Cox Names Dreaden VP TV News, Marketing

Cox Media Group today named Mike Dreaden, as its new vice president of news and marketing for television. In this new role, Dreaden will work to ensure that CMG’s 14 television news stations “continue to thrive and that the marketing efforts strategically support” its news product across the country on all platforms and all screens.

Dreaden succeeds Marian Pittman, who was recently named CMG’s EVP of digital strategy and research.

“We couldn’t be more excited about having Mike Dreaden lead our news and marketing efforts,” said CMG EVP of Television Jane Williams. “Mike has a rich history of leading award-winning and successful news operations. His leadership at WSB-TV has taken WSB-TV to new levels of success, and his focus on multi-screen content distribution makes him a perfect fit for our future strategy. He will be a tremendous asset to CMG across all of our Television Markets on all platforms.”

Prior to this role, Dreaden was news director for CMG’s WSB-TV Atlanta where he oversaw the daily news operations and strategic planning for more than 45 hours of local news coverage every week. Dreaden was promoted to news director after serving as the news department’s managing editor since 1999. He will officially step into his new role as soon as his replacement is named at WSB.

Dreaden’s other career highlights include working in the newsrooms of some of the nation’s top television stations including WNBC New York, WNEV (now WHDH) Boston and WSVN Miami.

His television news career started more than 40 years ago when he landed his first TV news job at WBBH Fort Myers, Fla. He’s also produced news and held management positions at WRTV Indianapolis; WNYT Albany, N.Y.; WWL New Orleans; and WNEV Boston before he returned to Florida and WSVN Miami.

Dreaden arrived in Atlanta in 1994 to become news director at WGNX (now WGCL), where he guided the station’s transition from independent to a CBS affiliate. He made the move to WSB in 1999.

Dreaden earned a Bachelor of Science degree in broadcasting from the University of Florida.