Amy Wigler was hired as VP of multiplatform marketing and content for PBS. Her first day will be Monday.
Wigler most recently served as SVP of integrated marketing and branded content for Viacom, developing marketing strategies for programs on MTV, VH1 and Logo. Programs she worked on includes RuPaul’s Drag Race, Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party, Love & Hip Hop and the MTV Video Music Awards. She was also director of marketing for Dodger State Holdings, where she oversaw promotions for several Tony Award–winning Broadway musicals.
And Jeremy Teres was promoted to VP of business development at the network. Teres previously served as head of business development for PBS Digital and oversaw the distribution of live and on-demand programming from PBS and member stations. Before joining PBS in 2015, Teres was VP of business development for USA Today and was director of business development for AOL.
ideastream announces three promotions.
Mike McIntyre was promoted to executive editor, effective June 1. He joined the organization in 2010 as host of The Sound of Ideas, a public affairs program. McIntyre previously served as a columnist for the Plain Dealer before being laid off in April, according to the Cleveland Scene. He began writing for the newspaper in 1990.
Marlene Harris-Taylor was named managing producer of the health unit. Her first day will be July 1. She joined ideastream in 2016 as a reporter and producer focusing on health issues. She previously served as a medical editor and senior staff writer for the Toledo Blade. Harris-Taylor has also worked for WBGU in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Anna Huntsman was promoted to reporter and producer, effective June 8. She previously served as an associate producer with the health unit. Before joining the station, she wrote investigative stories for News 21, based in Phoenix, as part of a fellowship for Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. She has also been a reporter for WKSU in Kent, Ohio; an intern and assignment editor for WKYC, an NBC affiliate in Cleveland; and GM for Kent State University’s student-run television station.
Content
Pamela Johnston was named GM for news at WGBH in Boston. She will succeed Phil Redo, who announced last year that he planned to retire from his position as radio and local news GM. Johnston, who will take over July 1, currently serves as senior director of strategy and audience for Frontline, which is produced at the station. Johnston joined Frontline in 2012 as senior director of audience development. Before that, she served as a news director for WLVI, a CW affiliate in Boston, and as director of new media at Lahey Health, a hospital in Burlington, Mass. She has also been a producer for WMTW, an ABC affiliate licensed in Poland Spring, Maine, that serves Portland, and WRAL, an NBC affiliate in Raleigh, N.C.
Laura Frank, who left her position in March as VP of journalism for Rocky Mountain PBS in Denver, was named the inaugural executive director of the Colorado News Collaborative, or COLab, which was created by the Colorado Media Project with underwriting support from the Colorado Press Association. COLab will become an independent nonprofit media resource by January. In addition to the VP position at Rocky Mountain PBS, Frank served as president and GM of news. She was also founder and executive director of the I-News Network and held several reporting positions for Rocky Mountain News, USA Today, the Tennessean and the Democrat and Chronicle. Frank is currently board chair for the Institute of Nonprofit News.
Ele Ellis was appointed content manager of WUWM 89.7 FM, Milwaukee’s NPR station. Her first day will be July 1. Ellis most recently served as program director for WKSU in Kent, Ohio. She has also been program director for WUGA in Athens, Ga.; Boise State Public Radio in Idaho; and WNCW in Spindale, N.C.
Management
Kristin Gilger was named interim leader of Arizona PBS and dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. She has been the senior associate dean since 2007 and also serves as the executive director for both the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism and the National Center on Disability and Journalism. The university licensee is searching for a permanent replacement for the deanship and CEO position at Arizona PBS. Sonya Forte Duhé, who was appointed in March to lead the station, will no longer assume the role after officials reviewed allegations that she had made racist and homophobic comments to students in her previous role at another university.
Governance
Georgette Bronfman, executive director of membership organization Eastern Region Public Media, is retiring this month. Bronfman has led the organization since 2003 and oversaw the merger of Eastern Public Radio and Southern Public Radio, which created ERPM. She has also served as GM of KDHX, a community station in St. Louis, and as interim GM of KWMU, also in St. Louis. Board Chair Susan Rogers, EVP and GM of WXXI in Rochester, N.Y., told Current that Eastern Region Public Media plans to replace Bronfman by Jan. 1.
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