Yesterday, FTVLive told you that WPIX finally got around to naming a new News Director.

Mark Effron takes over on April 17th as the new news boss of a station that is struggling in the ratings.

Effron talked about what he expects when we walks into the newsroom.

Well, mainly he just gave a bunch of cliches:

“I really want to get in there. I want to get in the seat, learn the folks, and be a really good listener,” Effron said.

“I’m sure that collaboratively after that we’ll do some things. But I’m not going in there with any preconceived notions.”

At one point in his 30-year TV news career, Effron was in charge of daytime programming at MSNBC, from 2002-06. He says morning and nighttime newscasts will get an equal amount of attention.

“I don’t know what I want to do. I want to go in there and listen, learn, observe and let serendipity play its role,” Effron said. “There’s a lot of wisdom in that newsroom and in that station. I want to tap into that.”

Despite the station’s dismal ratings, Effron says he has not been given a time frame for improvements by station owners at Tribune or WPIX vice president and general manager Eric Meyrowitz.

“I haven’t heard anything,” Effron said.

He said he isn’t looking to put his own mark on the station, at least not in the short term. He said there will not be any formal evaluation of on-air staff.

“I just never see it as about my stamp,” Effron said. “My goal is that we’re all successful together at Ch. 11.”

He would not reveal his plans for Tamsen Fadal, who has been working as the station’s lead anchor since Jodi Applegate left over the winter.

“I have not been in the newsroom. I have not met anybody,” Effron acknowledged. “It would be extraordinarily presumptuous of me to know what it’s going to look like once I’m in the seat.”

Effron joins WPIX after a stint in radio as general manager/executive producer of “The Takeaway,” a joint daily partnership between WNYC and Public Radio International.

Effron said he’s been a fan of WPIX since he was a kid.

“I like the scrappiness,” Effron said. “It’s a newscast that’s connected to New York, which I really like.”

Effron replaces acting news director John Houseman, who will remain with WPIX.

H/T NY Daily News