The new replacement program for NewsNight Akron premiered on Western Reserve PBS (WNEO.1/WEAO.1) on Friday, Oct. 8, at 9 p.m. The weekly show, called NewsNite, features segments that spotlight news from multiple areas of the station's viewing area. It will be hosted by Eric Mansfield and will include former NewsNight Akron panelists Ed Esposito, Steve Hoffman, Jody Miller and M.L. Schultze, plus special guests. Panelists may vary among segments to allow, for example, a journalist from Canton to discuss a story involving that area.

Western Reserve Public Media will produce the new show in the state-of-the-art video studio at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, with assistance from TeleProductions, as well as faculty and students in the school. TeleProductions Director John Butte says the service has a long history of partnership with Western Reserve PBS, and he is excited to bring the advances of digital video production to this latest project.

As the new season progresses, the NewsNite team will work with school faculty and students on extending the program's reach through not only Web content and social media, but also other digital platforms. "We're delighted to have NewsNite in our Franklin Hall studio," says School of Journalism and Mass Communication Director Jeff Fruit. "The NewsNiteteam has some forward-thinking ideas, and we look forward to partnering with them and with our TeleProductions colleagues on a show that takes some new approaches in 21^st-century journalism."

"The genesis of NewsNight Akron was to fill the news gap created when commercial TV stations left Akron more than a decade ago," says Trina Cutter, Western Reserve Public Media president and CEO. "Our new NewsNiteprogram continues and broadens that responsibility operations."

In addition to airing on Fridays at 9 p.m., the show will repeat on Saturdays at 5:30 a.m. NewsNite also will air on Western Reserve Public Media's Fusion channel, WNEO.2/WEAO.2, on Saturdays at 10 p.m. and Mondays at 8:30 p.m. The show will air for 39 weeks and will then take a summer hiatus. During the summer, however, short NewsNite.Lite spots will air on Western Reserve PBS.

Western Reserve Public Media (formerly PBS 45 & 49) is owned and operated by Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio Inc., a private, nonprofit corporation and consortium of Kent State University, The University of Akron and Youngstown State University. Western Reserve PBS, a service of the organization, is the only broadcast television service that reaches all of northeast Ohio. It is available to 1.8 million households and 4.4 million people in the Cleveland and Youngstown designated market areas. In an average week, more than 500,000 households tune in. The organization also operates three standard definition channels, Fusion (WNEO.2/WEAO.2), MHz Worldview (WNEO.3/WEAO.3) and V-me (WNEO.4/WEAO.4).

Through funding from eTech Ohio, Western Reserve Public Media provides K-12 educational technology training and instructional television programming to 21,500 educators and 256,700 students in eight Ohio counties. For more information about the organization, visit its website or call 1-800-554-4549.