NEW YORK – (July 30, 2013) – Al Jazeera America, the new American news channel that will launch on Aug. 20, today announced that Robert Ray, an award-winning producer and reporter, will become the first correspondent in the channel’s new New Orleans bureau.
Al Jazeera America will be a news, lifestyle and investigative journalism channel that will offer the U.S. audience objective, fact-based and in-depth news focused on issues that are important to everyday Americans. The New Orleans bureau is one of 12 that the news channel will open in cities across the country.
Marcy McGinnis, Al Jazeera America’s senior vice-president, newsgathering, said that having a New Orleans bureau is critically important for the channel. “Al Jazeera America is committed to having journalists based where the news is happening in the U.S.,” she said. “As the world was reminded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are rich with political, environmental and social stories that have national and global significance. We plan to report on those stories first-hand and in-depth.”
Before joining Al Jazeera America, Ray traveled the globe on assignment, reporting across all media platforms for the Associated Press. He was also a producer and videographer for Fox Business and Fox News Channel and an executive producer, videographer, editor and writer for the Emmy Award-winning series Inside Chicago at WTTW-PBS in Chicago. He began his career at the local CBS affiliate in Lincoln, Neb.
Ray received the 2012 National Press Club’s breaking news award for his coverage of the tornado in Joplin, Mo. and was a contributor to a national Edward R. Murrow Award.
“Robert has extensive experience reporting and producing,” said McGinnis. “He has reported for local, national and international news organizations and will bring an outstanding perspective of the news important to New Orleans, the Gulf Coast and to America.”
“I am excited to join a channel that is investing in front line reporting from across the United States,” said Ray. “The Al Jazeera brand of journalism is lauded for its commitment to the stories that matter, long after other news organizations have left. Opening a bureau in New Orleans, which has seen tremendous change since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is a testament to Al Jazeera America’s commitment to telling the human stories with depth and relevance to everyday Americans.”
See more press releases from Al Jazeera America here.
