NewsNation chief meteorologist out

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NewsNation has lost another member of its “OG.”

Albert Ramon, who joined the struggling cable news startup ahead of its September 2020 launch from KVUE in Austin, has left NewsNation and Nexstar.

Ramon, who identifies as Latino, follows former anchor Rob Nelson, who is Black, out the door at the network. Both men were part of the launch broadcast at the network.

However, as NewsNation began cutting back its three hour primetime newscast, there became less of a need for three anchors and a chief meteorologist.

Joe Donlon, who was previously co-anchor alongside Marni Hughes and Nelson, was moved to his own show, “The Donlon Report” and Nelson and Hughes then anchored “NewsNation Prime” until Nelson left.

Donlon and Hughes are now the only three members of the core talent pool who remain.

The need for a full time meteorologist also diminished as the network cut back on hard news and replaced it with familiar cable news fare of analysis, panels, debates and interviews.

Ramon had been appearing on “Morning in America,” the network’s new morning newscast, as had other members of the weather team.

Nexstar lured talent from all over the country, many from its own local stations, to move to Chicago and be part of what it billed as a revolutionary new venture — a three hour primetime newscast that culled content from its hundreds of newsrooms and journalists across the country.

However, that format never even really took off — in the early days “NewsNation” looked a lot of most other national newscasts — and as analysis and interview shows took over, even less news from local stations was used, though it has picked up a bit with the launch of the morning newscast.

Terms of talent contracts were not disclosed, but Nexstar said it had committed millions of dollars to the effort, which also included building a new newsroom and two sets for the network, so it’s likely big paychecks were used to lure people out of comfortable jobs to join an unknown entity.

Nexstar still has access to hundreds of meteorologists and forecasters at its stations across the country, as well as ones who work just down the hall from the NewsNation set at the WGN studios in Chicago.

NewsNation has seen remarkable turnover since its launch — including the high profile departure of its vice president, news director and managing editor. Digital host Ji Suk Yi quietly disappeared and other behind the scenes staffers have left as well.