CBS 2 de-annexes State from newsroom lineup

CBS 2 de-annexes State from newsroom lineup

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It’s over and out for Anne State, whose tenure as news anchor and reporter at WBBM-Channel 2 lasted just two years. In a move telegraphed by her demotion as 10 p.m. co-anchor last spring, her contract was not renewed by the CBS-owned station. State’s last day on the air was Thursday, and her official bio is already gone from the station’s website. In a brief statement released Friday, Jeff Kiernan, vice president and news director at Channel 2, said:

“We appreciate Anne’s contributions and wish her the very best in her future endeavors.”

State was signed by Channel 2 as 5 p.m. news anchor in February 2008 after she’d worked at NBC-owned KNSD-TV in San Diego. But upon her arrival in April, she was named 6 and 10 p.m. anchor, replacing the departed Diann Burns alongside Rob Johnson. Under new station management — in a realignment dictated as much by budget as performance ‚  — her role was cut back one year later to anchoring only the 5 p.m. newscast and reporting for the 10 p.m. newscast. Although State drew little attention for her reporting, she did manage to capture a headline or two when she posed provocatively for photographer Maria Ponce in a spread published last October by Michigan Avenue magazine. The move leaves Johnson as Channel 2’s solo anchor at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.