Camille Edwards Named News Director in Chicago
The tiny ranks of African American news directors have grown a little.
Reports Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun-Times: “WMAQ-Channel 5 made it official Tuesday: Camille Edwards has been hired as news director of the NBC-owned station, starting Oct. 13. She succeeds Vickie Burns, who was promoted to vice president of news at sister station WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.
“Edwards has been assistant news director at ABC-owned WPVI-TV in Philadelphia since November 1997. She previously worked in Chicago as an executive producer at ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7 and as a producer at CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2.
She was also a producer at stations in Baltimore and Toledo, a news release added.
“The move reunites Edwards with Frank Whittaker, vice president of news at Channel 5. The two worked together at both Channel 2 and Channel 7,” Feder continued.
“Announcing her appointment to the staff, Whittaker called Edwards ‘a newsroom leader with a track record of success.'”
The 2003 diversity survey from the Radio-Television News Directors Association put the percentage of African American television news directors at 0.9 percent, down from 2 percent in 2002.
