KOMO GM Clayton Retiring, Drafs To Succeed

Fisher Communications announced Wednesday that Jim Clayton, SVP-GM of its Seattle-based television and radio stations, will retire from his current duties effective Aug. 31. Janene Drafs, VP-station manager of KOMO, is being promoted to replace Clayton and will be responsible for Fisher’s broadcasting assets in the market. Clayton will continue to be employed as a senior adviser to Fisher, where he will focus on special projects.

A 25-year employee of Fisher Communications, Drafs started with KOMO as a sales assistant and held a number of positions of increasing responsibility, including account executive, regional marketing executive for business development, local sales manager and general sales manager for the station.

Clayton has more than 40 years of service in the broadcasting industry. Since joining Fisher in July 2006, he helped reshape Fisher’s Seattle broadcast properties, including uniting the company’s TV, radio and online media platforms into the KOMO News Network brand; creating the Problem Solvers investigative unit at KOMO; and developing Fisher’s Hispanic market presence with KUNS.

“We are grateful for the many contributions that Jim has made to KOMO-TV, KUNS-TV and Fisher Radio,” said Colleen Brown, president-CEO of Fisher Communications. “He is highly respected and admired throughout the company — and across the industry — for the terrific job he has done leading our Seattle team and mentoring the next generation of media executives, including Janene.”