oklahoma, Virginia and Florida. He later spent 15 years with CNN, starting as a producer and later co-founding CNN.com as the platform’s editor-in-chief and president of the CNN Interactive division. He left CNN in 2001 to be a managing partner of Armchair Media, a consulting firm.
And Emily Pelton was named VP of development, overseeing all fundraising efforts. Her first day is Tuesday.
Pelton has worked for several nonprofit organizations, including Voices for Georgia’s Children, New American Pathways and Refugee Family Services. Her most recent experience was as senior director of policy, planning and resource mobilization for CARE, a group focused on poverty. She also worked for CARE from 1999 to 2005.
During the 1990s, Pelton worked in the Clinton Administration in the Office of Management and Budget and on the international affairs team of the President’s Science Advisor. She got her professional start after college at NASA and the House Space Science Subcommittee. She also worked as the government relations director for Case Western University and for Lewis-Burke Associates as a senior analyst.
KQED in San Francisco promoted an employee to senior leadership and added a KQED Newsroom host and tech reporter.
Michele Murphy was named VP of member generosity and audience intelligence. Murphy joined KQED in 2016 as a data analytics manager and was promoted to director of audience intelligence and to executive director of audience intelligence. Murphy has worked for several nonprofits, including the University of California at San Francisco, the PETA Foundation and Mills College in Oakland, Calif.
Priya David Clemens will be the new host of KQED Newsroom, the weekly TV show focused on the Bay Area that was founded in 1968 as This Week in Northern California. Clemens replaces Thuy Vu, who left the program in June 2019 to become a co-founder and president of the Global Mentor Network, a professional leadership organization. Clemens makes her debut Feb. 28. She was most recently director of public affairs for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. She was also a national correspondent for CBS News and a reporter or producer for NBC News and for commercial stations in California, Oregon and Alabama.
And Adhiti Bandlamudi will join KQED next month as a reporter covering Silicon Valley. Bandlamudi was previously a reporter covering guns for WUNC in Chapel Hill, N.C. She has also been a production intern for Marketplace, a news reporter for Public Broadcasting Atlanta, and a Kroc fellow at NPR and an intern for WUGA in Athens, Ga.
KCRW in Santa Monica, Calif., filled three leadership positions.
Anne Litt is the new program director of music. She replaces Jason Bentley, who was also the former host of Morning Becomes Eclectic. Litt, who filled in as host of the show, will continue to do so until a permanent replacement is named. Litt’s first on-air radio experience was with WXYC at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After working for the Mammoth Records independent music label, Litt joined KCRW as a DJ in 1996.
Paul Bennun was named chief content officer at KCRW. Bennun previously worked as advisor and consultant for the BBC in the United Kingdom. He is also the co-founder of Somethin’ Else, a radio production company.
Drew Tewksbury will be director of digital content. He has worked for several publications including People Magazine and Flaunt Magazine. He was also a production assistant for NPR, the managing editor of LA Weekly and the arts and book editor for the Los Angeles Times.
WEDU PBS in Tampa, Fla., promoted four staffers.
Jack Conely, VP of content, was promoted to SVP of operations. He will oversee the production, programming, education, engineering and communications departments. Conely joined the station in 1995 as a director and producer. He has also been a director of production and an EP. Conely has also worked for WUFT in Gainesville, Fla., and WMFE in Orlando, Fla.
Kristine Kelly was promoted to director of content. Kelly joined WEDU in 2007 and formerly served as a senior producer and content manager. Pam Webb was promoted to production manager. She joined the station in 1998 and most recently served as production coordinator. And Kyle Sorice was promoted to manager of brand and digital media. He joined WEDU in 2018 as a promotions manager and has also been an associate producer for ESPN.
Management
Andrew Wallmeyer, CEO of MinnPost, left the nonprofit online newspaper Jan. 24. Board chair Rebecca Shavlik took over as interim CEO. Wallmeyer was the newspaper’s publisher before becoming its CEO. Before that he was an associate at McKinsey & Company. He has also completed internships and fellowships with the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Financial Times and the Associated Press. Shavlik was a librarian earlier in her career. She was also co-owner of a technology company and is the executive director of a family foundation.
Development
Rob Seligmann was named director of corporate relations of Milwaukee PBS. His first day was Nov. 18. He previously served as a volunteer producer and on-air host of the jazz station KUVO in Denver. He was also an underwriting account executive for Rocky Mountain Public Media in Denver and an account director for KUNC in Greeley, Colo.
Bonnie North is joining North Country Public Radio in Canton, N.Y., as the station’s first director of audience, programs and outreach. Her first day is in March. She was most recently a host and producer for Lake Effect, a local show produced by WUWM in Milwaukee. She was also an outreach coordinator for the Defense Travel System, a part of the Department of Defense, as well as a host, production associate and operations manager for Vermont Public Radio.
Content
James Doubek is moving from an overnight role as an associate producer for digital at NPR to a daytime associate editor position. Doubek became a production assistant with NPR in 2015 and was promoted to an editor, reporter and producer position in 2017. He has also been an NPR intern, a freelance writer for WAMU in Washington, a digital media intern for the capital city’s NBC station and a producer for Sirius XM Radio.
Brad Turner was promoted to EP of audio innovations at Colorado Public Radio Dec. 16. Turner joined the station in 2013 as a digital producer and was promoted to digital editor in 2015. He was named senior producer of on-demand audio in January 2019. Prior to joining CPR, Turner worked for Boulder County and was an editor for the online magazine NewWest.net. He was also a reporter for the Longmont Daily Times-Call in Boulder, Colo.
Hugo Balta was named news director of WTTW in Chicago. Balta will also serve as EP of the station’s news program Chicago Tonight. His first day with WTTW is Monday. Balta previously served as a senior producer for MSNBC and was a member of the NBC/MSNBC Editorial Board. He has also been a publisher and executive editor of CTLatinoNews.com and has held other positions at ESPN and Telemundo. Balta is a two-time president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Maura Currie, a producer for The Kojo Nnamdi Show, left WAMU in Washington, D.C., to become a news assistant with PBS NewsHour starting Jan. 27. Currie previously worked as a news intern, producer and reporter for Georgia Public Broadcasting. She has also been an intern for 1A at WAMU.
Fellowships
This year’s cohort of Knight Visiting Nieman Fellows includes two public media reporters. The eight fellows selected by the Nieman Foundation will spend time at Harvard University to develop a project designed to advance journalism. Nicole Barton, an audience development associate at KQED in San Francisco, will research how children ages 5 to 7 consume information and how local public media can build news products to serve and develop that audience. Erika Dilday, executive director of The Futuro Media Group, will develop a plan to scale and sustain local community media labs in an effort to improve coverage of race and class issues.
The Online News Association selected six public and nonprofit media workers for its 2020 Women’s Leadership Accelerator, a yearlong program that advances women in digital journalism. Twenty-six media professionals in total were selected. The nonprofit and public media workers are Ahsante Bean, associate director of programming for PBS Digital Studios; Ashlee Clark Thompson, digital director for Louisville Public Media; Emily Bogle, photo editor and art director for NPR; Kelsey Ryan, founder and editor of The Beacon in Kansas City, Mo.; Mary Margaret White, executive director of Mississippi Today; and Rachel Glickhouse, partner manager of “Documenting Hate” for ProPublica.The cohort will have its first meeting in March at the University of California at Los Angeles. The program culminates with a workshop at the 2020 Online News Association Conference, Sept. 30–Oct. 3 in Atlanta.
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