Tags: Longtime Channel 5 anchorgal Liz Brunner yesterday announced she will leave the station next week to start her own media consulting biz, the second high-profile WCVB newswoman to give her notice in recent months.
Brunner, whose last day will be a week from today, follows Susan Wornick, who announced last summer that she will be departing the station when her contract runs out in March. Brunner has been with Channel 5 for more than two decades. Wornick is a 33-year veteran.
“I’ve been thinking for a while about what the next chapter would be and the timing is right,” Brunner told the Track. “I’ll miss the viewers of New England who have been so kind to me over the past 20 years and working with the best team in television, but now is the right time to do this.”
Brunner, co-anchor of the 6 p.m. news, will launch Brunner Communications, a media consulting firm that will offer training and coaching for individuals and businesses and talent development for TV anchors, hosts and reporters.
“I’m looking forward to working with executives, doctors, athletes — anyone who has to talk to the media — to share some of the things I’ve learned over the course of my career,” Brunner said. “I used to be a high school teacher and I love working with the interns here at Channel 5, so this will be a natural extension of what I’ve been doing.”
Brunner’s departure comes during a rocky time for local television news, which, like most media outlets, has lost viewers to the Internet, cable and other sources.
“There are some challenges ahead for them,” she said. “But for me, I’m looking forward to new challenges. I’ve done every kind of story, been on every different newscast, I’ve had lots of exclusives. This is a new chapter.”
Brunner said some of the stories she is most proud of include covering medical breakthroughs like the first partial face transplant and an exclusive interview she scored with President Obama earlier this year.
“It was four years of perseverance, writing countless letters to the White House,” she said. “So it was a little feather in my cap.”
But most of all, she said, she’ll always remember “people who just opened their lives up to me.”
“Some had gone through difficult times or a traumatic event and it helped them move through that to talk about it,” she said. “To be able to help them was a blessing to me.”
View the original posting from the Boston Herald
Interested in Taking Yourself or Your Executive Team to the Next Level?
Brunner Communications assists high-profile individuals and organizations in sharpening and developing top level business communication, executive presence, and public speaking skills. Our passionate team provides one-on-one executive business coaching, and runs specialized business workshops. Through customized training, clients learn the necessary skills to become great communicators and build a marketable reputation.