C Block

It''s not that clear cut. There are a lot more resources, people, and space needed to support TV news production than just what you see on air. Morning Express probably only accounts for a fraction of the headcount still based at CNN Center. CNN Domestic weekends, a good chunk of CNNI shows, and CNN En Espanol are all still anchored out of CNN Center. And even though they've moved a lot of anchoring out of Atlanta, a lot of other important staff are still there. As I understand it, a lot of the staff for the CNN Domestic dayside hours stayed in Atlanta even though those hours moved to New York. So a lot of the producers, writers, segment producers, editors, etc. for much of CNN Domestic are still in Atlanta even though the shows are anchored in New York. Not to mention CNN.com, Newsource, Image + Sound, and plenty of other teams. CNN Center may not be the bustling place it was a decade ago, but there are still a lot of people working there to support a major news organization. Some other people also might have a better idea than me, but I also question whether there's enough space for everything at Techwood just yet. Even if they are going to move everything there and in a smaller footprint than what they have at CNN Center, there's still going to be a fair amount of work needed to move so many employees and have space for all of them. I'm sure they'll be able to do it, but it won't happen overnight, and it won't happen just because Morning Express got cancelled.

The other thing is that it nearly doubles the amount of ad inventory, so there's at least the potential to make more money by having more compelling programming on both stations in the morning. I honestly think what they're doing with the mornings is a fairly smart strategy to try considering they have nothing to lose. People have tried far, far dumber ideas in the morning. The only move that makes me question whether current KCBS/KCAL management have their heads on right is the hiring of Ross Palombo. That guy is so horrible to work with that KTVU let him out of his contract more than a year early, and then people at WPLG were literally crying in their newsroom when they found out that he was rehired there.

I noticed Jim Benemann said the same thing, and I'm sure there are probably others out there as well. I am not an Elon fan at all nor do I think Twitter is headed in the right direction, but it seems a bit extreme to tell everyone company-wide to lay off on it, even temporarily. The site at least still works relatively the same as it did a month ago...

Actually I take back what I said earlier. This set looks fantastic. The more I look at it (particularly the secondary presentation areas), the more I notice how much detail went into it without going overboard. Take a look at it, and then take a look at the set it replaced, and you'll realize how it blows the old one out of the water. It probably cost a fortune, but it's a much more refined and better use of the space. The only thing I can find wrong with it is that monitor graphic on the 2-shot, but that's an easy fix. Some more pictures on the designer website too: https://jhdgroup.net/portfolio/ktla-news-studio/?portfolioCats=41%2C32%2C48%2C49%2C43%2C42%2C46

I don’t think it’s anything groundbreaking, but it looks nice, especially on wide shots. It’s an improvement over the last set. The 2-shot at the anchor desk is the only obvious weakness. There’s absolutely no depth-of-field with just the logo and a sea of blue (with some sort of topography pattern?) They should swap out that graphic with something different.

Probably didn't help that her EP left shortly after her show was launched.

It's sounding like Fox is expecting that NBC and ABC will indeed drop the 10pm hour. I've heard that the O&Os are looking into what effect, if any, it would have on their long-established 10pm newscasts. It sounds like there's actually not much overlap between viewers who watch the big 3 primetime offerings and those who watch primetime newscasts.

Interesting. I always thought it was odd that he was replaced on the morning show and put onto what seemed like a pretty meaningless 11am/4pm midday shift not too long ago.

I remember that design was in the monitors of a rendering of the WNBC set in 3C, so that was probably an unused look from ~10 years ago that never made air.

