Leaderboard

Daily Blast Live is ending September 6th: https://www.nexttv.com/news/tegna-ending-daily-blast-live-effective-september-6

On a similar note if you notice the time bugs above the station logo you'll see the Biden packages were placed in the A block. What sucks about Sinclair stations is that so much of their local broadcasts are made up of national news. Unless it's a major story, local stations typically resort to nation packages to fill airtime by the b or c blocks. In my market's Sinclair, like these stations in the report, I have seen national packages appear as early the middle of A block. And the reports are usually never from the Affiliated Network mostly from sinclair. The nationalization of local news is another issue. As a viewer I don't want to see the same stories rehashed that I can already get from Network or cable.

MSNBC going after them would be enough to make Sinclair mass disaffiliate from NBC as retaliation. Which is exactly what a small-minded idiot like David Smith would do. Again, read the Times article above.

Sinclair deserves the criticism they get. It's not just MSNBC.

I'm also a Giangreco stan. I used to have a lot of respect for Cheryl for many years. But that ordeal, plus the fact that she's truly an ignorant person in public (I witnessed firsthand), made me lose immediate respect for her. Although, her station is number one in ratings. Her approval, not so much. But I'm not going to push my point out there.

Not at all. Never really did. It's a perfectly usable branding convention (with history on that particular station, but that is neither here nor there). There's a relatively limited (all things considered) pool of branding conventions that work. There's a good reason CBS went that direction with, what is it, a half dozen of their stations post CW? (KDKA+/KPIX+ as exceptions, IIRC?) There's no singular right or wrong approach, and honestly, you'd be hard pressed to find something that would be truly "stupid," since generally speaking, no one wants to tank their employer and endanger their paycheck. Any one person may have preferences, hangups or quibbles with an approach, subjectively. But stepping back and trying to put things through an objective filter and leaving personal animus aside, it's serviceable for their needs.

Good journalism and responsible use of the public's airwaves are not Sinclair's objectives. Their endgame is more money for them and power for the politicians they agree with. They've done it every presidential election year since at least 2004.

I know many young and aspiring journalists won't touch Sinclair now. I've heard of stories of people taking jobs with other companies in smaller markets instead even after being offered a bigger market job with Sinclair. Most Sinclair markets rank very low in their markets anyway, often in last place.

And what good is that doing either of them? I have learned that holding a grudge is not good for your well being. I have heard him in many interviews and yes he's done and not coming back. IMO they need to seek professional help, and yes it could have been handled differently. But she's the queen bee, so it seems like what she wants she gets. I'm not quit familiar with the Bruce Wolfe car keying incident, could someone better explain that to me? Oh and don't forget he singed an NDA

It debuted today at noon:

It seems the contracts are getting shorter and shorter. Turnover is constant, and jobs in smaller markets are either stepping stones for larger markets or only stops for the journalists who take them. The recruiters are on colleges trying to snatch up any recent graduates (or even students) to fill the voids created by all of the turnover. In a way, this may create a future void, as current long-haul journalists and TV people leave the industry for a better life (and salary) because of their experience. When the experience goes away, these other jobs may suffer unless the schools teach for this kind of experience.

I also just want to say thank you for asking this question. For people outside the industry, most have no idea the crap conditions and pay reporters/MMJs/photogs/mets, etc have to put up with. its time to shine a light on this for the public. You will never see a mass TV journalist strike simply because very, very few are in unions. And any attempts for a newsroom to unionize would likely be fruitless and would almost guarantee contract non-renewals for anyone who tried to unionize. that being said, I fantasize often about a day when I could join a union and show management how truly f*cked they’d be without their news people.

Amen. TV news started out as networks filling their government mandated public service quota. Once they realized news divisions could be profitable, the problems we have today began. It's the American way. The people running the business make all the money while the people at the ground level make small potatoes.

Local television news isn’t journalism. It’s a business.

What you're saying is not wrong but I'm gonna have to hold greedy executive's feet to the fire more on this one. We proclaim that journalists are these "beacons" who hold truth to power. Yet, we don't pay journalists a livable wage, so they leave and work in PR for people like politicians who spin reality. That can't be good for a democratic society. Not to sound extremist, but journalists need to be the next group to strike. This especially as stations rely more on news departments for direct ad revenue with syndication options drying up.

Many things in life aren’t excused, they just are. Some careers pay more. Some fields pay more. Sometimes those overlap. Every place I’ve worked, sales got perks beyond what anyone else did. Life isn’t perfectly even.

