CINCINNATI – Brian Lawlor has been named vice president and general manager of WPTV in West Palm Beach, Fla., effective immediately. He succeeds Bill Peterson, who was named senior vice president of The E.W. Scripps Company’s broadcast television group earlier this year.WPTV, an NBC network affiliate and market leader in news, is owned and operated by Scripps.Lawlor, 37, was named vice president and station manager of WPTV in January 2004. Before joining WPTV he was general sales manager for WCPO-TV, the Scripps television station in Cincinnati. “Brian has demonstrated great energy, intelligence and marketing savvy as vice president and station manager of WPTV since the beginning of the year,” said Peterson. “I am most pleased that he is available to follow me at a station I love, working with people I admire.”Lawlor is a 1988 graduate of King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. He also has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Miami.Lawlor began his broadcast industry career as an account executive at WBRE-TV in Wilkes-Barre before holding similar positions at WPTV and WTVJ-TV in Miami. He returned to WPTV in 1995 as the national sales manager and three years later was named local sales manager. Lawlor currently serves on the boards of the United Way and The Economic Council of Palm Beach County.The E.W. Scripps Company is a diverse media concern with interests in newspaper publishing, broadcast television, national television networks, interactive media and television retailing. Scripps operates 21 daily newspapers, 15 broadcast TV stations, four cable and satellite television programming networks and a television retailing network. All of the company’s media businesses provide content and advertising services via the Internet. Scripps Networks brands include Home & Garden Television, Food Network, DIY — Do It Yourself Network and Fine Living. HGTV reaches about 85 million U.S. television households and Food Network can be seen in about 84 million households. Scripps Networks Web sites include FoodNetwork.com, HGTV.com, DIYnetwork.com and fineliving.com. Scripps Networks programming can be seen in 86 countries. The company’s television retailing subsidiary, Shop At Home Network, markets a growing range of consumer goods directly to television viewers and visitors to the Shop At Home Web site, shopathometv.com. Shop At Home reaches about 48 million full-time equivalent U.S. households, including 5 million households via five Scripps-owned, Shop At Home affiliated broadcast television stations. Scripps also operates Scripps Howard News Service and United Media, which is the worldwide licensing and syndication home of PEANUTS and DILBERT.