WGN America has hired its main anchor team and is set to launch its national newscast Sept. 1, with a pledge to deliver unbiased cable news, The Chicago Tribune reports.
Perry Sook, chairman and CEO of Dallas-based Nexstar Media Group, which owns cable channel WGN America in Chicago and nearly 200 TV stations across the country, announced the start date for “News Nation” and reiterated the mission during an earnings call Wednesday.
“This will be hard news, 100% absent of bias,” Sook said. “We’re so serious about that we’re hiring a panel of rhetoricians to review our broadcasts for unconscious bias that may creep into the words we use and the reporting that we do.”
WGN America has hired 30 of the 130 to 140 staffers it will employ in Chicago to launch the new three-hour nightly newscast. In addition to the unnamed main anchor team, WGN America is in negotiations with weekend anchor teams, and is staffing up with “network-quality” correspondents, Sook said.
“There are no names that you would recognize today, but hopefully names you recognize down the road,” Sook said.
The Chicago-based newscast will also use the 5,400 journalists at Nexstar TV stations across the country to supply local reports.
Competing with established cable news networks such as CNN and Fox, “News Nation” will be broadcast to more than 75 million homes from studios being built at WGN’s facilities in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood. The program will air nightly from 7 to 10 p.m.
Sook said the straight news approach will set WGN America apart from the opinion-heavy programming featured on other cable news networks during prime time.
Nexstar completed its $4.1 billion purchase of Chicago-based Tribune Media in September, creating the nation’s largest local TV station group and moving WGN’s TV, radio and cable stations under the Dallas company’s ownership.
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