Geoffrey

A great journalist and a great host of Sunday Morning. Hearing his voice again in the obits today really took me back. Charles Osgood will be missed.

I really dislike this trend of having two logos and a huge bug.

Not used to seeing studios putting much effort into the floor. Wonder if the next studio will continue with that.

Do we think the snowy photo in Lee's screen will change depending on the day?

I don't really understand why the lower-third graphics (including the time/temp box and the ticker/flipper line) "expand" when there's a split screen/double box graphic being used. When I first saw it last night, I thought maybe it was just that the background was designed to "continue" the other graphics, but there is a motion to the graphics when they expand for the split screen and then shrink again when the video is taken full. And then I'm sure this has been noted on the overall O&O thread in Graphics, but it's just interested to me the way they incorporate the time in certain full screen transitions, and the time, temperature and forecast in the open. It feels like someone realized they had the ability to program the new graphics this way but it feels like unnecessary clutter. But as I said before, this is a massive improvement for ABC 7. I believe Fox 5 now has the oldest graphics package in NY.

Lots of motion, perhaps too much, but overall it feels fresh and slick. A definite upgrade, though the lower-thirds will still feel familiar to longtime viewers who may be resistant to change. Fonts seem to be unnecessarily large but this is ABC 7 so that shouldn't be a surprise.

This was at 6 a.m. Doug Williams anchored first, saying the storm caused technical difficulties with the studio. My guess is that this was being switched from master control and not the regular control room. There were no graphics or video. He tossed to Craig Allen in the actual weather center, saying Craig couldn't hear him but someone would cue him to go. Craig did weather for something like 12 minutes, before Doug tossed to "In Focus." At 6:31, Andrea Grymes did basically the same thing, with Craig going about as long. This time, however, they were able to go to a John Dias live report. I didn't catch the rest to see if they filled out the half hour but things appeared normal when they were back for the 9 a.m.

In the city, no. In some of the northern suburbs, sure.

John and Tony seem to be just as confused about the arrangement as we are! From the video the station released: John: "What do you think about doing team weather?" Tony: "I'm excited about it!" John: "How do you think this is going to work?" Tony: "That's a good question. We've gotta figure that out, don't we?" John looking into the camera: "We have NO idea!"

So Curt Menefee and Michael Strahan are Sunday colleagues, but will be competitors (in New York, anyway) during the week. Interesting seeing more of this Sunday NFL/weekday morning crossover. Can't forget Nate Burleson on CBS either.

Not sure if the other stations did the same but CBS 2 brought in the weekday morning anchors to anchor this Sunday morning. Not much snow in the city and Long Island, but some places did get some accumulation. They also had a bunch of reporters in the field, including weekend morning co-anchor Doug Williams. Interestingly, John Elliott and Tony Sadiku swapped roles this morning. Since joining a few weeks ago (not including holiday fill-in duties), Tony has been in the field while John handled the regular studio work.

CNN Max has a few original newscasts but also simulcasts a lot of CNN International (which is itself often a simulcast of CNN/U.S.). I'm not sure how much might have changed since the September launch but this was my post of the schedule then:

I've been thinking of making a similar observation here, as I have CNN on in the background while at work, but I'm not watching too closely. I wasn't sure if this was due to the increase in breaking news, mostly Trump legal news and news from Israel. I have noticed occasional standup-type presentations, but it used to be almost everything. I very much dislike the desk setup. It's a boring desk with a very boring background.

This feels very dystopian to me.

It's early but so far Tony Sadiku seems like a good hire. He was out in the rain and wind all morning as a third live reporter. Unless I missed it, they haven't made clear mention of his shift. At 5 p.m., Kristine Johnson read a quick story about his first day, then said of both John and Tony: "Look for them weekdays at 4:30." I wonder if he'll be doing weekends, and a weekday morning backup two or three days a week.

I would have to imagine there was certainly some incentive. Lots of excellent people in this group. A combined 325 years at WCBS-TV among these nine.

First impression: Not a huge fan. I'm fine with cleaner looks, and the previous package almost felt dated the day it launched, but this feels like it wastes a lot of space. The lower "ticker area" feels too big for the little information displayed. Also, maybe they fixed this later in the day (I'm only checking out the first few minutes of the 5 a.m. show), but it doesn't seem smart to have full screen animations/stingers (Breaking News, Market Alert) take up the full screen, even covering the bug and ticker. I wish NBC didn't feel the need to make all of these graphics bigger while showing less information.

"New York" refers to the city, not the state. It is the style of most news organizations not to put the state after a large city. I agree that it does seem weird to have a reporter standing outside in Manhattan to do a live shot on something that happened in Albany if there is no tie-in to the location. Like you suggested, they could say "we're outside a synagogue here in New York, where security has been beefed up after what happened in Albany." But I don't think they were trying to imply New York City = New York State = Albany, NY.

That might be true, but if you see a story about one of these people you're familiar with, you're probably still going to click/watch, right?

I thought the centered logo looked silly, but this logic actually makes some sense to me so maybe NewsNation thought it through more than I originally gave them credit for.

Somehow missed these posts and just noticed the updated logo tonight. I think the typeface looks better... the previous one felt kind of random. Not a huge fan of the lack of the white outline around the feathers but that's what it is now.

I believe WCBS had a 4 p.m. even before that, around 1992. I think Brian Williams and Reggie Harris anchored.

So sad to hear of Pablo's passing. I grew up watching him and admiring his storytelling, and then I got to work at the same place as him. He was a nice guy and always made you feel cool. CBS 2 had a nice tribute tonight at 5. The station has unfortunately gotten good at doing these this year. And just a random tweet I came across that showed some of his personality. (This was the live tag after a package. He signed off as "John Slattery.")

I was just thinking this weekend about making a post here about this: "Wasn't King Charles supposed to start in the fall? We're running out of time." I'm curious if CNN is still behind this show with Licht gone, or if they're just doing the minimum to fulfill contractual obligations. Interesting that it's now at 10pm instead of the original 9pm.

I would say it's pretty important for a New York station to be based in Manhattan.