Fox 32 news exec to Al Jazeera

Chris Myers

Chris Myers

Veteran Chicago news executive Chris Myers has resigned as assistant news director at Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32 to join Al Jazeera America.

Myers told staffers in a meeting Wednesday that he’ll work through next week at Fox 32 before moving to Los Angeles to help start up a new weekly show for the fledgling cable news channel. No word yet on his replacement.

Myers, a former executive producer at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 and producer at ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7, joined Fox 32 in January 2012 as assistant news director under his mentor, Phyllis Schwartz. When Schwartz resigned the following December, Myers served as interim news director, but was passed over for the permanent job in favor of Tom Doerr, who signed on from Fox-owned KRIV-TV in Houston.

The latest move will mark a return to L.A. where Myers previously was assistant news director at NBC-owned KNBC-TV and editor for CelebTV.com and RadarOnline.com. He also worked as a producer for “Entertainment Tonight” and “The Insider.”

Myers is the latest Chicagoan to join Al Jazeera America, the network launched last August with backing from the Bedouin oil billionaires of Qatar. He follows Ash-har Quraishi, former correspondent for WTTW-Channel 11′s “Chicago Tonight,” who is now chief correspondent for the network at its Chicago bureau, and Chris Bury, former ABC News correspondent, who is now a contributing correspondent for "America Tonight."

Others with Chicago ties include Antonio Mora, former news anchor at CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2, who hosts “Consider This,” and former NBC 5 reporter and NPR host Ray Suarez, who hosts “Inside Story.” Steve Lange, a former news director of CBS 2 here, is senior executive producer of Al Jazeera Media Network.