Feder: As Joe Donlon bows out, 'the hunt is on' for new top anchor at WGN

If all goes as planned, the next time we'll see Joe Donlon is September 1 when he debuts with Marni Hughes as the Monday-through-Friday anchor team on "News Nation," the national nightly newscast coming to WGN America, Robert Feder writes.

The question now is who will replace Donlon at WGN-Channel 9 where's been co-anchor of the 5, 6, 9 and 10 p.m. newscasts with Micah Materre since 2018.

Nexstar Media Group owns both WGN America cable network and WGN locally.

If there's a shortlist of would-be successors, no one who knows is saying. In fact, they won't even say who'll be filling in tonight.

"Joe has been a great co-anchor these last two years, and we wish him every success at 'News Nation,'" Dominick Stasi, news director of WGN, told me after Donlon's signoff Friday night. "The hunt is on and we are looking at many qualified candidates. We will be rotating anchors alongside Micah in the meantime."

Get the full report, and more Chicago media news, at robertfeder.com.