Adding to this, smaller market stations pay less money. If a reporter is in market 115 for example, they might keep climbing up markets until they can make it to a top 30 market station where the pay is better. Larger markets require experience. If your hometown is a larger market like NYC, you're at a disadvantage trying to enter the industry. You'll most likely have to move to a small market (away from eveything you know) and rack up years of experience in order to make it back home. I respect the fact that someone has to toil in the D leagues before reaching the NBA. But to set up the industry in a way that talent has to move their life for a job that pays near minimum wage --despite being required to have a bachelor's degree -- and be locked into a near two-year contract at often toxic newsrooms is pretty nasty. This is a huge reason why so many people leave the industry.

Thank you for this question. A lot of us are enthralled by tv news, but learn the harsh reality upon working in the industry. The short answer is money. A reporter contract is 1-3 years and reporters typically ask for more money every time they extend their contract. It's cheaper for stations to have a revolving door of one contract term reporters than to keep paying them more every renegotiation. Sales department, management, and the corporate bosses make significantly more than the news. Trust me, the pay at alot of stations is a few dollars above minimum wage for reporters, even less for producers and photographers.

That doesn’t excuse the fact that, at every station I’ve worked, the base, pre-commission minimum salary range for even entry-level sales positions is still significantly higher than pretty much every news position except for main anchors and news director. and yes, I’ve seen the salary ranges with my own eyes. this is at several stations in small, medium and large markets. let’s also not forget, that ratings are directly tied to what sales can charge their customers. So if ratings go up, whatever commission sales people get would be higher than when ratings were down, simply by the fact that they can charge higher rates. even though they did nothing to contribute to those higher ratings that allowed them to sell ads for more. in other words, the news department at every station plays *a* role in the sales team’s success, but they do not see the rewards.

Without revealing too much… 1. Because for reporters/MMJs, the contracts are usually 2-3 years 2. Because those contracts usually always pay them crap money, and stations are usually not willing to give them raises for a new contract that would even account for any inflation that happened during the expiring contract—because at the end of the day—they know they can just bring someone else in with less experience and pay them less than the experienced person wanting to renew their contract. “But wouldn’t a station want to pay what it takes to keep talent around if they’re willing to stay, so the product is stable and the journalism is actually good?” No. Because despite what GMs and excs will tell you, they give approximately zero shits about newscast quality, as long as the viewership isn’t plummeting (and even if it is, they see that as an excuse to get rid of the current people). It’s all a money game. That’s all it ever was and ever will be. It’s why sales people make the big bucks. Because execs and GMs don’t view news talent as “direct revenue producers” who deserve a fair, comfortable wage (actually words a GM has told me ). They view reporters and MMJs as objects—as nuts and bolts in a car the sales department is trying sell and make commission off. You don’t pay the parts that make up the car. They’re lifeless objects. You pay the sales guy who sold it. Even though there would be no car to sell without the nuts and bolts. They wish they didn’t have to pay them at all, but those pesky labor laws force them to have to view reporters and MMJs as humans deserving of minimum wage and not much more. With this analogy in mind, even if a reporter or MMJ likes the smaller market they’re currently under contract in, the only way for a reporter or MMJ to get a sizable raise is to move to a bigger market when their contract is up, to a market where they’re viewed by management as the expendable, lifeless nuts and bolts in a GMC Yukon a sales hotshot is trying to profit off, instead of the expendable, lifeless nuts and bolts in Ford Fiesta a sales hotshot is trying to profit off.

Depending on the market and how much news the station does, even a team of 5 can get stretched thin. Having a sixth can greatly reduce workload and allow for special projects. Yes, they're adding students from Mississippi State as part of their team. Two of them are juniors and one in grad school (which is highly unusual to have a meteorology master working in broadcast). WCBI also does this to a far smaller degree. There's only 3, maybe 4, there.

After CBS ended Late Late due to profitability, NBC is now tightening the budget at Late Night. Seth Meyers' house band to be gone by fall. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/seth-meyers-lose-night-band-013435108.html

My cousin was given an opportunity to be a MMJ for WWMT but he knew better than to go to a Sinclair station. He had 4 different Sinclair stations reach out to him. He ended up at a Hearst station and he is loving every moment of it. Very sad that he could have worked near his hometown and family, but politics and greed kept him from it.