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Tom Planchet -- Digital Director

Tom Planchet is the Digital Director of WWL-TV, managing the station’s offerings on desktops, mobile phones, social media and news apps. He has been in charge of the digital operation since 2001 after serving one year as a producer on the station’s web site.

Tom started at WWL-TV in 1982 as an intern. He was on the job six weeks when he was part of the coverage team for the crash of Pan Am flight 759 in a Kenner neighborhood.

Tom became a producer in the sports department in 1983 and stayed there until 2000, working with WWL-TV legends Jim Henderson, Chris Myers and Mike Hoss over the years. He and Myers started the successful Fourth Down on 4 franchise, which continues to this day. He was also involved with Mike Hoss in establishing the Fourth Down Friday high school football show. Planchet also worked as an assistant producer on the station’s live coverage of Saints preseason games and was the producer of the pre and post-game shows.

Tom joined the fledgling web team in 2000 and became its manager a year later.

During his time at WWL-TV’s online operation he has overseen the coverage of several hurricanes, including Hurricane Katrina, during which, as the only member of the two-person web staff not trapped by floodwaters, he started a blog of everything that was happening. The blog received national publicity and over 1 million views in a single day. It received a 2nd place award as ‘Best News Blog’ in the country and the wwltv.com web site was awarded national ‘News Web Site of the Year’ by Editor and Publisher magazine.

The site was also awarded a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award and a First Place New Orleans Press Club Award for the coverage. He was a featured speaker at the Online News Association National Convention in 2006 to detail the web site’s coverage of the historic storm.

WWLTV.com has received 7 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards as Best Website during Planchet’s tenure. Currently WWLTV.com has captured the top digital award from Louisiana Associated Press for five consecutive years and the top digital award from the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters for 3 consecutive years.

Planchet is a graduate of Brother Martin High School and the University of New Orleans.

He has been married for 30 years and he and his wife Kevin Ann have 3 daughters.

You can reach Tom by email at tplanchet@wwltv.com.

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