It's...fine. I still don't get why they replaced the last set. There's nothing really remarkable about this one. The tight shots and monitor standup area are fine, but it's otherwise pretty bland. I don't think the 'corner-full-of-vertical-monitors' looks as cool as Nexstar thinks it does. I don't think it projects an illusion of a big city loft nearly as well as the outgoing set did. Also, what's up with the fake balcony mezzanine railing? This set is pretty much all monitors, so there are almost no other stylistic elements to it. The all-grey everywhere feels pretty cold. You could pretty much plop this set in any city. In fact, it has been plopped into several cities, and I have a feeling we'll see it in some more (KTLA). The *one* unique thing it has that I also like is the weather center – putting it behind the set with some frosted plexiglass is a cool way of giving a small impression of a working newsroom/control room backdrop.

Pretty sure it was dropped sometime in early September at the start of the fall season. KICU dropped it too, though it still has the Live Now simulcast in the middle of the day. If I'm not mistaken, Fox Weather is on a subchannel somehwere on at least one of the stations Fox owns in each market.

Yes, is that not basically what I said?

This doesn't read as any new information, but rather just analysis of the original story that the WSJ broke several weeks ago. I do agree though that it seems more than likely that the 10pm hour goes away and will probably be replaced by more local news in most places, especially the small markets. For local stations, that's probably the best bang for their buck – no extra costs ("you've been producing half an hour, so we'll promote you to doing 90 minutes!") and a lot more ad inventory and therefore more revenue potential for the stations. I doubt we'll see a late national newscast as so many have speculated in here. If NBC is going to give back the hour to affiliates, then they're going to give back the hour. I suppose some stations on the east coast could take the west coast edition of Nightly on a tape delay if they really wanted to, but that sounds kind of lame. At the most, maybe NBC would offer the option for stations to carry that Tom Llamas show or whatever else is on late on NBC News Now at that hour. One idea I haven't seen brought up is whether the stations in the Central and Mountain time zones would be able to shift primetime to 8-10 and basically expand prime access to the 7pm hour and also still have a decent lead-in to the 10pm newscasts. If so, that would make programming neatly uniform nationwide with prime access until 8pm, primetime 8-10, and then local news at 10. If so, then this move would really work out well for the stations in the middle part of the country. I would love to see some stations take this opportunity to do their own local late night talk shows. That would be fascinating, and perhaps some big market stations could pull it off. But I bet the cost-benefit analysis on that doesn't even get close to penciling out.

This open debuted a few weeks ago when KPIX shuffled around all their anchors. They're clearly trying to market the 6 and 7pm newscasts with Juliette Goodrich as complements to the Evening News with Norah O'Donnell. But aside from the new opens and giant tease banners for the 6 and 7pm shows, it's the same mish-mash of old and new graphics everywhere else on KPIX. Plus, knowing PIX, they'll change their minds on everything again in about 3 months...

Good for him. He was one of the handful of people Fox laid off early in the pandemic.

Honestly, that sounds a lot better. Imagine the embarrassment of telling someone "I'm a Newsy correspondent." Or calling up someone and saying "Hello, I was wondering if you could give a comment on this story to Newsy." Scripps News sounds more like a body within the company with a broad set of news resources rather than some quippy online news upstart that they just so happened to buy a few years ago. The only thing that's a little puzzling is that Newsy underwent a rather nice visual rebrand not even a year ago.

KEYT in Santa Barbara is debuting a new set this week. It's their first new set in ~20 years. Not sure if they also built something for KCOY or if KCOY is going to continue with their virtual chroma set. Teaser video:

Yeah, ask Jeff Michael how well that turned out for him. I don't see what kind of case Mark has at all here. As I understand it, management also even approved that he could say something about Lynette, and the weekend AM EP had something written, but then Mark ignored it in the moment and went off script. As far as all the talent departures in general, from what I've heard, it's all coming down to money. Nexstar isn't cutting pay, but they're not offering talent another dime when their contracts come up for renewal. People seem to like the GM, but the ND is a very by-the-book corporate kind of guy (and his track record coming from KING and KPIX isn't all that excellent to begin with.) Lynette Romero will be fine. She's going to work for a better company for better terms and with better quality of life. Most people outside this industry probably don't realize that what happened to her is extremely common. KTLA will also be fine. Speaking from experience, I can tell you that the social media crowd that gets worked up about this kind of stuff isn't the same crowd as the people who are actually watching. KTLA's news director might be on thin ice. And Mark Mester should probably consider a career change right about now.

