Long-time reporter and anchor Rick Kupchella is departing KARE-TV, the station announced on Tuesday.
Kupchella, who’d worked at the Gannett-owned station for 20 years and anchored KARE 11 News on weekends for more than 10 years, will “pursue his own outside media content interests,” the station said in a statement on its Web site.
In a video statement posted online by Kupchella, the departing newsman said that economic issues played a role in the shift. The full video is here.
Kupchella has won multiple journalism awards, including “Best of Show” at the New York International Film Festival and more than a dozen Regional Emmy Awards.
He’s also a past president & board member of the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Rick also writes books for children, including Tell Me What We Did Today and Girls Can! Make it Happen. He is writing a third children’s book, this one with B.B. King, according to KARE-TV.
ddeyoung@bizjournals.com