Channel 5 General Manager Out

It's official. OMW hears that Scripps Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5 general manager Viki Regan is no longer in the building.

Well, maybe we should say "she's no longer the general manager" as of Monday, because we hear she actually hasn't been in the building for some time, as her status at Channel 5 was being negotiated with upper Scripps management over the past week or so.

We're told that she couldn't see eye to eye with her Scripps bosses over the direction of the station, which led to her exit.

OMW hears that an interim general manager won't be appointed, as Scripps hopes to have a permanent replacement for Regan in the next few weeks.

The long lead time to Regan's exit means the rumors were flying. We've heard them for about a week, and for that matter, those rumors led to a story by Plain Dealer media writer Julie Washington on Monday, which we passed along on our Twitter feed:

Rumors flew around WEWS Channel 5 and the market on Monday that general manager Viki Regan might be leaving the station.

By the time Ms. Washington's story hit Cleveland.com, at just before 5 PM on Monday, OMW hears that Regan was already the former general manager.

Regan joined WEWS in May 2008, coming off an 11 year stint as general manager of Hearst's WPBF, the ABC affiliate in West Palm Beach FL...