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Could WABC be launching the new graphics soon? This promo, for a story on climate change, featured a new Eyewitness News logo and Virginia Hamilton as VO.

So sad to see Derrick Go! Definitely a class act and he was just extraordinary at delivering the news. He's gonna be missed, hope he gets to anchor chair in New York some day. Something I noticed today during the 10AM show commercial break: Noticed this new wordmark for an Eyewitness News promotion for Climate Change during the 10AM show. Could this be a glimpse of their upcoming new look? At first I thought it was KABC because they have the same wordmark, but then I noticed the ABC 7 logo is WABC's. But in the promotion it looks like the locations in the video are in California, so it to me looks like it could either be something that KABC is producing for WABC but slapping WABC's ABC 7 logo, or is it an element from the upcoming new graphics?

CNN Max has launched. "CNN Newsroom" is currently on, using the CNN International look. Nice seeing Fredricka Whitfield, who very rarely shows up on CNN outside of weekends.

If they could simulcast the domestic CNN, I'm sure they would. It would be the easiest and most cost-effective route. But putting the entire U.S. feed on Max would undoubtedly run afoul of their cable contracts. There's probably a percentage of their schedule they can simulcast that keeps them within the bounds of their contracts. Similar to how MSNBC's "Morning Joe" is available live on Peacock, but the rest of the MSNBC schedule isn't live DTC. As to why they don't simply simulcast the International feed, my guess is because of a concern that a full day of international news wouldn't attract a large number of American viewers. I'm not saying there isn't an audience for international news, so don't come at me thinking I hate international headlines. I'm just saying that a domestic audience is more likely to want more American headlines than international ones. CNN Max is going to have a huge uphill battle. Fox Nation has figured out its streaming business model. NBC has NBC News Now and an MSNBC hub on Peacock. So CNN's main cable rivals have already figured out the economics of this and are positioned to scale up DTC as the cable bundle continues to implode. Now CNN has to play catchup, which seems like a theme for them as of late.

Here's the schedule of what aired today from what I saw: 8am: CNN Newsroom with Fredricka Whitfield 10am: CNN Newsroom with Rahel Solomon 11am: State of the Race with Kasie Hunt (CNN International) Noon: One World with Zain Asher and Bianna Golodryga (CNN International) 1pm: Amanpour (CNN International) 2pm: Newsroom with Jim Sciutto 3pm: Quest Means Business (CNN International) And then at 4pm, it became a simulcast of CNN/U.S. with The Lead, The Situation Room, etc. (all of which also airs on CNN International). So, not a ton of original content, but nice for American viewers to see more CNN International. I guess I'm curious what the logic is for a few hours of CNN Max-exclusive newscasts and not just putting the entire U.S. or International feed on there. Or maybe the simulcasts are a placeholder until they launch more original shows. They are calling it a beta product for now. As for the "no commercials" promise mentioned yesterday, the Max-exclusive shows took a few short promo breaks. I'm just realizing that the background behind Fredricka is CNN's D.C. studio used for Inside Politics, The Lead, etc, just with an Atlanta skyline. Rahel had the same backdrop but with NY in there. Jim Sciutto was in front of an actual window overlooking the Capitol. (I thought it was the usual flashcam-monitor setup but it's not. Just now remembering that they used to have a small set featuring part of that window there. Now it looks like just a window.)

The best set in the station group. And it's not particularly close, in my opinion.

WKEF NBC 22 NEWS 1997 (A tribute to Don Brown R.I.P) KIRO 11pm Eyewitness News 1980 WBAL 11PM News 1996 WHBQ Eyewitness News 1986 WLS Eyewitness News 1991

Seems 8am-10am will be a rotation between Fredricka Whitfield, Jim Acosta & Amara Walker. CNN MAX only has 4 hours of their own live shows, rest is all CNN US & International. CNN Press Release from today: CNN Max Launches In An Open Beta In The US Offering 24/7 Live News

They continually say she is off and show promos with her in it. None of us know her personal situation, other than she is off the air for now. She may be sick, someone in the family sick, a death in the family, or who knows what. There is no law that says she has to share every aspect of her personal life with viewers. She (and all anchors) may be on TV but they are entitled to privacy.

Interesting. I guess I never realized how much of a common practice editorializing always was at WABC. That clip of John Johnson is a very good example of that. YMMV on how much of a good thing that is, but I agree that it certainly adds a spice (for lack of a better word) to their newscasts that the competing stations don’t have. No wonder a character like Bill Bonds did so well at WXYZ with the same format; his newscasts were basically “Eyewitness News” on steroids (newscast titles notwithstanding).

I'll repeat was I said on the Discord server. It's from a promo package that's specifically being used for a climate series across the O&O's. These animations aren't likely coming from in-house, and the screenshot posted above looks like they put a WABC-shaped ABC7 in a KABC-shaped hole. I wouldn't necessarily see this as a sign of guaranteed change. This is how it's showing up on WLS, earlier this summer.

