Melissa Crawford
NBC Universal has named Melissa “Missy” Crawford as president and general manager of KNSD-TV NBC 7 San Diego and KUAN Telemundo 20 in San Diego. She will oversee all station operations, including the news, digital, sales, marketing-promotions, community affairs and technology-operations departments.
Crawford succeeds Todd Mokhtari, who had served in San Diego since early 2019. Earlier this year, Mokhtari was named president and general manager of KNBC-TV and KVEA-TV in Los Angeles. Before overseeing the two San Diego TV stations, Mokhtari had spent six years as VP of news at KNBC.
Crawford is expected to arrive in San Diego by the end of the month, a station spokesperson told Times of San Diego. For the past 10 years, she has served as VP of creative and marketing at NBC’s East Coast flagship television station, WNBC-TV, NBC 4 New York.
Crawford will report to Valari Staab, chairman of NBCUniversal Local, and work closely with Manual Martinez, president, Telemundo Station Group.
“Missy is an inspiring leader. She is very innovative and one of the top broadcast brand directors in the country,” said Staab. “With San Diego being home to two successful stations that operate like one team to meet the needs of the market’s ever changing communities, Missy is the perfect leader to help both businesses build upon their accomplishments and plan out the next phase in their evolution as our industry continues to change.”
“Missy has been a great partner to our Telemundo 47 team,” said Martinez. “I’m excited to see what she and our San Diego team will do together to build on the great work they’re already doing.”
At WNBC, she’s charted several marketing campaigns, including WNBC’s first-ever bilingual campaign that took flight during the Beijing Olympics and featured bilingual spots. The campaign highlighted the partnership between NBCUniversal’s New York stations and their power in working as “una sola familia” or “one family.” In addition, her digital and social promotions delivered 2,000% increase in social audience.
Before WNBC, she worked at NBC Bay Area for a year as brand director and oversaw the launch of the station’s brand strategy while fostering a team environment that encouraged creativity and innovation. Before that, she worked at KGO-TV in the Bay Area for 15 years. She launched her career in broadcasting at KGO-TV as an intern and held creative services roles with increasing responsibilities.
A native Californian, Crawford grew up in the Bay Area and earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Santa Clary University.
A promotion for Sycuan Casino Resort at Torero Stadium.
Sycuan is Exclusive Casino Sponsor of San Diego Loyal
A strategic partnership has been announced between Sycuan Casino Resort and the San Diego Loyal Soccer Club.
The partnership includes entitlement sponsor of the newly renamed “Sycuan Endline Suites” at Torero Stadium. The all-inclusive premium seating area, located on-field along the east end-line, will offer an up close and personal view of game action.
The partnership also includes a season-long “Golden Goal” contest consisting of fans correctly guessing the first SD Loyal goal scorer of the match, including the exact minute of the score.
“We are excited to announce our new partnership with San Diego Loyal Soccer Club as the exclusive casino sponsor,” said Rob Cinelli, general manager at Sycuan Casino Resort. “Sycuan’s commitment to the community runs deep and anytime we are able to get involved with our local sports teams, we always jump at the opportunity. We are proud to support such a talented and up-and-coming team and can’t wait to see all of the great things they accomplish during their 2022 season.”
“We are thrilled to team up with a world-class organization and local institution in Sycuan Casino Resort,” Loyal President Ricardo Campos said. “Sycuan has long been a staple of the San Diego community and we look forward to providing a unique and memorable matchday experience for our fans.”
Local Newspapers Win California Publishers Association Awards
Several San Diego-area newspapers were recently presented with awards for work performed in 2021 from the California News Publishers Association journalism awards program.
The San Diego Union-Tribune was presented with 35 awards, including five first-place awards in front-page layout and design, photojournalism and special section categories.
The page layout and design award was for a series of front-page stories. The special section award was for “One Year After the Shutdown” on March 20, 2021. Another first-place award for for a report on wildfire losses, “California’s iconic trees are casualties in the war on fire,” published on Aug. 29, 2021.
Several community newspapers owned by the Union-Tribune also received awards.
The Del Mar Times won four overall awards, including three first-place awards plus a first-place award for general excellence in the weekly print division for its circulation category. Judges said the Del Mar Times “is chock full of news, more so than many, many daily broadsheets.”
The La Jolla Light netted three awards, including a series called “La Jolla: then and Now,” a story on protecting sea lions, and a story on how flight patterns of pelicans could help drones fly better.
The Ramona Sentinel received an award about plans for a Western-style theme park called Jackalope Junction.
The Los Angeles Times was a top winner with 94 awards, including 30 first-place awards in a range of digital and print categories.
The mission of the CNPA is to protect and serve the common interests of the news media so that they can deliver democracy using the highest ideals, ethics and traditions of journalism to inform their communities.
PRSA Offering Free Advice to Nonprofits
The Public Relations Society of America’s San Diego-Imperial Counties chapter will host “Quality Time with PR Minds,” its annual outreach to help nonprofits with their communication goals, from 5p.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesday, June 22, at the Better Business Bureau Ignite Center, 4747 Viewridge Avenue.
At the event, PRSA members will offer free one-on-one advice and outreach consulting to representatives of local nonprofits. PRSA officials say its senior-level members report it’s one of their favorite annual events because it’s an opportunity to brainstorm and use their best-practices expertise to help raise awareness of good works happening in San Diego’s nonprofit community.
Local nonprofits seeking bright ideas to reach their communications goals or facing a communications-related strategic challenge are invited participate. Admission is free.
A PRSA official told Times of San Diego that about 20 nonprofits are expected to participate. For more event information, contact Kim Coutts at [email protected] or visit prsasdic.org.
Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly on Mondays in Times of San Diego.