Scott Diener

Award-winning television news veteran Scott Diener will explore the power and ever-changing world of broadcast news during next month’s installment of California State University, Northridge’s Commerce of Creativity Distinguished Speaker Series.

Diener, vice president and news director for both CBS 2 and KCAL 9 in Los Angeles, will give this year’s first lecture in the annual series hosted by the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 10, in the Kurland Lecture Hall of CSUN’s Valley Performing Arts Center.

“The Commerce of Creativity Distinguished Speaker Series is designed to connect members of our campus, alumni and the community with compelling and provocative storytellers who have made significant contributions to the art of communications and the art of business,” said Cynthia Rawitch, interim dean of CSUN’s Curb College. “Scott Diener is a veteran newsman who has watched the news business grow and adjust to the changing ways people now get information. His talk should provide some interesting insight into what is happening in the broadcast news business today and tomorrow.”

Diener, a Southern California native, was named vice president and news director of CBS 2 and KCAL 9, the CBS-owned television stations in Los Angeles, in 2010. He is responsible for overseeing the largest local television news operation in Southern California, an organization that produces more than 70 hours of local newscasts each week.

During the past three years, CBS 2 News at 11 p.m. has increased its adult 25-54 audience, a key demographic, by 38 percent. In February 2012, CBS 2 outperformed its rivals in adults 25-54, to give the station its first February late news victory in 17 years. Meanwhile, KCAL 9 has enjoyed an unprecedented run of success, featuring the most-watched 10 p.m. newscast in Southern California during seven of the last nine quarterly sweep periods, dating back to November 2010.

Diener came to CBS 2 and KCAL 9 after having served as news director at KTVT-TV and KTXA-TV, the CBS-owned duopoly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, beginning in August 2007. Diener joined those CBS stations as an assistant news director of KTVT and KTXA in June 2006. Prior to that, he served as news director at KTVK-TV in Phoeniz, Ariz., WHAS-TV in Louisville, Ky., KNTV-TV in San Francisco, and WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio.

He has been honored with the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University award, a George Foster Peabody and an Emmy, which he earned as newscast producer at KTVK in Phoenix.

The Commerce of Creativity Distinguished Speaker Series is free and open to the public. Reservations are recommended and should be made by Oct. 7. To make a reservation, email jennifer.reifsneider@csun.edu or call (818) 677-7038.

California State University, Northridge’s Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication is inspired by the shared belief that art is community, community is art and that art and communication are essential pillars for building and maintaining community. Its programs, including those in art, music, theater, cinema and television arts, communication studies and journalism, have an international reputation for graduating skilled professionals who succeed in their respective fields.

Arts and Culture, Commerce of Creativity, Lectures, Mike Curb College of Arts Media and Communication, Speakers, Television