CNN Bolsters Coverage with Four Key Hires for Domestic Bureaus
Correspondents Freed, Lawrence, Rowlands, Vargas Join Network in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco

CNN/U.S. has hired four journalists for its San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago bureaus. The appointments are designed to bolster the network's broadcasting and newsgathering efforts in these regions, it was announced today by Princell Hair, executive vice president and general manager of CNN/U.S.

Ted Rowlands, formerly of KTVU-TV in San Francisco and a reporter known to CNN's Larry King Live audience, will join the San Francisco bureau. Sibila Vargas, formerly of KTLA in Los Angeles, will join CNN's Los Angeles bureau. Vargas will serve as an entertainment correspondent. Christopher Lawrence, formerly a correspondent with CBS Newspath, and Jonathan Freed, formerly an anchor and editor with the Global Television Network in Montreal, will join the network's Chicago bureau as correspondents.

"These new hires demonstrate CNN's commitment to maintaining a deep bench of experienced, versatile correspondents across the United States," Hair said. "Christopher, Jonathan, Sibila and Ted are top-flight journalists, and we are delighted that they have joined CNN. Their deployment will strengthen our original reporting from these key areas, allowing us to develop even more news leads before stories hit the national stage."

Rowlands comes to CNN from KTVU-TV, a Fox affiliate in San Francisco he joined in December 2001. There, he was the station's lead investigative reporter covering the Laci Peterson case and one of only a few journalists to get an interview with Scott Peterson. In 1999, as a reporter with another California station, Rowlands broadcast a confession from Cary Stayner, who had been accused of murdering two female tourists in Yosemite.

Vargas joins CNN after working as a freelance entertainment reporter for KTLA-TV in Los Angeles. She has reported and hosted programs for the TV Guide Channel, the Fox Movie Channel, Fox Sports and other networks. She began her broadcasting career at WPIX-TV in New York as a writer and producer.

Lawrence becomes a weekend correspondent for CNN after working as a correspondent for CBS Newspath. Before that, he worked as a reporter for WXYZ-TV in Detroit, WTVH-TV in Syracuse, N.Y., and WDBB-TV in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He started his career at City Cable 16 in Washington, D.C. as a freelance reporter.

Freed joins CNN as a correspondent after working as a senior anchor and news editor for the Global Television Network in Montreal. He previously served as a staff correspondent for Hearst-Argyle Television's Washington bureau, an anchor and reporter for WXIX-TV in Cincinnati and a correspondent for CBS.

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