ABC News Picks Seven Reporters to Establish Solo Bureaus Around World

By Michele Greppi

ABC News President David Westin has dispatched seven reporters, all specially schooled in the digital technologies that can render them self-sufficient in far-flung locales, to establish one-person bureaus. The division described the move as the largest expansion of ABC News’ foreign bureaus in two decades.

The reporters, who have been chosen from throughout ABC News, will write, film, edit and feed their material digitally from DV cameras and laptops wherever they are in the field.

They will work closely with the division’s international news partners, including the BBC, APTN, NHK and ARD, and will be supported by ABC’s larger bureaus in London, Moscow, Jerusalem, Baghdad and Beijing.

The assignments announced Wednesday include:

--Joohee Cho in Seoul, South Korea, where she joined ABC News as a producer in 1999.

--Margaret Conley in Jakarta, Indonesia. She joined ABC News as a New York-based coordinator for “Good Morning America” and later worked for ABC entertainment executives on the West Coast. She has spent more than six years living in Asia and over the past year has contributed stories to ABCNEWS.com.

--Sonia Gallego in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She joined the London bureau in 1999 as a production associate for “World News Tonight” and “Good Morning America.” She has made several trips to Iraq, as a field producer and contributing on-air reports from Baghdad, and has reported from Israel, Gaza and Uganda.

--Dana Hughes in Nairobi, Kenya. As an associate producer for the ABC News’ Investigative Unit, which she joined as a Carnegie Corporation Fellow examining the safety of nuclear reactors on college campuses, she has contributed to all ABC News platforms, including as a writer and reporter for the investigative unit’s ABCNews.com page, “The Blotter.”

--Karen Russo in Mumbai, India. A former print journalist, she joined ABC News in 2003 as an associate producer for “Primetime” and more recently has been a field producer for “Nightline.”

--Nick Schifrin in New Delhi, India. He started as an overnight desk assistant on 2002 and since has worked on the political unit, as a field producer and, most recently, as editorial producer and writer of the 15-minute “World News” digital Webcast.

--Lara Setrakian in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She has been a reporter with ABC News’ Law & Justice Unit.

(Editor: Horowitz)