Tracy Wholf has been named senior producer of climate at CBS News and Stations. She comes from ABC News, where she was coordinating producer, and helped launch the ABC Climate Unit in 2021. She has also worked in news and documentary production for PBS, Nat Geo and ESPN. She starts at CBS December 12.
Also focusing full-time on climate at CBS News is Chris Spinder. He joined CBS News in 2011 and has produced climate and environmental segments for CBS Mornings, the CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell and CBS Saturday Mornings. He is joining the CBS the climate unit full time as climate producer.
Adrienne Roark, president, content development/integration, CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures, said in a memo to staff: “Working closely with many senior leaders over the past several weeks, we’ve identified areas where greater collaboration across News and Stations optimizes our reach and leverages our expertise across all programs and platforms. One of our strategic priorities previously discussed was to elevate our reporting on Climate across the group.”
Roark continued: “Tracy and Chris will work closely to develop, collaborate and coordinate coverage on this very important topic. We've already started this work, with the network and stations teams meeting to share notes and ideas. Together, Tracy and Chris will supercharge this collaboration and lead us in creating a powerful and unified team.”
Roark said CBS News and Stations will soon formalize other vital beats such as safety, crime and guns; consumer, tech and business; medical/health; transportation and border/immigration.
Each beat will be led by senior producers and producers reporting to David Reiter, CBS News executive producer, special events; and Chad Cross, VP, content development, CBS News and Stations.
“Dedicating ourselves to these issue areas — outside the scope of politics and international which have dedicated bureaus — will strengthen and differentiate our coverage,” Roark said.
