Leaderboard

I just found this website... created by Nexstar themselves. https://www.nexstar-tegna.com/

WABC, WCBS and WNBC went wall to wall for stunt devils climbing the Empire State Building. They only broke away when it was clear the press wasn’t getting a perp walk. A potential building collapse of the former Pfizer building in Midtown East during the middle of the workday is worthy of extensive coverage.

I agree wholeheartedly that the "immersive studio" is overrated, or at least the way they're using it is. It makes me miss the simple green screen, where I'd argue it is easier to see/understand the weather.

So much for Nexstar’s statement that it is committed to news. Making it difficult isn’t commitment to anything but the bottom line.

That's dumb.

can't wait for the eventuality of Allen owning no stations.

More BS kool-aid from Nexstar. Sure, they can expand newscasts until they're blue in the face. But when the content pool diminishes from reporter layoffs, cutting news feeds, and reliance on "old" news to fill the time. I've noticed a marked increase in "regional" news on Nexstar stations (and others like Gray that have taken over large swaths of the country). Basically, the stations are feeding each other and less and less is devoted to covering the actual news in their area. The result is a watered-down product that everyone loses from because it's the same thing across a large swath of stations, making the very concept of "local news" a farce. It's very well possible that a local station could not have a single LOCAL story on a very slow news day.

Cheers to 35 years! LA's iconic KTLA Morning News went on the air 35yrs ago today! RIP to Sam Rubin. Up until earlier this year the 7am-11am portion of the program only had one weatherman the entire time....the great Mark Kriski. Sadly, he was let go earlier in the year due to Nexstar layoffs. The KTLA team still supports him as you can see by his recent IG posts. Morning reporter/fill in anchor Eric Spillman is the only original member of the program left at the station today. Each of the anchor parings across the years....Carlos/Barbara, Carlos/Giselle Fernandez, Carlos/Michaela Pereira, Frank Buckley/Michaela and now Frank/Jessica Holmes carry on the great tradition of ensuring the show exudes "LA's Very Own."

PIX used their unique positioning (and the fact that they were part of the story) to their advantage. I think it was a good decision, albeit yes maybe the coverage was a bit too long. If you want other news and regular programming, turn to other channels. If you want in-depth coverage of this, keep it there. Many folks they interviewed complimented their extensive coverage and commitment, so I think this was (much needed) good press for WPIX after the mass layoffs.

Just to add some details... Dan Mannarino told viewers they had to evacuate, which he had been expecting, and they stopped talking at 11:18 (they would normally have been airing a court show repeat at that hour). They showed a skycam shot of the building with no audio until 11:21, when they took News Nation, which was in a commercial break. News Nation covered the story extensively until just before noon, when they ended up covering other stories. PIX 11 came back locally at 12:16 with Mannarino anchoring on the street. Definitely a story, but I wonder if PIX went a bit overboard as it is so close to them, because I don't think the other stations covered it as extensively. Then again, why should every station do the same thing? I guess it's a way to differentiate themselves from the crowd.

There really isn’t much new information coming out now. I get it’s right next to them but I think they can let Dan go home. Maybe if they didn’t let all of their anchors go they would have people to cover

To be fair, it's an extremely local big story for them.

For us Simpsons fans, this merger carries a terrible curse .... We can call it Froku!

Fox says the plan is to continue running Tubi and Roku Channel separately

Summer vacation might make sense except for the fact that Guy Staniar, the guy who has been doing traffic for years, was doing his thing on the streaming/WLNY show at 7:00 both days this week so far. I've always found it strange for a major New York TV station to have a faceless voice do traffic. That, plus having the weather done from a different studio kind of kills that traditional "morning family" vibe. I wish they'd scale back the use of the virtual studio for weather (maybe once a half hour in the morning?), especially since they rarely do anything cool with it anymore. Most of the time, it's just the one "screen," other times they just walk back and forth between a few screens, all while ensuring the weather maps appear smaller on viewers' TVs at home. Get the team back together in the same studio so they can interact more naturally. Sorry for the rant.

With a heatwave coming to Southern California, KABC has decided to launch something called “Weather Change Alerts” and I guess anytime the weather makes a sudden change, they will issue this alert. It seems like they are trying to rip off CBS LA and their “Next Weather Alerts” but hopefully KABC is truly doing this for the benefit of the viewer and not just because another station in town is doing something similar.

This seems to be the M.O. for Nexstar's weaker stations going forward. WIAT CBS 42 in Birmingham has done this with both their morning and noon newscasts.

WNCN just cancelled it weekend newscasts in favor of podcasts.

Are we about to see a self-antonomous governing body of Hawai'i take ownership of KITV and KIKU? Hear me out on this. (Source: Wikipedia) The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) is a self-governing corporate body of the State of Hawaii, often described as the fourth branch of government. While this is all in the very early stages, there are talks of OHA buying KITV and KIKU from Allen Media Group, possibly putting it in the hands, in some way, with the state government of Hawaii. https://www.kitv.com/news/business/office-of-hawaiian-affairs-moves-forward-with-possible-purchase-of-kitv-kiku/article_90655adf-4b59-4b47-8f23-a5fa12a769f3.html

I'll say what I said on Discord about this: it's important to look at this as a digital product being simulcast on TV, instead of "they changed the news to look like this." The traditional newscast was, in essence, canceled, and the time filled with a streaming show. "But this looks bad! It won't get good ratings!" you may say... That's kind of the point? If people want "traditional" news, they can switch over to KSNF and watch most of the same content presented differently. This does not exist to get #1 ratings on TV. It exists to sell OTT targeted advertising to people who, at this point, are used to seeing this format, however "cheap" it looks. I would not be surprised to see this roll out to more Nexstar duopoly markets.

Has KODE always had separate(ish) newscasts since they consolidated with KSNF? These shows are much more efficient and cost-effective than full blown newscasts. Hosts run their own graphics, roll their own video, etc. And the components are likely a fraction of the cost of traditional broadcast equipment. (PTZ cameras, podcast mics, Elgato controllers, etc...) The cost is high for what they blew up to replace them with. But the return on investment may be just enough to be a second voice in an ecosystem Nexstar created for themselves through relentless cost-cutting and consolidation. It's not prime time, but it's certainly better than simulcasting or giving up local content altogether...