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The Big Story on Action News is the Sudden Departure of Longtime Vice President and News Director Tom Davis
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Philadelphia media news.
There’s a lot of buzz over at Channel 6 after longtime Vice President and News Director Tom Davis recently departed the station.
In an email to staff, Chad Matthews, the President of ABC owned television stations, wrote that:
“Tom Davis has made the decision to leave 6abc. I want to thank Tom for his years of service to the station and wish him well.”
Matthews went on to say that VP of Programming John Morris “will oversee Action News until we find the next news director.” Morris was apparently on vacation at the time of Davis’ departure, which resulted in Matthews traveling to Philadelphia alongside WABC President and General Manager Marilu Galvez. He noted in the memo that he and Galvez would be “at the station to assist.”
The timing of the departure is curious indeed! Davis last posted on Instagram and LinkedIn on March 12th. The internal note says that he “made the decision” to take off, which doesn’t pass the smell test. Most people don’t leave WPVI on their own, because Action News is an endgame type of job. It’s the pinnacle. You go there to finish your career. You wouldn’t just up and leave in the middle of the March anyway (a few months after the retirement of longtime GM Bernie Prazenica). And you wouldn’t do that without some kind of handoff period, which is resulting in the big wigs having to come down from New York and elsewhere. Whenever the corporate suits have to oversee a transitional period, your antennae go up.
We’ll put out some feelers and see if we can find out what happened. Could be something, could be nothing, though it’s worth noting that cracking Action News is like cracking Fort Knox. Nobody over there ever talks because they all fear for their jobs. It’s fascinating, the level of paranoia whenever you try to get any kind of information out of anybody at WPVI.
For background, Davis had been news director since 2011, and was assistant news director for the seven years prior. I dug up an old TV News Check article that notes he was formerly assistant news director at WJLA in Washington.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com