Graziano.
A former Connecticut TV and newspaper exec is returning to New Haven from the Big Apple to take the reins of WTNH, as the station undergoes yet another corporate changeover.
Richard Graziano begins his job as WTNH’s new vice-president and general manager Thursday. He had a staff meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. to break the news.
WTNH, Connecticut’s ABC affiliate, has historically lagged behind WFSB (CBS) as the leading news station in the non-Fairfield County parts of Connecticut. Part of Graziano’s mission will be to grow the audience, both on air and on the web.
Nexstar Media Group owns WTNH (Channel 8) as well as WCTX (Channel 59). The staff at WTNH has endured a series of corporate changes and management changes. Its previous owner, Lin Media, was sold in 2014 to Media General. Media General sold the station this month to Nexstar, leading to uncertainty in the newsroom about what changes made by ahead.
People in Connecticut will most recently remember Graziano as the CEO and president of the Hartford Courant, where he oversaw merging the company’s print, web, and TV operations (Fox affiliate WTIC). He left that job in 2013 to become president and general manager of WPIX-TV in New York. During his time there, he opened a studio at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn and snagged the contract to televise New York Yankees games back from the YES network. Tribune Co. owns both WTIC and WPIX.
In an interview, Graziano, who’s 48, said in returning to Connecticut he wanted to step out of New York City’s rat race, put life “in perspective. Connecticut is a beautiful place to live. My kids really grew up there.”
Graziano plans to live at the 360 State St. tower a block from WTNH in the short term until he moves his family back to the state later in 2017. He said he intends to build on WTNH’s historic relationship with New Haven — it started here in 1948, the state’s first TV station — while also focusing on state politics in what promises to be a newsworthy year.
“Politics is a great sport in Connecticut,” he said. “I think it will pay dividends.”
Until he dives deeper into the data, Graziano said, he’s not ready to offer specifics on his plans for growing the audience. He did say he’d “love to be more robust with” video, perhaps offering viewers 24/7 on-demand video options beyond the WTNH.com breaking-news website. That could include other kinds of local content available, say, on other channels on cable systems (depending on what restrictions might exist in current contracts with providers).
“Video, video, video,” he said, “is the name of the game.”