Gary Justice Heads Kiro-TV News

Changes continue at troubled KIRO-TV News, as the station tries to raise the ratings of its disastrous "out of the box" news format.

Gary Justice, longtime anchor at the station, yesterday was named interim news director, and Dave Thomsen, a producer at the station, was named interim managing editor. In addition, Dave Humphrey was elevated from managing editor to executive producer of TV news.

KIRO News has been struggling ever since early February when it adoped its unusual "walk and talk" format, in which anchors roam through a busy, complex news set as they deliver the news. KIRO News has plummeted to a distant third in the ratings ever since the new format began.

The newsroom has been rocked with several changes since then, most notably the upcoming departure of popular anchor Susan Hutchison, whose last day is June 29, and the firing of several key news executives. It was those executive posts that were filled with yesterday's announcements. - Seattle Times staff reporters Kay Kusumoto and Patrick MacDonald contributed to this story.