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Please keep the wishcasting for a sale to Hearst in the Speculation board, please. Most of the groups seem to have reported less-than-impressive recent business results. This isn't a Scripps problem. Returning newscasts to "traditional" shows vs. Scrippscast isn't going to drastically change how people consume media, nor will it change the political landscape to drive up political advertising.

That’s because it is hyperbole. The world is not frozen in time and there is not one single way to do things. Sometimes things are done for variety, sometimes because something is temporarily unavailable, sometimes because in the judgement of those tasked with making the decision, something wasn’t working. We’re not talking about an assembly line where doing things to precise specifications every time is a matter of quality and safety. It’s perfectly fine to draw from several options.

I don’t mean to offend you, but this is a nothingburger. Changes happen on the fly during a newscast all the time. There are instances where stories are cut due to time constraints. There’s absolutely nothing to get worked up about here when these are things that very few people will actually notice. So they shot the set from a different angle…big deal.

Yes, different newscasts can be shot differently. It's ok to use the tools at one's disposal in different ways and does not constitute "the bar being lowered" or similar hyperbole.

The mets and traffic reporters probably simply thought the visual quality of presenting in front of a screen was poor and went back to the chroma key. You have to line up the map a certain way so a county line isn't confused with a screen seam (though here it's seamless) and they probably just did not think the presentation in front of a screen with blur rather than a key with known PQ worked long-term. Certainly no cause for concern.

Y'all are going to be very disappointed when Scrippscasts become the industry norm, not the exception. If there's one thing local television enjoys, it's xeroxing the heck out of each other.

The cost is one part of it - but the other elephant in the room is staffing the endless newscasts most stations are doing. Recruiting producers was a challenge before the pandemic hit four years ago, and the brain drain there has only gotten worse. The Scrippscast model doesn't solve the retention problem - but it is one way to function in an environment where there aren't enough people willing to do the job. (and hopefully, lighten the load and reduce the misery for the ones stations have left)

I’m a routine WNBC viewer. As a viewer I have not noticed these changes (I saw Matt walk to the weather display the other night) nor see a quality difference in the projection on my large UHD set. I see no issue with changing it up sometimes. Just like anchors don’t stand in exactly the same spot in front of the big video wall for each story in a newscast. Although I got used to the angled view at the weather video wall (also used on other NBCU stations) I did notice a more straight on view which I said to myself, hmm - glad to see that. Before throwing the station to the curb let’s see how things progress. Technical issues do pop up on occasions. None of this impacts what’s most important to viewers - content.

Why would they need to? If you found this video on their website you could surely find the supposed multiple on-air apologies in the newscasts as well. Sounds like the station and staff worked to correct a wrong... Poor word choices, yes. Learning opportunity, Certainly! Career-ending move? No.

Given my work for our school's program, I 100% understand emphasize this! Some days you just have to improvise and work with what you have while still putting out the best product you can! Just because you didn't have that one wide shot or this newscast is a bit different then the one this time yesterday doesn't degrade the overall product at all! As people have said, it's things people barley notice anyway!

I refuse to accept the bar continually being lowered - especially when it comes to news. Why should we accept standards/quality on the descent? You might, I won't and never have in all of my years in broadcasting!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kaity Tong is back at 6pm today.

On the one hand, I’ll admit there are worse ways to make cuts than by producing a Scrippscast. Given that Sinclair has resorted to shutting down entire newsrooms and pumping in a questionable product from DC, it’s not so bad by comparison. Better to have a station continue to cover local stories with less than ideal resources/production than to have a local newsroom shut down entirely. However, I still don’t think that this is good for broadcast journalism. IMO, a lot of these Scrippscasts (for example, see WTXL) look hastily put together, and it seems as though they do the bare minimum to cover local stories. The national content often has little to no relevance to the viewer in that market. I’m not totally against the idea of reducing the role of the anchor to save costs, but unless that money is going into more robust local journalism and providing greater context to local issues, it’s a bit disingenuous for Scripps to frame this as a positive evolution in local news. It’s just cost cutting. It certainly seems like this is the future of local news, but we don’t have to like it.

Understood, and I totally agree with you there. They should be transparent with viewers about this and shouldn’t pretend it didn’t happen.

I don't think there's a need to "fire/cancel the guy." If this was an honest mistake, treat it as such, and learn from it. But don't sweep it under the rug either. I doubt many people would have known about this if the NABJ didn't issue a statement. KMOV owes its audience an explanation of how and why this happened.

Yes, there is concern! It's rank amateur that things keep changing depending upon who's in the control room. After a newscast, that's when you experiment and settle upon a shooting style/pattern, you don't do it on the air. This is market #1 and the Flagship station of the NBC Television Network!

Not only that, the station seems to have abandoned using the high shot (as above) that it promoted when they moved into 3B-East. Also, it appears that each director and/or producer is shooting the weather as he/she sees fit - no established shot pattern. Sometimes we see the weather presenter walk from the desk to the large video wall, other times the walk is covered by a graphic. There are times the master shot of that large video wall is head-on, other times the camera is farther to the left. Then there's a difference in now tight that shot it. Sometimes I can see shoes and then there are shots from the calves up. Who's running the store? No one!

