Yesterday, FTVLive FIRST told you that KIRO (Seattle) News Director John LaPorte was taking his ball and going home.

A number of eyebrows were raised when LaPorte landed the Seattle job and one Agent said to FTVLive at the time of LaPorte’s hiring, “There is no way this guy is going to work out in Seattle at KIRO.”

It seems the TV Agent was on the money because as FTVLive told you, a little over a year on the job and LaPorte is La-Leaving.

Laporte came to KIRO from the News Director gig at WITI Milwaukee and now he is heading back to Milwaukee to be the Assistant ND at WDJT.

This was the memo sent out to the staff at KIRO and obtained by FTVLive:

From: "Nevin, Pat (CMG-Seattle)"
Date: August 11, 2020 at 10:37:47 AM PDT
To: "!CMG SEA - Mail Users (CMG-Seattle)"
Cc: "Curran, Paul (CMG-Atlanta)" "Pittman, Marian (CMG-Atlanta)" , "Mitchell, Toni (CMG-Dayton)"
Subject: John LaPorte resignation
Good morning everyone,

 KIRO News Director John LaPorte has tendered his resignation and will be relocating back to Wisconsin in early September.  John has accepted a new position as Assistant News Director of WDJT TV, the Weigel Broadcasting Owned CBS Affiliate in Milwaukee. Please join me in thanking John for his hard work and contributions to our newsroom this past year.  John’s last date here with KIRO will be Friday, September 4, 2020. 

 We will begin the recruitment process immediately and please direct any potential candidates to me for consideration.

Pat
Pat Nevin | VP / General Manager | KIRO 7

As the station looks for a replacement, FTVLive urges KIRO to look at hiring a woman or a minority (or both) for the job. The “old white guy” didn’t work out so well. Might be time to shake it up a bit.