Weeters

There is a downward trend, regardless of who's at the helm, across the entire industry. News is going to "evolve" into being short bytes on social media. The target demo has neither the time or attention span to sit through a 30-minute structured news program listening to things they really don't care about for the two things they do.

I'm not sure what the problem is? Are you upset that they simply didn't have it in a TV studio? They bothered to rent truss and light the set well, and those cameras are probably rented (and that isn't cheap). That is far beyond what I've seen many stations do for telethons.

Yes. They're seamless interlocking panels covered in hundreds of small LED diodes. In the past couple years, the technology has advanced dramatically on these screens, allowing the pixels to be closer together (pixel pitch) and smaller, all while the costs have come down like crazy. They are arguably more reliable than LCD monitor walls and provide better contrast and a brighter, more color accurate, and even picture. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1354512-REG This is a Samsung branded panel with 1.5mm pixel pitch, meaning there is 1.5mm between pixels. Not sure what brand they're using (NBC has jumped all over in regards to who they're buying their LED walls from) but the technology is at least similar.

WTMJ was knocked off-air Tuesday afternoon, during their 5PM show, due to a power outage (caused by a fire at a substation) that took out the station's Master Control and Production Control. After 15 minutes or so off-air, they managed to get back on with only the newsroom camera and no graphics (second video) And before anyone asks "how?" Some of my Broadcast Engineering contacts (not at WTMJ, mind you) think the substation fire knocked out one leg of the three-phase power, which some older backup power transfer switches don't detect (they can only detect a complete outage).

Not sure why people are debating what time slots “work” for news. This has nothing to do with ratings or trying to “win”. It’s the midterm elections this fall. That is why they are doing this. After the elections, a lot of these newscasts will likely go away. They will not “fail”, they accomplished their mission to bring in political ad revenue. Previous “failed” newscasts in these time slots? Look closer, they probably happened during an election year. It’s all about the money. It’s always about the money.

Discussion of "the ad" has been moved here.

The big, gaudy black trapezoid bug certainly is new... Looks like someone made it in PowerPoint compared to the old bug. And yeah, the old package used white lower thirds and red ones for breaking news, but it seems like they're always red now. I feel like these are a step backwards. The old package looked a lot more modern.

WTMJ and WGBA got it (Well, the weird 30 minute version at least). I heard KTNV was supposed to get it eventually but it doesn't look like they have (yet). The WTMJ version at least has adopted the new graphics and virtual set

They'll probably all get it now that they're cutting back on the local angle, which is the only thing the local stations could have fought corporate about. Can't really argue "we don't have the resources to produce this" when all you're doing is inserting cut-ins. I get the hunch this is a response to "Daily Blast Live".

I doubt "Launch a standalone newscast on our Tuscon FOX affiliate" is very high on TEGNA's to-do list. Just being honest here. I wouldn't expect it to happen any time soon, if ever.

All discussion about the set update has been moved here: https://forums.tvnewstalk.net/index.php?threads/rock-studio-1a-and-cocktail-hour-studio.16639/

Heard this a while ago. The speculation was mostly that the smaller market stations (i.e. the ex-Journal stations that got virtual sets) were being upgraded in a fashion that would make them appealing to buyers while as little time and money as possible was spent upgrading them (hence the virtual sets). The latest news of job cuts may also be an attempt to slim down some stations enough that other companies that already have hubbed operations like Master Control, Traffic, and Graphics can come in and take control of a station without worrying about having to lay off employees or go through that whole thing.

Glad someone finally brought up the elephant in the room. It sure has been a long time since Scripps rolled out new graphics!!!! How haven't we had this conversation yet?? Don't hold your breath. When Scripps gets new graphics they will more than likely appear on WFTS first since that's where their hub is.

I know WTMJ retained their graphics department when the merger went through, and kept the arrangement where one of their artists did stuff for KTNV. It looks like that is about to come to an end, because WTMJ and WTVF were the only two real "graphics departments" left in the company (most of the other Journal stations had an art director and maybe some production people who could make an OTS or monitor graphic).

Good luck firing a computer in Colorado...

Janet Hundley has “resigned” from her position as News Director at WTMJ. http://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2017/12/29/nd-out-in-milwaukee This comes not long after the station dropped back to 4th place at 10pm. Janet was hired by Journal prior to the Scripps merger when the station was having similar ratings issues. I have a suspicion that the fall from grace after she managed to turn the ratings around have more to do with Scripps corporate and not decisions she was making. Their content has suffered a lot lately. Who wants to bet the "digital" guy gets the bump up like at other Scripps properties?

I'm sitting here scratching my head as to why they'd change the callsign to begin with (who cares??) and why Eric (who's clearly a huge TV news nerd) would try to grab the -LD variant of an existing -TV.

New graphics discussion is going on here. Also, it's a completely different new package, not the KXTV/WTSP package.

Certain parts, yes. The dynamic lower thirds and the designs of the fullscreens, but the backgrounds and animations are definitely "inspired" by the Scripps graphics The first scene of the weather open is a dead giveaway.

How has WISC's knockoff of the Scripps package not come up?

There’s a reason it’s called “Tower Tee Golf.” (The reason is their tower is on the land.)

The Robinson got replaced with the 206B YEARS ago. KTNV did indeed debut the chopper thay they had 3D renders of, but it was months after they started promoting it.

WTAE replaced that style desk when they got their new set. They had that little railing behind the desk too. So, if I had to guess...

Stations tap ex-talent for random stuff like this all the time. WTMJ hired former Health Reporter (back when that was a thing) Kimberly Kane to do the "Every Day Health" campaign they do with Froedert Hospital. I doubt these spots are enough to even get her a CBS email address. If she does make more of a return, I doubt it will be to the anchor desk.

TEGNA struggling to find investors is a good sign the downward spiral is starting to reach top speed. If big companies like TEGNA start selling off, they're just going to inflate the other remaining companies. Eventually those companies will start to struggle and... Well, you can guess what happens. If nobody is buying, we're just going to see stations shut down. Like it or not, TV is dying and the only thing keeping it afloat are companies like Sinclair who are still in a buying mood.