WTSP news director leaving
By Times staff writer, Associated Press
Published February 9, 2005
ST. PETERSBURG - After more than three years heading the WTSP-Ch. 10 news operation, Lane Michaelsen is going back to parent company Gannett's corporate headquarters in Virginia.
Michaelsen, 44, said Tuesday that he is returning to a position he held as a Gannett news executive before becoming news director at the local CBS affiliate in October 2001. The move, he said, will get his family closer to his wife's relatives and allow him professionally to expand beyond a one-station focus.
WTSP general manager Sam Rosenwasser said he wants to fill the position quickly but has no timetable. He said the station has no plans to change its format or brand identity as Tampa Bay's 10.
Michaelsen, who will remain on the job until sometime in March, said that identity is finding an audience. He presided over the decision in 2003 to move the 5 p.m. newscast to 4, followed by Dr. Phil at 5, when other local stations are airing news.
"People are becoming more and more accepting of what we are," Michaelsen said. "We want to provide people with daily news coverage, we don't miss the big story, but we're looking for our way of telling those stories."
During his tenure, the operation moved into a new newsroom, endured a hurricane evacuation of the Gandy Boulevard newsroom and reported stories that ranged from the space shuttle Columbia disaster to championship seasons by the Buccaneers and Lightning, Michaelsen said.
"Lane has been unbelieveably helpful to us," Rosenwasser said Tuesday. "When we made the announcement (that he was leaving) yesterday, there were a lot of tears in the newsroom."
The St. Petersburg Times and WTSP share news and features under a partnership agreement.
- CHASE SQUIRES, Times staff writer
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The co-star of the Fox reality show The Simple Life has become engaged to her boyfriend of one year, disc jockey Adam Goldstein, her publicist, Cindy Guagenti, announced Tuesday.
It will be the first marriage for 23-year-old Richie and Goldstein, whose professional name is DJ AM.
A wedding date wasn't announced.
Richie, the daughter of R&B star Lionel Richie, is co-starring with Paris Hilton on the third season of The Simple Life.