WFTV alum gets ABC co-anchor job
Big promotion at ABC for Janai Norman, a former reporter at WFTV-Channel 9.
She will be co-anchor of “World News Now” and “America This Morning,” ABC News President James Goldston announced Monday. She joins fellow anchor Kendis Gibson.
“Janai is a vibrant, talented journalist and she will be an incredible partner alongside Kendis. I’m excited for our overnight audience to get to know her,” Goldston said in a note to the news division.
Norman succeeds Diane Macedo, who logged two years on “World News Now” and “America This Morning.” Macedo is becoming a correspondent for ABC in New York.
Norman left WFTV in 2016 after three-and-a-half years with Cox Media Group, which owns the ABC affiliate. She joined WFTV in November 2014 from Cox sister station Fox23 News in Tulsa, Okla.
Goldston noted that, while in Orlando, Norman covered a wide range of stories as a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor, including the Pulse nightclub shooting.
When she departed, she told me she would remember Central Florida’s mild winters. “And I’ll definitely remember the morning crew that I worked with during my entire time at WFTV. Everyone there works so hard, but there's a special place in my heart for the crew that’s in before 9 a.m.,” she said.
In 2016, she rejoined ABC News as a multi-platform reporter in Washington, D.C., and has covered the Trump administration, Capitol Hill and breaking news. She began her career with ABC News in 2011 as an intern with NewsOne in New York.
A University of MissouriColumbia graduate, Norman worked as a general assignment reporter at ABC17 News in Columbia, Mo.