FOX Weather Announces Leadership Team

FOX Weather, FOX News Media’s new AVOD streaming weather service launching in 3Q 2021, has named six executives to the platform’s leadership team, announced Sharri Berg, its president. Building upon FOX News Channel (FNC) and FOX Television Stations’ expansive resources, FOX Weather will leverage a team of more than 75 meteorologists across FOX owned & operated stations along with FNC’s newsgathering units to produce a comprehensive suite of weather products featuring local, regional & national updates, and live programming.

Headquartered in New York, the leadership team will include: Senior Vice President and Head of Programming David Clark; Senior Vice President Digital Product & Strategy Steve Baron; Senior Vice President and General Manager Mike McClain; Vice President of Programming Development Dianne Doctor; Vice President of News Operations Tim Gaughan; and Director & Head of Video Operations and Audience Development Deante Parker. Each executive will report directly to Ms. Berg and will oversee various elements of the platform’s mobile app and streaming channel, including newsgathering, production, talent, operations and development.

In making the announcement, Ms. Berg said, “We are thrilled to announce the leadership team at FOX Weather. As incredibly talented executives, they each bring a unique and diverse set of skills to this start-up and I look forward to working with them as we launch and grow the platform.”

David Clark will serve as the Senior Vice President and Head of Programming for FOX Weather. He joins the new platform from FOX News Channel (FNC) where he most recently served as Senior Vice President of Weekend Programming overseeing all weekend news and primetime programming since 2007. Clark was part of the 1996 launch team of the network and throughout his tenure there, he held numerous leadership positions, including Senior Producer of News and Executive Producer of FOX & Friends. He also ran the annual Proud American franchise which celebrates America and members of the armed services across FOX News Media platforms. In 2001, he briefly left the network to help CNN launch one of their numerous morning show iterations, before returning to FNC. Clark started his career in radio, where he worked as an engineer, producer, disc jockey and newscaster in major markets including Boston, Philadelphia and New York. He then made his way to network television, where he worked on ABC News’ World News Now, World News This Morning and Good Morning America as a writer and producer in the early 1990s. In 1995, he became a senior day-of-air producer for A Current Affair on FOX and then Day & Date on CBS stations.

Senior Vice President Digital Product & Strategy Steve Baron joins FOX Weather from Local Media Association where he most recently served as Chief Strategy Officer. Previously, he worked at Nexstar Media Group, where he was integral in the $6.4 billion acquisition of Tribune Media and led the digital integration of the two companies. An Emmy Award-winning broadcast meteorologist, Baron got his start as a journalist before transitioning to the field of digital operations. From 2006 to 2008, he served as the Digital Content Manager for the FOX Television Stations group, from where he went on to join the private equity-funded Local TV, LLC as Vice President of Digital Content working with 21 television stations across 16 markets. Following Tribune Media’s $2.73 billion purchase of Local TV, he served as the Vice President/Head of Product where he was responsible for all customer-facing digital strategy and operations.

Senior Vice President and General Manager Mike McClain adds FOX Weather responsibilities to his current role as Senior Vice President, General Manager of the WOFL/WRBW-TV FOX duopoly stations in Orlando, Florida. McClain has been instrumental in leading newsrooms, coverage planning and news operations since joining the FOX family as an intern in 1980. After beginning his career with WBRC-TV, the FOX affiliated station in Birmingham, AL, he went on to serve as the station’s News Director, overseeing breaking news coverage, which included a number of devastating storms throughout the southeast region. Throughout his tenure with FOX, Mike has served as the News Director in at WTVT-TV in Tampa and WAGA-TV in Atlanta as well as the General Manager at WJZY-TV in Charlotte and has coordinated hurricane coverage for FOX Television Stations across the country. He will oversee FOX Weather’s field newsgathering and weather display teams, and will play a key role in developing symbiotic relationships between FOX Weather and FOX owned and operated stations.

As Vice President of Programming Development, Dianne Doctor will helm talent recruiting, development and programming initiatives for FOX Weather. In addition to this role, she will also continue to serve as the Vice President/Station Manager for the FOX owned and operated station WWOR-TV in New Jersey and the Affiliate Relations Manager for FOX News Edge. Prior to joining FOX in 2008, she worked as a news executive at several New York City area television stations, including WCBS-TV and WNBC-TV. She began her media career as a radio reporter in Syracuse, New York and Little Rock, Arkansas and later made her way back to the tristate area starting in local television as a producer.

Tim Gaughan, a former FNC veteran, rejoined FOX News Media this year as Vice President of News Operations for FOX Weather following nine years with CBS News where he most recently served as Vice President of Affiliate Services & Newspath. There he oversaw CBS News’ satellite and IP based newsgathering organization and led the division into a cloud-based content/distribution model. He managed the expansion of digital rights for CBS affiliates and also served as Vice President of Newsgathering. From 1998 through 2010, Gaughan held a number of positions at FNC, including Director of Domestic News, National Editor, Assignment Editor, Politics Editor and in 2003, served as the network’s Baghdad bureau chief.

Deante Parker will serve as Director & Head of Video Operations and Audience Development for FOX Weather. Since joining FNC in 2017, Ms. Parker has managed digital operations strategies geared towards audience development, including overseeing the on-demand viewing options for the network’s powerful primetime lineup. Additionally, she was part of the team that launched the SVOD FOX Nation and FOX News International streaming services, while also providing support for Super Bowl LIV and 2020 Presidential Election coverage on FOX Now. Previously, she served as a content programming specialist for Audible where she worked with the programming and operations team to improve processes related to content delivery, audience engagement, quality control and troubleshooting. From 2014 to 2016, she was a founding member of The Weather Channel’s Digital Video Team where she served as a distribution editor. She has held additional roles at the News Distribution Network and NovoLogic.

FOX News Media operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Digital, FOX News Audio, FOX News Books, the direct-to-consumer digital streaming services FOX Nation and FOX News International and the AVOD platform FOX Weather. Currently the number one network in all of cable, FNC has also been the most watched television news channel for more than 19 consecutive years, while FBN currently ranks among the top business channels on cable. Owned by FOX Corporation, FOX News Media reaches 200 million people each month.

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