Adrienne Roark

Top news and content executives from CBS News and Stations, Cox Media Group, NBCUniversal Local and CBC News share creative alternatives to the newscast for presenting topical content in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere conference at the NAB Show on April 14. Register here.

Tracy Wholf becomes senior producer of climate, while CBS News producer Chris Spinder is promoted to climate producer. Also, the group today premieres Warming Signs, a week-long climate docuseries on the fastest-warming community on Earth, with an hour-long special to air the weekend of Dec. 9.

Adrienne Roark spells out plans for a data journalism team, hiring a head of weather strategy and a head of climate coverage.

The new appointments for Adrienne Roark, Jennifer Mitchell Joel Goldberg, Laurie Orlando and Alison Pepper are part of President-CEO Wendy McMahon’s plan to take advantage of “cross-portfolio opportunities and new ways of working together that will power future growth, editorial and operational excellence, and industry leadership in innovation and collaboration.”

After months of building a newsroom from scratch, CBS’s WWJ Detroit flipped the switch on its first newscasts last week. Adrienne Roark, president of CBS Stations; Brian Watson, VP and GM of WWJ; and Paul Pytlowany, its news director, make the case for how its community-based approach to reporting will differentiate the station. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

She will have day-to-day responsibility for working directly with the local GMs and their teams at the ViacomCBS-owned CBS Television Network stations in major markets across the country, primarily in the eastern half of the country. CBS plans to name additional Stations presidents at a later date.