With Nexstar bumping up WGN News Director Jennifer Lyons to head up the new cable newscast on WGN America, that means that local WGN needs a new News Director.

Before to run off to send your resume, we have to let you know that the job has already been filled.

Here is the internal memo, obtained by FTVLive that went out to the staff:

From: "Rennie, Paul"
Date: January 15, 2020 at 8:43:11 AM CST
To: WGNTV.All.Users
Subject: WGN-TV News

All,

We have some exciting news to announce. You’ve seen a lot of activity in our station lately, this morning I’m pleased to let you know that Nexstar is building an entire newsroom upstairs for WGNA. Mid-summer WGNA will launch a national 3-hour primetime newscast based here in our studios. The national newscast will work out of studio 3 and control room 2. WGNA will be hiring about 120 new employees to support this exciting new project.

Jennifer Lyons has been promoted to Vice President of News for WGNA. She will be responsible for creating this news network that will pull resources from all of Nexstar’s newsrooms across the nation Jennifer has been an exceptional leader in the WGN-TV newsroom. Under Jennifer’s leadership, WGN-TV has developed a powerful digital platform, expanded News to 73 hours of local news each week and increased viewership and engagement across the board. We thank Jennifer for her tremendous accomplishments and wish her all the best as she launches Nexstar’s new network news.

We are pleased to announce that her replacement is here and ready to go. Dominick Stasi has been promoted to News Director of WGN-TV. Dom has been leading the WGN-TV Newsroom for 6 years as Executive Producer. His leadership, news judgement and dedication make him the perfect fit for the job. Dom has led some of WGN-TV’s biggest projects, including expansion of our Evening and Late News, orchestrating our massive Election Night coverage, and spearheading projects like “Examining DCFS”. He has 20 years of experience in the Chicago market, prior to WGN-TV he worked at WLFD and WMAQ. Jennifer and Dom will work closely together during the transition.

Please join me in offering congratulations and support to both Jennifer and Dom as they take on their new roles.

Paul

Paul Rennie
Vice President General Manager Chicago’s Very Own WGN-TV