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Cleveland native Jeff Harris, a graduate of Cleveland Heights High School and Cleveland State University, starts Monday as the news director at WEWS Channel 5.
(E.W. Scripps)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Jeff Harris is returning home to become the news director at Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS Channel 5. His first day on the job will be Monday, Oct. 6.
Although Harris has spent the last six years as the news director at KMGH Channel 7 in Denver, he's hardly a stranger to Northeast Ohio. A Cleveland native, he is a graduate of Cleveland Heights High School and Cleveland State University.
"It's an incredibly rare opportunity to be a news director in your hometown," Harris said Friday afternoon during a telephone interview. "It's something so special, you can only dream of it happening."
His wife, Cecille, also is from Cleveland. They have two daughters and will be living in Cleveland Heights.
"I'm getting to town Saturday and my first day is Monday, so this is all is a little bewildering," Harris said. "It's also incredibly exciting. NewsChannel 5 has gone through recent challenging times, but there are so many great people who work there, and we can work toward bringing positive change to Cleveland."
KMGH, like WEWS, is an ABC affiliate station owned by the E.W. Scripps Company. Harris led the Denver newsroom to several honors, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Columbia-DuPont Award and local Emmys.
Harris is moving from the No. 17 television market to No. 19. According to Nielsen, the Denver area has 1.57 million TV homes. The Cleveland market has 1.48 million.
"This is all things coming together at the same time," Harris said. "I'm excited and grateful to return to Cleveland. It's a great opportunity for me personally and a perfect match for the company."
Harris identifies himself as a "diehard Cleveland sports fan." He worked at Channel 5 as investigative producer from 1997 until 2000, when he moved to Denver and KMGH as executive producer of special projects.
He left Denver in 2004 to become executive producer of special projects at KPIX Channel 5, the CBS-owned station in San Francisco. He returned to Denver and KMGH in 2008.
"Jeff's knowledge of Cleveland, our culture and our competitors will benefit our station and community right away," Sam Rosenwasser, Channel 5's vice president and general manager said in a statement released Friday by the station. "He's a great leader and will help us continue to innovate and build deeper connections with our audiences on-air and online."