Rick McLaughlin Named WAPT News Director

Hearst Television’s ABC affiliate WAPT Jackson, Miss. (DMA 92), on Wednesday named Rick McLaughlin news director, effective March 4. He succeeds Yve Jones who left in December after not quite two years in the position.

McLaughlin, a graduate of Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, began his career as a morning news producer in Cincinnati, then rose to lead newsrooms in Milwaukee, Saint Louis and Boston as an executive producer.

He joined Hearst Television in 2010 when he accepted the role of assistant news director at Cincinnati’s WLWT. Since 2014, he has been assistant news director at WESH Orlando, Fla., helping the station earn multiple awards, including an Edward R Murrow award and two Emmys for coverage of the 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shootings.