Dave Lampstein

I guess an instagram post is worse than your lead anchor getting an OWI and pulling a “do you know who I am?!” with the cops… but that’s Jessie Garcia’s leadership style for you.

It is absolutely not federal law to break into programming for severe weather. What about stations without newsrooms? Come on. Stations have an obligation to work in the best interests of the public, but honestly an automated severe weather crawl is probably enough to honor the bare minimum. I am not saying it’s right.

Today is the last day for local marketing teams at TEGNA stations. It will be interesting to see what sort of creative shows up on air over these next few months.

Looks like they have the same architects who are also working on KERA’s planned new facility. Interesting to have two local media clients at the same time. Both buildings look great.

Not sure if I missed it in this thread but Marquee is picking up two of their markets already - Eureka and Medford https://tvnewscheck.com/business/article/marquee-broadcasting-buys-4-imagicomm-stations/

I think that is 47

In my experience, weather computer crash? That said most stations have at least 2 weather computers, probably more, so who knows.

And to think this schmuck wanted to buy TEGNA or ABC

What I appreciate about using the DBL space is it’s not a set that’s a desk pushed up against a big monitor. Even more idiotic are the number of big monitors that just have a still graphic skyline in them. Here we have dimension, texture, and some halfway decent lighting. All of those are lost arts these days in local news studio design. What is interesting about this space is that a lot of sets use flats for their walls so the exit sign would never really appear on a set wall, but that must be the actual exterior wall of the studio space. I was in here in 2020 but barely remember it, but appreciated it for what it was and how well they used the space they had.

I feel like they had a long way to go before they got anywhere near WITI’s 9p. I never saw WISN’s 9p mentioned in any of their press releases celebrating their other wins, it was even hard to find any information on it at all… I thought they gave up on this a year or more ago.

With election season behind us, some of the bold and innovative newscasts local stations eagerly announced are starting to be cut. For example, WISN is dropping their 9 p.m. newscast on their True Crime subchannel… a smart move, considering the newscast seemed like a misallocation of time and resources. https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/television-radio/2024/12/16/wisn-tv-channel-12-is-dropping-9-p-m-newscast-on-sister-station/77009461007/?tbref=hp

This is over 10 years old at this point, but it shaped the way I was going to approach news design in the future and I think what is outlined here is still relevant today. It made me rethink broadcast design from what was trendy toward designing with a focus on audience experience. Then I left the station I was at and went to an O&O group with a Linear Drift package and all that went out the window.

The primary role of local news design is to support editorial content while creating a cohesive brand experience. At its core, design needs to prioritize clear, legible information for audiences, whether they’re watching on large screens or smaller devices across different platforms. A strong, well-defined hierarchy is essential to guide attention and ensure key details can be understood at a glance. While I absolutely agree that design should also be visually engaging, it has to stick to basic principles of layout and typography to do its job: enhancing and clarifying the content, not just chasing trends for the sake of being flashy. This is where I think some broadcast designers—and foamers—lose the thread. There needs to be real intention behind design decisions. In this case, I don’t see that intention, either from an information perspective or even in the overall design. That said, if you’re just into big, shiny 3D shapes, that’s awesome! I’m glad there are still designers out there who can create that for you.

Linear Drift has absolutely no idea how to design a lower third.

Nexstar to lay off 2% of workforce via layoffs at stations, sales https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/nexstar-media-layoffs-2-tv-stations-advertising-sales-1236245915/

He was having trouble yesterday too.

In my experience the quality of the producers being pumped out of j-schools these days is a pretty big part of the problem.

Good timing on the launch of the CMG thread... more news: they're shutting down the DC bureau.

Are we really getting bent out of shape over this? Come on guys. He died from being 83.

This was interesting: ”He also suggested the company might look to such entities such as a TV-station group or a sports operation as potential acquisition targets, these people said.” LET THE MINDLESS SPECULATION BEGIN! (Is there still a separate board for this?)

It's always interesting when these "rebrands" happen and just like this example they tout how they will bring you stories that "impact you and your family every day". So... what were you exactly doing before then? Aside from this new logo, how does this brand change what's in your rundown? I think we know the answer to that though...

It's inevitable that it happens at all of these station groups. It makes sense... your stations all look the same, they essentially have similar brands that were all developed by the same agencies/consultants. When I was at Hearst, you could see this starting to happen with their cookie-cutter promos being swapped between markets and this was over a decade ago. So many TEGNA stations have similar brands at their core... you could easily build a single campaign, have local news photogs shoot your talent and b-roll and have some editor in Iowa stitch them all together and upload to Dropbox. I know everyone here loves the idea of local identities, but that concept is dead. You can get your black and gold graphics package... that's about it. Woof. It sounds like it's going to be all remote. I saw a few former colleagues already posting on LinkedIn looking for their next gig. Some really talented people too, which makes you wonder who they're going to keep around...

TEGNA joins the ranks of other local station groups who have decided to try to hub their station promo marketing. An announcement came down from outgoing COO Lynn Beall today. More industry layoffs ahead, just in time for the holidays.

In a move that should surprise no one, CBS 58, lead by former sports reporter somehow turned news director Jessie Garcia, has named Lance Allen as their new sports director. Lance was pushed out at WTMJ this year after nearly 30 years in their newsroom. Lance replaces Kevin Holden, who Jessie Garcia has been trying to push out at CBS 58 after serving as their sports director and bilingual Packers and Brewers play-by-play guy for Telemundo Wisconsin after nearly 15 years. Jessie has been in charge of WDJT's newsroom for 3 years now but has yet to really move the needle. Jessie and Anne Brown, a first-time GM who came over from a marketing role at WITI, have built a playbook based on plucking talent from other Milwaukee stations but haven't found much success in this strategy.

This was an interesting behind-the-scenes of election prep at NBC News: