WKRN Nashville President and GM Mike Sechrist announced his retirement from the station. Sechrist, lauded at an RTNDA conference panel last month as one who "got it," in terms of digital offerings, spearheaded the station’s rich online foray. WKRN offers dozens of blogs, from both staffers and the Nashville community.
In fact, Young Broadcasting President Deb McDermott posted a memo about Sechrist’s departure on his blog. "He’s managed the station during a time of unprecedented change in our business," she wrote. "Mike has been instrumental in preparing for that change to the digital age. He recognized the advantages of moving toward a video journalist model in the newsroom and executed that conversion."
As the WKRN Website grew, Sechrist says he fielded more and more calls from media entities looking for him to do similar things for them. Instead of looking into these opportunities on the sly, Sechrist tendered his resignation, and freed himself up to pursue new opportunities. "I’ve been in the business 30 years, and the Internet is more of a rush than spots & dots," he said.
One project for the short term is consulting on a media company’s transition to video journalism. "I may even create Websites, who knows?" he said.
