Lexington, KY - Lexington Herald Leader reporter Ryan Alessi will become Director of News and Public Affairs for a new statewide television channel being created by Insight Communications.
"This is a measure of Insight's commitment to bringing in the best and brightest talent to run our new channel," said Insight spokesman Jason Keller. "Ryan is an exceptional journalist and has been one of the best and most awarded reporters in Kentucky for the past several years."
Insight is making a significant investment in creating the new statewide channel, Keller said.
Alessi began with the Herald Leader as a political writer covering Frankfort in 2003 before reassignment in 2008 to focus on higher education and accountability issues. He will join Insight on May 3.
"I'm excited to learn the tv side of things, but the main thing that attracted to me to this job is the fact that they want a print journalism mindset which is to dig deep and provide insightful analysis and dig into the issues in Kentucky in a way that many television news programs just don't have the time to do," Alessi, an Ohio University journalism grad told Business Lexington.
"I envision that there will be a major print component to this network. It will be online, obviously. There is going to be a written component that people will be able to come back to if they want to learn even more than they got from the television component. It really harnesses the technology that's out there in a way that few news organizations have been able to do so far," Alessi said.
Alessi, who got his start in journalism with Scripps Howard News Service in Washington, D.C., said the Insight initiative is a response to the convergence of print, broadcast and web-based technologies, also known as multi-platform journalism, which holds particular appeal to him at this stage in his career. "That is my goal and that is clearly the commitment that Insight has made."
Insight is now in the process of recruiting a general manager who will be in charge of the new channel which is scheduled to launch in phases beginning in April with 24/7 weather programming. Subsequent phases later in 2010 and in early 2011 will add statewide news, public affairs, and sports-talk programs. The new GM and Alessi will oversee the recruitment of a professional staff.
The new service will be accessible on channel-2 in each the five markets served by the cable company: Lexington, Louisville, Bowling Green, Northern Kentucky and Henderson/Evansville.