noggi

This would be an awesome chance for some great local prime time programming. But I’m sure we will just see a ton of very mediocre local newscasts.

What is with this weird fetish for speculating about transactions that never could have / never will happen? Edit: Might as well contribute my two cents to the ANF conversation: what they just did is one of the reasons behind why I left local TV news in 2020. So many that have ascended the ranks of local news management have absolutely no idea what a “brand” is. It’s so much more than a logo. No one is addressing the issues with content. Look at a newscast from 1980 and compare it to one today - the format is almost identical, even the presentation… and that’s a huge problem. You want a younger audience? They don’t want to hear a 4 minute weather forecast from a guy older than their grandfather. There’s a station in Milwaukee that’s running a promo that says “DON’T WATCH US” and claims that they aren’t going to cover the car crashes and endless crime stories and they’ll focus on local storytelling… but guess what, I watched them and that was a lie. They can’t live up to that brand promise. I had the same reaction as some who saw the lead story on Atlanta News FIRST was the hurricane that was not coming anywhere close to Atlanta. So what does that new branding even mean? I don’t think there’s anything deeper here than just dropping a ridiculously high channel number. Changing call letters is incredibly stupid. I mean, go ahead and do it, but I don’t think it’s worth mentioning. Working in TV news was my dream, but looking back on it… I look at the product the stations I worked for put out and I ask myself: “Who is this for?” I give ANF a couple years before it’s dropped for another meaningless rebrand.

It's a huge pain in the ass and most stations don't have a large enough digital staff for something like this. There's probably automated systems for publishing too, but most local stations also don't have the budget for this. We had to do them by hand at WUSA with a designer making a template, only to find that news management refused to get the digital team Adobe licenses.

It’s definitely a much needed improvement. But it looks like a package that may have been good about five years ago. And some of the templates are a little sloppy.

Yeah, but wasn’t that just a branding device for their combined newsrooms? Not an actual content play?

The race to the bottom continues.

Looks great!

WABC is currently hiring a new creative director of design https://abc7ny.com/31669/

They will. I was interviewing to be WPVI's Art Director about three years ago now when ABC started on this package... was told it "was like nothing you've ever seen before". I have to imagine Covid, the departure of Wendy McMahon, and changes with the design agency probably tabled this project for awhile. It's all being managed out of Chicago - though I'm sure that's no secret now that the weather look launched. That said... this looks exactly like "everything I've ever seen before", so... I'm guessing they started over at some point and went down a very safe path with the design.

Oh wow... that's really bad.

Wow! This is really bad! Congrats.

WCCO’s Jason DeRusha says he will leave the morning news anchor desk on June 23. He will stick around for the occasional special project. https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2022/05/24/jason-derusha-announces-transition-to-new-role-at-wcco-tv/

From the press release: “WISN 12 News at 4:00 p.m." has a distinct focus on breaking news and the very latest on stories and events happening in neighborhoods across Milwaukee and all of Southeastern Wisconsin.” So… what the hell are they doing in their other shows then?

Yeah, because WBBM is known for its stability…

A lot of stations are setup with a flash cam in the newsroom that can be punched up directly by master control in the event of breaking news but no production staff onsite.

There were at one point standards for production that the industry was somewhat holding themselves to, but those have long since been thrown out the window. A one man band with a YouTube account, iPhone and a ring light pulls in millions more viewers than most local newscasts ever will. And good for them. Here's an unpopular opinion: local news doesn't have to be exclusively delivered to an audience via over-the-air television broadcasts. Fresno seems like a journalism desert, a great place for a digital local news startup. It would be much easier to churn out a few local stories daily for a digital presence than trying to figure out how to make 60 minutes of engaging television. There are fully-staffed newsrooms across the country that can't even pull this off. Honestly... it would probably be easier to find too. Meet your audience where they are. I don't think it's 8pm on MyNetworkTV. But if this is about rebuilding a personal brand, getting one's face out there and building a reel, or having a sandbox to play in - why not? No reason to be jealous about it.

You're asking if anyone watches the morning show that happens to have the most total viewers? (Today wins narrowly in some demos). They must be doing something right... it's almost as if a majority of viewers don't care about news and would rather wake up to something softer and more digestible.

yes.

The WFLA package was created by Rey...

Good artists copy, great artists steal.

Retrans is where the money is at now.

I'm sure they didn't consider any of this, good thing there are some dudes on a forum who can solve all of these complicated issues and decisions.

That will look amazing on some big tacky 3D poorly textured random shapes with some lens flares.

...says the guy posting on a forum mostly about the aesthetics of local news...

It’s worth noting each CBS O&O has a design team and an art director and can pretty much do whatever they want with station looks (within reason) and KCNC has been copying graphics from network for years. That said, a group wide change is not going to originate from Denver so just calm yourselves. Also - if you’re interested in applying - both WBBM and WCCO have art director positions open right now…