A 2 Market Jump

Back in August, FTVLive told you that Nexstar and their Lansing station WLNS were being sued for sexual harassment.

Former Assignment Editor Cheryl Fritze claims in the suit that there were a number of incidents involving employees that she believed constituted sexual harassment. Fritze claims that she she reported the harassment to managers at Nexstar and even to Nexstar CEO Perry Sook.

Now, Nexstar has announced that WLNS GM Bob Simone has been "promoted" to General Manager of WWLP in Springfield, MA.

WLNS is in market 110 and WWLP is in market 108, so the word “promotion” might be a bit much.

Some WLNS sources think that Nexstar is moving Simone as part of a reaction to the lawsuit.

But, it should be pointed out that this is a bit of a homecoming for Simone.

Commenting on his new role, Bob Simone said “I want to express my sincere gratitude to our outstanding teams at WLNS, WLAJ and CW-5 in Lansing, as well as the local clients and organizations I’ve proudly served over the past six years. This promotion is an exciting opportunity to extend my record of service at Nexstar and return to WWLP-TV in my hometown of Springfield where I began my career. In this new role, I will utilize my management, sales, programming and marketing experience to build upon the success of 22 News and further strengthen the position of our Western Massachusetts station and digital operations. Our goal is to develop new premium local marketing opportunities that drive results for our advertising partners, while also generating continued viewership growth through the delivery of enhanced local news content and entertainment programming for our local viewers. I look forward to working alongside the exceptional local media team at WWLP-TV and CW-Springfield, while cultivating new business relationships and supporting community organizations in our market.”

Do you ever notice that Nexstar GM’s never talk about “sales” and “clients” and little about news?

Just asking…

---