WGN American Unveils Talent Line-Up For News Nation

When WGN America launches its prime time national cable newscast on Sept. 1, Chicago viewers may recognize a few familiar faces, according to The Chicago Tribune.

Most notably, Joe Donlon, co-anchor of the local WGN-Ch. 9 evening newscasts since 2018, will move to a bigger stage co-anchoring the fledgling “News Nation” broadcasts, the Chicago-based cable network announced Tuesday.

“I’m giving up one of the best local news gigs in the country, but not many people get this kind of an opportunity and there was no way I was going to turn it down,” Donlon said.

Donlon will be paired with Marni Hughes, a veteran Seattle-based TV news anchor, with a lot of Chicago talent behind the scenes.

Joe Donlon, Rudabeh Shahbazi and Marni Hughes

Other Chicago veterans with prominent on-air roles include former WGN-TV reporters Tom Negovan, who will serve as a New York-based correspondent, and Nancy Loo, who will report from Los Angeles.

Competing with established cable news networks such as CNN and Fox, “News Nation” is seeking to carve out a niche with a mission of delivering “unbiased” straight news. The newscasts will broadcast nightly from 7 to 10 p.m. from studios being built at WGN’s facilities in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood.

“We’re going to tell you what happens, we’re not going to tell you what to think about it,” said Jennifer Lyons, 52, the longtime news director at WGN-TV in Chicago who is now overseeing the new national cable news broadcast.

Lyons said "News Nation” intends to shift the focus away from an increasingly partisan Washington D.C., and spend more time covering stories from the center of the country — both geographically and politically.

Dallas-based Nexstar Media Group completed its $4.1 billion purchase of Chicago-based Tribune Media in September, creating the nation’s largest local TV station group and adding WGN America to its portfolio.

WGN America has hired more than 130 people to launch the news offering, including the anchors, meteorologist Albert Ramon from Austin, Texas, and a handful of network correspondents. All but 13 of the hires are based in Chicago, Nexstar spokesman Gary Weitman said.

The cable newscast will also use the 5,400 journalists at Nexstar TV stations across the country to supply local reports.