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At one time Scripps was the largest. 30 years ago, their deal with ABC in the throes of the New World-Fox deal set off other sub-deals like Westinghouse and CBS (after WJZ getting spurned by ABC in favor of WMAR) and even the market swaps caused by that deal alone. It's tragic to see what has become of the company that Edward Willis Scripps founded almost 150 years ago. What was once a beacon of journalism has morphed into a bungled series of assets on life support after over-extending themselves over and over, while doubling down in the worst ways possible.

Arguably Nexstar and Tegna made the worst of an already bad hand because of streaming. The entire TV news infrastructure (including national and major international outlets) has been rocked by streaming, and none them have really recovered.

it's not like Scripps has any chance of surviving. I initially thought that Scripps acquiring ION would lead to more success cause of Scripps' proven track record with Katz Broadcasting, now the cracks are showing and I'm literally surprised that Scripps survived for this long without a takeover attempt. I thought Scripps and Tegna would last or at least merge together in order to be able to better survive the changing environment but apparently people don't want to even touch broadcast TV because of all the shit the likes of Nexstar and Sinclair have done to their stations that eroded trust and habits. They've dug TV's grave unfortunately.

Don't give them any ideas! Hence my wondering.

This is almost certainly the biggest "MSNBC Shakeup" in the network's entire history.

The obvious next move from Scripps is a poison pill, as the game is afoot.

The breaking news title cards are really nice. I wish the lower thirds used that same gloss and shine instead of being flat. Overall the graphics are pretty good, better than CNN. The studios look great, and retain much of the MSNBC look. The L3s are a decent B-. The name ID L3s are unique concept. Not the best, not the worst. The MSNOW logo needs to be more creative. Overall not a bad rebrand after leaving NBC. i'm not a modern MSNBC fan, but it's hard to think the brand that I've known my entire life is no more. Growing up and seeing msnbc on the MSN homepage was nostalgic.

My asessment.... Walter Cronkite leaving was the impetus. But Dan Rather was a capable anchor with a broadcast just as good as the competition. Someone had to be third place so I suppose it was just his lot. Bob Schiffer was excellent, and I think he should've stayed on until his retirement in 2015. Katie Couric introduced too much soft news and formatting changes like commentary which probably turned viewers off. Scott Pelly was too stiff and he did not have enough personality for the evening news versus a straight laced program like 60 Minutes. Jeff Glor wasn't really given a chance, and he wasn't a household name. I suppose people found him plain and unremarkable so they didn't tune in. Nora O'Donnell was good in the mornings but like Katie, CBS overestimated her popularity translating from mornings to evenings. Nora could also come off as snotty and biased at times. Maurice and John are capable anchors. John however is overused and frequently miscast in anchor positions all over the network. They have the best and most high-quality show of the big three broadcasts. However, David Muir and (at the time) Lester Holt had been well established with audiences for over 10 years. They are also are bigger names. CBS' constant reshuffling of their evening news (and morning) product with less popular talent perhaps made it hard to retain an audience. Then there are the other factors like decline in traditional viewership, the 1994 realignments etc.. Long story short, right now, CBS is the best of the big networks in terms of journalistic quality but they just can't seem to get it right in the mornings or evenings.

Pure Gordon Gekko stuff right here.

WAPT and WJCL don't have it either. They're the last three.

Exactly. CBS News is being used as a sacrifice. It just doesn't make sense for some far right MAGA viewer or anyone who watches FOX News Channel all day to switch to CBS News. The FNC audience is extremely loyal and CBS can try all they want but it just doesn't make any sense for this audience to seek out CBS unless FNC does something to push them away (and even then. Newsmax would be more likely to get these viewers than CBS). FNC is extremely well funded and has significant resources, and is extremely right wing and makes no effort to hide this, while CBS News is trying to cover up and downplay their shift to right wing propaganda. All Skydance is doing is hurting the few successful programs CBS News has. 60 Minutes is no longer credible. Local newscasts from CBS owned stations in left wing markets like LA, New York, Boston, Chicago, etc is no longer credible and just being associated with a right wing news operation is going to hurt local news ratings for every station CBS has in left wing markets. On top of this, they are making massive cuts to their news operations. If they really wanted to compete with a right wing 24/7 powerhouse they wouldn't have gutted their 24/7 streaming news service and cancelled multiple shows. They don't even want to spend the money to produce a live weekend morning newscast for the network.

In DC, Gannett did a number on WUSA long before Tegna was created. Sinclair destroying WJLA after Allbritton made something of them is what brought WUSA back up a few pegs.

Mmmhmmm

There's going to be a reckoning when affiliation deals are up. The question is, who pulls out of broadcast TV first? My money's on ABC since they water down their network content considerably and have a really bad taste in their mouth from Nexstar and Sinclair .dictating what should air on their stations (boycotting JKL) As bad as the CW seems to be under Nexstar, it may be best thing going for them when the big networks start pulling away.... And if Scripps holds on long enough and starts losing networks as well, this programming from Ion and Katz may be a blessing in disguise.

ABC/Disney’s old complex of buildings have been sold to developers. It’s all coming down.

And this is what it looks like when there are two people's names on the screen at the same time. Yes, the bug bar has been raised a few pixels. Not only does it take up way too much space, but now seeing the picture below the bar makes it look like a mistake. Either stretch the bar all the way to the bottom, or crop the left and right sides (similar to the CNN ticker). In my scanning of coverage the last few day, I've seen multiple instances where they used the wrong show's lower-thirds. Most of the time, it's most noticeable when a white box appears when it should be blue, but you can also see it when the banner first appears and displays the show's title. I saw The 11th Hour over the weekend, Way Too Early during Morning Joe (at least that's the same ugly color scheme), and The 11th Hour again during Katy Tur Reports. I know this is super nerdy but this is the only place to dump my nerdy observations.

Having seen the entire graphics package and the sets for MsNOW. It was a lost opportunity to do something new and fresh. But instead same old same old. I knew it wasnt going to be anything fresh when I saw that (Youtube/FAST start up opinion channel" style logo. They claimed they were now unrestrained by NBC News and had more freedom to do what they want. Well it seems they didnt know how to exercise this new found freedom. Certainly was a lost opportunity. Boring graphic layout. Clunky. As much as I didnt like SkyNews Graphics completely they have grown on me. They are well thought out and clean. And have proven to be dynamic and have been given more dynamic refresh recently. They could have done something a bit like SkyNews or something. I thought MsNow would have done something more different. Yawn. And dont get me started on the awful set graphics. Horrible. ITs seems like they used all the ideas so it just looks messy. (and yes I know the sets are temporary) But they couuld have really made themselves looks completely different than anything seen on US telly. Ohh Well.