FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Calle Andrus, Communications Specialist
216.916.6434 | calle.andrus@ideastream.org
ideastream Announces Mike McIntyre as Executive Editor and Promotes Marlene Harris-Taylor and Anna Huntsman to Strengthen News and Information Service to the Region
CLEVELAND, Ohio (June 12, 2020) — ideastream, Ohio’s largest public media organization, continues a series of leadership moves to align the organization and expand its public service mission. Mike McIntyre has been promoted to Executive Editor, Marlene Harris-Taylor to Managing Producer of the health unit and Anna Huntsman to Reporter/Producer. In addition to these promotions, the organization recently named Mike Shafarenko as its first Chief Experience Officer. All the moves are part of ideastream’s 2019-2021 Strategic Plan to focus on growing audiences and scaling community impact through a greater emphasis on user experience.
These moves with the content team also position ideastream to implement innovative new strategies that address the changing media landscape, including its plans for a Statewide News Collaborative. At a time when traditional media models are threatened by technological and economic shifts, ideastream is taking steps to ensure that it continues to address community needs and meet user expectations while maintaining financial strength and long-term sustainability.
“Long-term trends in the media environment have resulted in gaps in local journalism,” said Kevin E. Martin, ideastream’s President & CEO. “We’ve got an opportunity here to promote some of our strongest and most promising local talent, fortify our ability to provide trustworthy, reliable journalism to Northeast Ohioans and include voices from our community in our coverage.”
In his new role as Executive Editor, which began on June 1, 2020, McIntyre is responsible for the daily planning, creation and supervision of news content produced and presented on all platforms for ideastream audiences. Previously, McIntyre spent 30 years at The Plain Dealer covering the news. He has hosted ideastream’s The Sound of Ideas since 2010. McIntyre has been honored with numerous awards for broadcasting and writing from organizations including The National Headliner Awards, The Press Club of Cleveland, The Associated Press of Ohio, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Public Media Journalists Association. In 2016, he was inducted by The Press Club of Cleveland into the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame, and in 2011, he received the “Herb Caen Memorial Award” for column writing from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
“I have the benefit, going into this job, of knowing first-hand the quality of our people. In a word, they’re ‘awesome,’” McIntyre said. “Their talent, their hustle and their commitment to serving our audience is inspiring. And I am ready to help this gifted team of journalists pursue the goal of ideastream being the number one choice of trusted news and information for people in Northeast Ohio.”
Harris-Taylor will become Managing Producer of the health unit beginning July 1, 2020. She is an award-winning media professional with extensive background in radio, television, print, digital, public relations, corporate communications and media relations. Harris-Taylor became a Reporter/Producer in ideastream’s health unit in 2016 and has reported in-depth about health issues across Northeast Ohio. Previously, she served as Medical Editor and Senior Staff Writer at the Toledo Blade. She has worked at several media outlets including WBGU-PBS, the public television station located on the campus of Bowling Green State University; WNWO, an NBC-affiliate television station in Toledo, Ohio; and NPR’s Morning Edition in Washington, D.C. Harris-Taylor has received many awards, including the Ohio Excellence in Journalism Award from The Press Club of Cleveland and the Northwest Ohio Black Media Association Media Achievement Award. She also serves on the boards of The Association of Health Care Journalists and The Press Club of Cleveland.
Huntsman started in her new role as Reporter/Producer on June 8, 2020. She joined ideastream in October 2019 as Associate Producer, working with the health unit on a wide variety of stories and projects. Before coming to ideastream, Huntsman worked at News21, a national investigative journalism fellowship; WKSU, a public radio station in Kent, Ohio; WKYC, an NBC-affiliate television station in Cleveland, Ohio; and KSU, Kent State University’s student-run television station.
About ideastream
ideastream serves the people of Northeast Ohio as a trusted and dynamic multimedia source for illuminating the world around us. Publicly supported and locally owned, ideastream is indispensable and highly valued for its unique ability to strengthen our community. ideastream is the consolidation of WVIZ/PBS, with five channels of public television service (WVIZ/PBS-HD, WVIZ/PBS OHIO, WVIZ/PBS WORLD, WVIZ/PBS CREATE and WVIZ/PBS KIDS); 90.3 WCPN, Northeast Ohio’s NPR news and public affairs radio station; WCLV 104.9, Northeast Ohio’s classical music radio station; ideastream Education, with educational resources, services and the award-winning children’s series NewsDepth; and management of The Ohio Channel and the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau on behalf of all Ohio’s public broadcasting stations. For more information about ideastream’s rich legacy of innovation and credible content, visit ideastream.org.
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