WTHR-TV Channel 13 will be looking for another news director when the contract of Keith Connors expires in a few weeks.

Connors told the Indianapolis NBC affiliate Tuesday that he’ll be leaving the station to pursue other options, and cited both family and professional reasons, according to industry sources.

He arrived at WTHR in January 2011 after spending the previous five years as executive news director at CBS affiliate KHOU-TV in Houston.

Before moving to Texas, Connors led newsrooms in Rochester, N.Y.; Norfolk, Va.; and Charlotte, N.C. His experience rebuilding the NBC affiliate in Charlotte was the subject of “Local News,” a five-part PBS documentary that aired in 2001.

WTHR was the most-watched local station for news during last year’s November sweeps period.

The station, however, joins local stations WRTV-TV Channel 6 and WISH-TV Channel 8 in searches for a news-director replacement.

WRTV parted ways with Kevin Finch on Friday, and WISH has been without a news director since terminating Patti McGettigan in August after 17 years.

WXIN-TV Channel 59 is the lone local network station with a news director. Lee Rosenthal has been with Fox59 since January 2009.