Looks like the same signs as KTRK before they got the new graphics on the news broadcasts a few months later. Looks like WABC is at that phase (I think they've been there for a while).

Circling back to an earlier discussion of Bill Ritter's editorializing, and someone's characterization of Eyewitness News NY as tabloid, I'm realizing the station has a long *history of editorialized or colorful language in reports. Look at John Johnson's report on NYC's urban *decay from 1978 from (9:46-11:13). "We spend 20 million where SHOULD be spending $500 Million." "Pieces of rot..", "It hurts to tell you we have only allocated less than half a billion this year". "The Woolworth building is just a symbol that makes us more noble than Peoria, and the city of New York goes begging." Fantastic descriptive language that doesn't dull the report, bull still a testy step into opinion. There was this report on John Gotti's conviction. Jim Dolan's classification of the jury as "12 courageous New Yorkers..." or Bill Beutel saying he can "only look at the moon through jailhouse bars". Again colorful language that makes the report interesting. Some could argue tabloid. Some could argue a testy step into editorializing.

Watching the WGBA version, it comes of as 'thin-staffed small-market Gannett newspaper operation' where only weather has money put into it instead (as it should, it's their main and only strength) and they're reporting about evergreen topics like 'how did my high school mascot get their name' rather than anything investigative or current-day, and like the Gannet example, struggle to fill 35 minutes the same way they struggle to fill twelve pages (and ten of them are pre-filled with USA Today filler and one page of classified/legal notices). It's fine for what it is, but if what it was was already kind of a mediocre product to begin with, it's just making it even more unremarkable.

This sounds kind of like EuroNews, where voice-over in several languages is used for the same video targeted to different audiences, with no anchor. I believe WCPO Cincinnati did something similar back in the day, with Al Schottelkotte doing voice-over with video and photographs, with minimal anchor-desk shots.

Yes, it does look nice. And yes, I've been waiting forever for it. Haha. The time-lapse video is something else. Two months of construction ... 1 month of tweaks and getting it just right ... and they kept it a secret to about 48 hours from go time. There is only a handful of stations where a secret can be kept like that and silent. -- Matt

NEW: WABC (2003) Bill Beutel retires. He and Roz Abrahms should have anchored together *permanently* at some point. That would have been a solid counter to Chuck and Sue.

Wtoc in action. They’ve appeared to have dropped “live local now” and brought back their old slogan “the southeast news leader” in the open

agreed. We need warmer lighting in this Hi Def era. Cold washed out lighting looks horrendus on HD screens.

I was wondering the same thing. It is eerie, because there is nothing online, mainly FB posts from viewers mentioning how he has just disappeared from everything WTTG. Very interesting. Could have gotten another position at another station, and under a Non-Compete, or at least that what I am assuming.

WTMJ News 4 Milwaukee Tonight 1984 KATU 2 News 1990 KATU 2 @ 4 1984 WSYX 6 News 1997

People often ask and speculate about on-air talent compensation. NYC passed a law that took effect a year or two ago requiring employers to publicize a role's salary range in job descriptions. WABC is currently hiring on-air roles, providing some relevant data. The current hiring range for a General Assignment Reporter is 150-200k, and the current hiring range for an Anchor/Reporter (replacing Mike Marza on the weekends) is 250k-400k. Other elements of compensation factor in, of course, as does negotiation.

Derick Waller is leaving WABC. He attributes it to the difficulties of working the early shift.

Jim Sciutto signed off from CNN News Central today. Tomorrow comes the beta launch of CNN Max, which will be part of Max (formerly HBO Max). They said on TV that CNN Max won't have commercial breaks, so I'm curious how they're going to incorporate the shows that already exist. (Will they air live but have slideshow-like content covering up the ads? Will they air later with the breaks cut out and be shorter?) Also curious how similar or different it will be from CNN+, which had shows that lasted maybe 20-40 minutes and then replayed to fill out the hour until the next show began. I had a feeling Chris Licht's three-anchor broadcasts might not be long for TV. CNN This Morning is of course down to two, and it sounds like the afternoon DC edition of News Central may be joining that. Haven't heard of any changes coming to the morning NY edition yet (but could easily have missed something). In other post-Chris Licht news, I've noticed that the "BREAKING NEWS" tab is again being used rather liberally. Below is one example from today. This was a very good interview and I recommend everyone watch it, but book interviews generally aren't breaking. (Also, did the font on the ticker become less bold or is it just me?)

I absolutely LOVE the new ABC 13 graphics! In my opinion I think they look better than ABC 7 Chicago. I love the red accents over the yellow accents. I do wish they did personalized openings for each newscast instead of the generic open. Also I’m a big fan of Talent montages…I know many stations are getting away from them.