Hearst Television has promoted its newsroom leader in Pennsylvania to serve in the same role at its station in Sacramento, California.
Kristin Kay was named the News Director of KCRA (Channel 3, NBC) and KQCA (Channel 58) on Tuesday. It marks a return to California for Kay, who most-recently served in the same role at WGAL (Channel 8, NBC) in Lancaster.
“KCRA’s strength is its people — a deeply mission-driven team committed to serving this community with journalism that matters,” Ariel Roblin, the President and General Manager of KCRA and KQCA, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Kristin is the right leader for KCRA and KQCA at a pivotal time for our newsroom, our community and for California.”
Kay joined WGAL as News Director in March 2023, overseeing editorial content across the station’s platforms. During her tenure, WGAL launched a multi-platform half-hour 7 p.m. newscast and received several honors, including a national Telly Award for a documentary. This year, the station earned regional Emmy Awards for best morning and daytime newscasts and received the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters’ Excellence in Broadcasting Award for Outstanding Investigative Story, Report or Series.
Before joining WGAL, Kay served as Assistant News Director at WLWT (Channel 5, NBC), Hearst’s station in Cincinnati. There, she helped lead the newsroom through coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, severe weather events, tornadoes, flooding and the Cincinnati Bengals’ run to the 2022 Super Bowl in Los Angeles.
Kay also led community efforts at WLWT, including a Day of Giving for Cincinnati schools and a coat drive for St. Vincent de Paul. She worked with the station’s investigative team, which earned regional Murrow and Emmy awards, and helped organize voter guides and debates during the 2022 election.
Earlier in her career, Kay was Morning News Executive Producer at KARE (Channel 11, NBC) in Minneapolis. She also worked as a news producer at KING (Channel 5, NBC) in Seattle, KGTV (Channel 10, ABC) in San Diego and KERO-TV (Channel 23, ABC) in Bakersfield.
She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from California State University, Northridge
