The E. W. Scripps Company has tapped a former Fox Television Stations executive to lead the newsroom at Newsy, the company’s streaming and broadcast television news network.
Eric Ludgood joins Newsy after serving as the assistant news director at WAGA-TV (Channel 5), the Fox-owned local station serving Atlanta. He previously worked for another Atlanta station, WGCL (Channel 46), in a similar capacity.
Ludgood has spent most of his television news career in the Atlanta metro area, starting as a production manager for NBC affiliate WXIA (Channel 11) in the late 1980s before joining Turner Networks in 1993 as a producer and copy editor for CNN’s global channel CNN International.
He spent more than a decade at CNN International, rising to the rank of Vice President before moving to WGCL in 2005.
Scripps intends to move the bulk of Newsy’s broadcast operation from Chicago to Atlanta as it works to re-launch the network as a free, over-the-air offering (the service will continue to stream online, but is no longer distributed to cable or satellite providers). Ludgood will play a pivotal role during that effort by helping to shape Newsy’s on-air identity and leading its other newsroom initiatives.
“As we build toward the launch of Newsy as a truly national network news organization, I am thrilled to be bringing in someone of Eric’s caliber and character to lead our talented team,” Kate O’Brien, the executive in charge of news at Scripps, said in a statement. “His experience directing coverage for a multitude of big global events combined with his award-winning investigative journalism makes him a great fit for Newsy and for the mission-based Scripps culture.”
Newsy will launch on Scripps’ owned-and-operated local stations, including Ion Network channels, in early October. Other affiliation agreements are expected to develop in the months following its broadcast debut.
