Al Primo (original) (raw)

Albert Thomas Primo (July 3, 1935 – September 29, 2022) was an American television news executive who was credited with creating the Eyewitness News format. More than a hundred markets have taken the Eyewitness News name to label their own featured local newscasts and others are using Primo's concept under different names for their own formats. "Eyewitness News was the first newscast to put [news] reporters on the set", Primo states in his autobiographical book, Eyewitness Newsman. The New York Daily News described Primo as the man "who almost single-handedly changed the face of broadcast journalism." Station newscasts were only 15 minutes long and he supervised the transition to thirty minute programs.