Sorry to sadden fans of longtime Honolulu television anchor and reporter Jodi Leong (pictured below), but she is leaving KITV — leaving television, in fact — for a new career as director of communications for the University of Hawaii system.
Leong starts her UH job March 15, though she will continue to co-anchor weekend newscasts through the end of the month.
"This is a new industry for me and a wonderful new challenge," Leong said. As her alma mater, UH "helped prepare me for 20 years in the broadcast news industry. This was an offer I couldn’t refuse, and a chance to come full circle and return to the University of Hawaii with the knowledge and experience I have gained throughout my journalism career."
She will miss the "lifelong friends" she has made at KITV, will miss working with them and wishes KITV "the best always," she said.
Leong began her broadcast career at KITV in 1991 as a producer, reporter and weekend anchor, worked at KHNL beginning in 2000 and returned to KITV in 2006. It is little known that during the 1980s Leong was an unpaid radio news intern for yours truly, in the KSSK-AM 590 newsroom. Well, it used to be little known.
Leong will be working with another former KITV anchor, Lynne Waters, associate vice president of external affairs and university relations.
Waters was a KITV anchor from 1981 through 1985, before starting her own production and communications company, which she ran for 25 years. Waters joined the University of Hawaii a year ago Thursday after a five-month stint working with city Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro.
"I’ve got a lot for her to do," Waters said of Leong, as the office, responsible for publications, marketing and recruiting materials and much more, shifts from print, to video and online, "the whole modern way of communicating," Waters said.
Leong also is known for her theatrical talent, singing and dancing in productions, including the Society of Professional Journalists’ "Gridiron" news parody show, a formerly annual production that will hit the boards again next year.
NEW BOSS CROSSTOWN
Mary Beth Lohman, publisher of the weekly Pacific Business News, announced her resignation Thursday after about 21 years with North Carolina-based American City Business Journals, PBN’s parent company.
Telephone and email queries to Lohman were not returned. The paper reported online that her last day will be March 9 and that she is stepping down to spend more time with her family.
After five years with the Phoenix Business Journal, Lohman joined PBN as circulation director, and was promoted to publisher in December 2009.
She will be succeeded by Bob Charlet, who joined the paper as advertising director three years ago.
LA MER LAUDED FOR SERVICE
The AAA Five Diamond-winning La Mer at Halekulani in Waikiki has been rated among the Top 100 Restaurants for Service in the U.S. by online reservation and review service OpenTable.com. It is the only Hawaii restaurant on the list, which covers 29 states and Washington, D.C.
The awards reflect nearly 5 million reviews of more than 12,000 restaurants in 50 states, submitted by verified OpenTable diners between Feb. 2011 and Jan. 2012, according to OpenTable officials.
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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
