Casey Kespohl was creative director at WCCO TV when he was hand-picked by owner CBS/Viacom for a newly created position, synthesizing content, branding, and marketing among all the CBS-owned TV stations—from his existing base in Minneapolis. He’s trying to nudge TV news away from the dissonance of the “here’s a water-skiing squirrel, sorry about the plight of your city, we’ll be right back” vibe. He’s working with news directors and general managers to help them project a sense of trust, optimism, and belonging to viewers, asking his charges to “think about what we’re doing from a standpoint of social impact.”

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