TV news and community affairs veteran Paul Pytlowany today was promoted to news director of WWJ (CBS) and WKBD (CW), the ViacomCBS-owned stations in Detroit.
Pytlowany, who has been with WKBD since 1988 and also WWJ since the two stations became a duopoly in 1995, is the first executive appointed to work on the creation of CBS News and Stations’ local news startup, CBS News Detroit, a full-scale, hyper-local news department that is being built from scratch and will launch later this year.
Last month, CBS News and Stations announced its plans to launch CBS News Detroit as a 24/7 streaming service with live local news coverage from 4 a.m. to 11:35 p.m., for a total of 137 hours per week. In addition, WWJ will simulcast live CBS News Detroit newscasts 40 hours per week in early morning, midday, early evening and late news time periods.
This marks the first time WWJ will have its own full-scale local news department since becoming a CBS Television Network-owned station in 1995.
Pytlowany has been WWJ and WKBD’s director of local production and community affairs since 2017. In this role, he has overseen the CW50 News at Ten, which debuted in January 2020, WWJ’s local weather department and the duopoly’s community affairs shows, including Community Connect and Michigan Matters.
Pytlowany is also the creator and producer of the Emmy-winning “Eye on Detroit” segments, which air daily on WWJ during CBS Mornings and showcase positive stories about people and places across metropolitan Detroit.
Brian Watson, the stations’ VP_GM, said: “Paul has been a key architect in the design of our plan to make history with the launch of CBS News Detroit. As someone who has spent his entire career with our stations and lives and breathes Detroit news, he is uniquely qualified to execute our vision of converting our local neighborhoods into the newsrooms that will serve as the backbone of CBS News Detroit. Paul is an experienced and respected manager and a tremendous storyteller who will draw on his experience and insights to help our team deliver hyper-local news coverage that resonates with viewers across our broadcast and streaming channels.”
Adrienne Roark, president, CBS Stations, who has worked closely with Watson and Pytlowany and their WWJ colleagues on developing the plan for creating CBS News Detroit, added: “It is a thrill for us to continue to move forward with our plans for creating the newsroom of the future by making Paul the first executive hired at CBS News Detroit. He has put his heart, soul and a lot of brainpower into conceptualizing a first-of-its-kind local news operation that will utilize the latest advances in newsgathering and streaming technology, and we are excited to have him lead our efforts to hire the rest of our team.”
CBS News Detroit will be recruiting and hiring a full staff of multi-skilled professionals. The reporting staff will consist of a diverse team of journalists who will be embedded full-time in communities across the Detroit area, as well as at the State Capital in Lansing, Mich.
Pytlowany has won 61 Michigan Regional Emmy Awards and the Michigan Association of Broadcasters’ Excellence Award, in addition to being named the MAB’s “Photographer of the Year” five times.
He graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a degree in telecommunications, media and film.
16 May 2024
23 May 2024
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