I don't think KDVR has "gone through sets like underwear," but this most recent one is a little odd. By my count, KDVR has had five sets in the 22 years they've produced news: 2000 (similar to KRIV and KTTV), 2009 (a bad WFXT newsroom set ripoff), 2012 (an even worse set-in-a-box), and then 2019. That's not too weird, especially when you think about the ownership changes along the way. The 2019 set is easily the nicest one they've had and the nicest one in the market, so it's definitely weird they just threw out a barely 3-year-old set for the same set-in-a-box that Nexstar is installing at other stations. I think KTLA is in a similar situation right now, though I believe their set was a little older than KDVR's. I guess the new owners want to put their fingerprints on the ex-Tribune stations. Nexstar's gonna Nexstar, I guess.

Mark Mester’s bio is no longer on the KTLA website.

The station owns the airtime and decides what they do with it. If they decide to let an anchor use it to say goodbye, then great. If they don't, then that's their decision too. Different stations and different circumstances could lead to different decisions, but ultimately, nobody is owed any airtime. You'd also be surprised to find out how little viewers actually notice or care if an anchor 'disappears.' Yes, many might notice, but most don't. What everyone in this line of work should know is that everyone, from the GM, to the anchors, to the part-time video editor, is replaceable. I am far from a Nexstar apologist, and I'm glad I don't work for that company, but unless there's a huge backstory that we're not aware of, then it sounds like a lot of the on-air people at KTLA need to be reined in and have their egos put in check. I get that KTLA is all about personality, and to a degree, that's fine, but anchors are principally hired to do a job, which is to do the news. They're not hired to do a talk or reality show, and they're not hired to sell products or a lifestyle on Instagram. It wouldn't surprise me if Mark Mester just anchored his last newscast on KTLA. What he just did is stupid. I highly doubt the GM would have approved of what he said, but the fact that he referenced her in it is enough to make it appear like she did, and that's just stupid on his part. He just put a target on his own back by doing that. I get that he must feel like some special connection with their viewers has been violated, but being the weekend AM anchor at a big market station (or an anchor at any station) is not that big of a deal. Ultimately, it's management calling the shots, and management hire people to do the news and also not make the company look bad.

An anchor got away with airing the station's dirty laundry not just on air, but also in the first four minutes of the A-block of a newscast? I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous. The news should always come first. I get that it's KTLA's style to be a little overly personal, but all this is doing is making the station look bad and making the situation worse. Trust me, nothing good comes out of calling attention to yourself in these situations. That is way over the top for what sounds like a fairly routine situation of an anchor not feeling valued and going to a competitor for a better offer at the end of a contract. Sucks that such a thing happens, but that happens in this business all the time.

Looks nice. I would have liked to have seen them incorporate a little bit of the newsroom back into the studio the same way KNTV did with theirs, but it's still really nice. Great use of space. Only true fault are those confidence monitors on the side of the anchor desk underneath the glass – those look awful and are useless.

I think the 9am news lasted a little bit into the CBS days, though not long (maybe a year or two at most). They also did the hybrid local/national format with This Morning, though I think they stopped when the Early Show launched. KCNC had a 4pm newscast going back to the 80s. It was dropped in 2006 when they outbid KMGH for Oprah as a strategy to boost the 5pm news ratings. They tried a 4pm newscast again the summer after Oprah ended, but dropped it again by the fall. I have a lot of fond memories of watching "First News" after school with Larry Green, who was a class act. Stephanie Riggs was great too; it's too bad they didn't keep her around.

Weekday AM reporter, weekend PM anchor is kind of weird. That seems like a temporary schedule until new management comes in and decides whether to give her a more prominent role either in the morning or evening.