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WAFF made the switch at noon today! The website has yet to be updated.

It's a common theme with most of the ABC O&Os. They're stable and well-run.

The green shade was absolutely blinding when in a full bar indicating gains, the gold shading is confusing, and the entire package is a middle finger to those who are colorblind. When your competition (Bloomberg here, since FBC has become an FNC annex, let's be serious) upgraded their presentation to 4k specifically to show more information, this is a major step backward. There is no reason for the index numbers to be that big, and it will definitely get adjustments, hopefully, especially if they do that superimposition of the live Dow they occasionally do on heavy market days. (No change so far on CNBC World, by the way)

So... Old enough to know better, young enough to still get carded at the bar.

While a refresh was somewhat needed, this feels more like a mockup of a design you'd find on this forum than something worthy of cable news. I mean, it's not bad... but... it's not really all that good either? Of course, I'm commenting having only seen just this one screenshot...

In the short of it, they want their balance sheets to show lower operating costs than revenue so it boosts interest from perspective buyers. This is what Meredith did before they sold to Gray. If debt equity is high, this other method will be the most attractive things to Wall Street. You're pointing out the single largest problem with having large-scale station ownership. They have no connection to the community they serve or local values. They only care about finances. You are right that these are part of the value of the station images with the public, but the finances are far abstracted from that. No one is looking or cares. It's all about the balance sheet at the end of the day.

I thought it would be a combined news operation, good to know that they will still have some local news.

This looks extremely similar to the NBC News Now graphics, just flipped, and taller. CNBC NBC News Now I would not suprised if it was done by the same team.

Then the question is what do the ratings look like? If WMTV is #1 (And I'm pretty sure it's between them and WISC?) then "If it broken, don't fix it" might apply. That said, WISC did blow up their graphics and branding a few years back...

That's refreshing when you hear so much negatives about companies like Nexstar etc..

I would argue that it's the equivalent of being in studio/the newsroom, but instead, they're outside. For example, WFLD has often had reporters right outside the studio doing standups instead of 'at the scene' or in studio. I want to say WMAQ has done the same over the years (i.e.. having someone live right outside the NBC Tower). It's not as uncommon as it may seem. At the end of the day, what's important is that the news/stories these reporters are reporting on is accurate, true, informative, etc.. and not necessarily where/what place they are saying it from.

I'll bite. Just had a nice little glass of bourbon, so let's see what we can come up with: When I first started working for TEGNA, I felt like they didn't get enough credit for what they were trying to do. They were investing a ton of money into the brands of these stations and bringing in some interesting people to shake things up on the marketing side. It sounded really exciting and I got sucked into it, leaving a well established market-leading station to jump into this mess. It's no exaggeration to say when I was sitting in the hotel the night before my first day watching WUSA9, I felt immediate regret in my decision and I started working immediately to leave. (It took nearly three years to get out... woof.) When I look back at it all, I think one of the biggest problems is that the news and production folks at these local stations have absolutely no idea how to make good television. Is that really their fault? I don't know. Local news has looked essentially the same since the 1940s. Desk. Chair. Backdrop. Want to shake things up? Have the anchor stand. That backdrop? It's now a monitor. That's about as groundbreaking as these people know what to do. (And that's not just TEGNA, it's an industry-wide issue.) So now you want to revamp your morning show and you bring in a comedian... again, not exactly revolutionary. It's been done. But news leadership is really afraid to lean into this concept, so it's just another straightforward mediocre newscast with a comedian randomly dropped in. The comedian has no one to play off of. Your news anchors and reporters aren't funny, they don't know humor. So you have awkward interactions throughout the show. You blow millions on marketing this 3rd or 4th place show to get folks to "sample" it. Sure, there is a slight spike in ratings - people drop in, have a look, say "what the hell is this?", tune out and never come back. TEGNA would fly in folks from various departments from their stations all around the country every few months for "innovation summits" at their HQ. I got invited to one. A lot of interesting ideas. Absolutely no way to execute it. An idea I had got piloted in Cleveland (of course, I never saw a bonus, not that I expected one ). They flew out the comedian from DC to host it. It was awful. You know why? Your producer who graduated from Elon's school of journalism has absolutely no clue how to make good television. They know how to copy and paste from the wires and re-write stories from the 11p to drop into their AM shows. (Just kidding, that gets copy and pasted as well.) I could go on and on. I haven't even started in on the mediocre general managers with sales backgrounds - that might be an even bigger issue. You think the guy from sales who got the corner office knows how to make good television?? They have an eye for talent? Absolutely not. Local television news isn't dying, it's dead. You're just watching zombies now. Waiting until the next hedge fund comes in to turn the lights off.

Thank you, @ABC 7 Denver. One thing I noticed is how absolutely hyper-critical this fandom tends to be without actually taking a step back and trying to understand the "How"s & "Why"s behind changes in news products. Are some graphics actually bad? Yes. Some are. Is EVERY SINGLE aspect of a graphics package bad simply because you personally don't like one aspect of it? No. That's absolutely not the case. These absolute statements and severe judgements based on a few minutes of witnessing something new just leads to drama, and I'm personally getting kind of sick of it. It's not everybody, but I just find the irony kind of amazing that the whole thing behind news is being objective, yet we let our personal feelings dictate definitively that something is "bad". Not everything is 100% "Bad" MY53's news department is a one-man-band with the budget of $12 and a ham sandwich. The product will get better over time. There will be a lot of testing & figuring it out, and he deserves our support for taking on a project like this. Bottom line is, Austin is one of us. He's a total news nerd just like we are, and he's a damn good journalist. He has a challenge ahead of him that he willingly took on. We really should, as a community, be in his corner to support him, and not completely rip apart his product on the first night. In fact, we really need to learn how to sit back and observe things for a few nights before we draw our conclusions, weighing all pros & cons of certain things instead of just crapping on something the first time we see it just because it's different. TLDR: Guys, we really need to step it up and do better, instead of turning everything into a bitch-fest.

Makes sense, however, have you read or heard anything else, or just using the evidence we've seen so far? Also, if they were prepping for a sale, wouldn't they have kept the anchors, which is part of the value of each stations image with the public.

As expected, KOKH's Good Day Oklahoma being broadcast on KTUL.

Alena Lee is leaving KCTV. https://www.instagram.com/p/C0r-UaKAwMc/