The more I think about Dana getting demoted, the more it annoys me. I get if there are budget cuts to make, but to make her a fill-in anchor is such a classless move when she’s nearing the end of her career. If you want her off evenings, fine. However, why not just make her the official noon anchor at this point instead of having it rotate between Chris and Mary. Give that newscast some stability, similar to how ABC 7 has Sandra Bookman on at noon. Lighten their workload, give Dana her own newscast, and then if she has to fill in for the evening newscast it doesn’t appear as insulting, because we know she’s already there in the studio for the noon newscast. Just a thought. Or, they could also have her and Cindy do 9am and Noon so there could be some conversation, similar to how ABC 7 does their 10am show. Dana, Cindy, and John is a great pairing in my eyes at least. Plus it pairs up to two longest-tenured anchors, and they’re friends, so the chemistry is already there.

They did more what I expected with the Shawano bump-over; they've filled a CP modification to transmit from Scrays Hill south of Green Bay with a southward null to protect WITI, so I would still expect a future LP to get more of the market, but likely for Manitowoc/Cleveland or Oshkosh/Ripon to get Fox River Valley/southern lakeshore coverage.

It's a sore loser lawsuit. It's been repeatedly stated by company officials that Nexstar wants to own more stations and a second television network, as if their 68% national reach and multiple sidecars—let alone their largest station being one they don't really own—isn't enough. The heavily conservative judicial makeup of the 5th circuit already makes it known the fix is in. Only question is how much does that court kneecap the FCC from enacting any policy, or does the FCC simply defy the ruling and make their policies more punitive?

Unfortunately, Next TV doesn’t seem to provide full ratings data in their Local News Close-Ups, but they do note that in the September 2023 ratings period, WBZ placed third behind WHDH at 11pm (in both the demo and total viewers). It wouldn’t surprise me if they were second in other time slots, though. Regardless of ratings, I think they put out a fantastic product; they’re definitely one of the better CBS O&Os IMO. https://www.nexttv.com/news/local-news-close-up-better-things-are-bruin-in-boston

The only way Mission is going to buy that station is if Kevin Adell is out of the picture. He alone screwed the pooch on that sale.

Thank you for articulating that respectfully. Everyone is entitled to express their opinions, the key is doing so politely and not being a keyboard warrior, unlike 24994J who consistently disrespects users on these boards despite being a moderator.

*Byron Allen has entered the chat*

No idea about ratings, but Lyons is a stabilizer. WBBM is competently-staffed, and puts out a quality, if little-watched product. As a viewer and news junkie, that's as important as building the ratings. As for WGN, they didn't miss a beat. They're in the WLS club of Don't Actively F#ck It Up & You'll Do Great.

KDKA, WJZ, WCCO come to mind. Does anyone have a pulse on WBZ or KTVT? I agree with your previous hypothesis that the CBS O&O format might have some merit. Does not help that Evening News and Mornings do not provide much of a support to any of the CBS affiliates.

This. Houston is a great example where the CBS affiliate historically struggled behind ABC and NBC stations until Oprah bolstered them into a competitive and then (although brief) a market leader. WFAA's lead in Dallas started to slip when Oprah ended her show. Outside of that, it was always puzzling to me why CBS News and CBS stations generally performed so badly despite having the dominating entertainment division.

O&O wise, CBS lags in the largest markets while ABC dominates. NBC varies, but seems to be in the middle. Of the top 5 markets, Chicago is where Fox gets their clock cleaned by WGN on a consistent basis while NY & LA seem to be doing better, WNYW does way better than WPIX and what's left of WWOR (but does KCAL and KTLA outrank KTTV?) Generally, ABC has held up the best as the network owners have "borged" their stations. CBS took a hit in the 80s from the Tisch era and Jeff "Zucked" the NBC stations during his disastrous tenure.

It has a lot to do with lead-ins. WCBS had Judge Judy at 4 and the 5:00 was doing well. Then they lost Judge Judy and immediately fell. They picked up the show again and shot back up to #2. WABC had Oprah at 4 and those viewers made them #1 at 5. The winning allowed the station to remain stable in terms of talent and presentation. When Oprah ended her show and WABC replaced it with a newscast, viewers were already so accustomed to Eyewitness News that they largely stayed with them. Syndicated and network lead-ins are huge, along with stability (which is often a chicken-or-the-egg-type thing with winning).

I knew that Judge Judy repeats were going to be renewed although quite surprised that TEGNA wasn't named in the article about this renewal they weren't mentioned either for Judy Justice either. Who The Bleep Is That isn't going to get a second season that was only in a handful of TV markets largely in the big markets a few smaller/midsize markets like in West Michigan at the start of the new year. Crime Stories is being pitched for syndication for the 2024-05 season hosted by former Access Hollywood & ET anchor Nancy O'Dell always liked Nancy.

Can't help but to think of the Maury Show when seeing the WMLW logo. - Matt

The action isn't against Nexstar but specifically Mission, and the Loudens haven't had these issues.

He'll sell off eventually, but instead of the big payday he expected like he did when he gutted 910 to become the market's conservative failure station, he's going to soon find Innovate, TCT or WRNN are the only ones wanting to buy. And it'll be interesting to see where Nexstar's equivalent deal with KAZT actually goes. He had a golden goose in 1994, but those days are long gone.

And Kevin Adell's chance of consummating his deal to sell WADL has gone from jack squat to jack...y'know.

I'm not surprised Nexstar is suing the FCC as they should since the 3 on The FCC abuse their power way too much thinking that it is still the 1960s which it isn't with the outdated rules that need to be fixed. Broadcasters are facing Big Tech since the days of 3 to 4 channels are over and the FCC acts like there isn't any competition when there clearly is with Big Tech. The 3 on The FCC don't get it and don't like business at all which isn't right.