nycnewsjunkie

IIRC ABC also had a problem when they showed Puerto Rico’s countdown last year. Most affiliates cut away to local news, so most of the country completely missed it. Moving the news to 10pm rectified that. Side note: Happy birthday!

In fairness, the gradient on the colors doesn’t help. Still, I’m starting to come around to that thinking myself. Dropping the fill works with some backgrounds/design themes, but not all of them. Hell, the affiliates won’t be dropping the fill because it doesn’t work for most of them.

Same here

I apologize for sounding repetitive, but people who are only watching KCAL might not even know that the brand is now also on KCBS. If they are only making minimal (if any) references to CBS, how do they expect their viewership to grow on KCBS or their streaming channel? That’s where they need to grow. The use of the KCAL brand to stimulate that growth isn’t surprising; the lack of any CBS promotion outside of CBS itself (in a market as big as LA) is. Hopefully their researchers are proven right though (they sure as hell know more than I do). The product itself looks good so far IMO.

How is it “an invitation for disaster” though? They wouldn’t be scuttling the KCAL name at all. KCBS is the station that needs the most help ratings-wise, and I don’t know how the current rebrand invites KCAL viewers to watch newscasts on CBS if they aren’t even promoting CBS. Hell, it barely invites them to go to the streaming channel. Again though, if KCBS sees a ratings increase and CBS News LA sees more web traffic, I’d be happy to be wrong.

It isn’t; just pointing out that co-branding wouldn’t alienate them either.

If they wanted brand evolution, what KPIX is doing is a much better execution of it. Keep the call letters on air to let people know it’s the same newscast, while introducing a new name. In hindsight, it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference on either station ratings-wise, but co-branding would be a better way for people to immediately associate KCAL with CBS on both stations (without alienating KCAL’s current audience). Not to get too off topic, but when Charter purchased Time Warner Cable, there was a period of time when TWC’s brand was phased out and Spectrum’s brand was phased in. Both names were used concurrently in TV ads, and both companies’ logos were on the TWC website. To me, at least, that seems like a better example of brand evolution. That said, if KCBS ends up getting sustained ratings growth because of the association w/ KCAL, that will be a good example of why I don’t work in advertising.

I’m not sure if people referred to it as “KCBS” in recent years though; I feel like it was just “CBS2” for most people. That’s what it is in NY; WCBS is associated w/ the radio station, not the TV station. I don’t always explain myself well, so I should probably clarify that on its own, I actually like the “KCAL News” brand, given that KCAL is the stronger station; it just doesn’t sound like a good idea when CBS is restructuring their O&Os around CBS News. They could’ve incorporated the KCAL brand alongside CBS News LA (a la KPIX) on both stations; that way viewers build a stronger link b/w KCAL and CBS. In hindsight, having mulled this over for a few minutes, it may not make much of a difference anyway. Regardless of what name they call it, KCAL’s ratings probably won’t change much, and KCBS will have an uphill battle. It would’ve been nice to see linear and streaming integrated right away, but I guess that’ll have to wait. One thing I’ll agree on: at least they’re not pretending they’re two different news organizations anymore.

I’m not assuming that at all. My point was that going all in on the KCAL brand only to drop it after less than a year is not the smartest way to go about a rebrand. KPIX has already demonstrated that you can leverage a station’s brand legacy while incorporating the station into CBS News. KCBS/KCAL could’ve done this with the KCAL brand, which would also solve the problem of people not knowing that KCAL had anything to do with CBS. They’re deemphasizing CBS in the name of viewer attachment to a brand, but they’ll eventually dump the legacy brand in the name of corporate synergy… thereby losing the brand viewers were attached to. IMHO, that’s not a plan; that’s indecisiveness.

The problem is, this isn’t a reconciliation of strategies at all. They’re basically disregarding the CBS brand entirely. The new rebrand across the CBS stations is supposed to unite the linear and digital products. That’s why the KPIX rebrand works; what you see online is virtually identical to what you see on TV. In LA, the linear and digital products are actually more distant after the rebrand. The website is linked to CBS News, but outside of KCBS newscasts, there are zero on-screen references to CBS. This is even the case for the CBS News Los Angeles streaming channel, which is where the screenshot is from. Granted, this is probably a non-issue in Baltimore, but not in the second most populous market in the country. To be fair, one could argue that KCAL does have that problem. For many people who aren’t TV junkies like us, the abbreviation “kcal” refers to a kilocalorie, not a TV station. If they want to reconcile their brand legacy, why not do what KPIX did and co-brand everything? That way, people associate KCAL with CBS, which is the whole reason this rebrand was supposed to happen in the first place. Going all in on “KCAL News” only to later drop the brand like a hot potato isn’t a good way to leverage brand legacy IMHO. In fact, it may even alienate people in the long run.

Brian Williams would have been a complete turn-off, and not just because of his exaggerated war stories. His MSNBC newscast was a poorly disguised opinion show, and that doesn’t translate well to the evening news. I’m not really sure why people ever considered him to be a viable option. If Khemlani was considering him, that’s poor judgment on his part.

I think people were wondering why CBS is calling it “KCAL News” when the whole point is to unify every station around CBS News (especially in big markets like LA). Even on streaming, there are barely any visual references to CBS News Los Angeles (at least, not yet). If the goal is building around a strong local brand, this is a success. If the goal is brand unification w/ CBS, this fails. Furthermore, the KCAL News brand does not translate well cross-platform; the website and app are built around CBS News, but there are barely any references to CBS News on the newscasts themselves (outside of KCBS newscasts). That being said, KCAL is the stronger brand, and it’s much better to build around “KCAL News” than have two separate names for the same product. On its own, it’s a great (and sensible) rebrand, but if the goal is to build around CBS News, it doesn’t accomplish that.

Climate change implications aside, they can’t even get the phrasing right. Data is supposed to be interpreted, not debated. “Debating the data” is like debating if 1+1=2. But my expectations for these people were never very high.

Did they ever really need two sets? I get the feeling they only had them to emphasize two different brands for the same news operation. Now that they’re unifying everything together, it seems logical to unify studio presentation as well. Besides, the last few months showed that the two stations were able to operate out of one studio just fine.

I understand that you live in the market, so I won’t pretend I understand LA more than you or anyone else here. That said, they’ve already hit rock bottom in terms of ratings, and they needed to try something different. As far as brand sense goes, there’s more brand sense w/ “KCAL News” than there was when they were using two names for the same news operation. I think there’s room for criticizing how they went about it (I pointed out the lack of promotion), but most of the things you mentioned (like the name of the damn helicopter) are things most people don’t care about. And if you’re criticizing them for not telling people where to watch *CBS* Mornings... I can’t help you there. I’m happy to criticize when warranted, and this thing may end up not working out, but saying it’s DOA after one day is a bit much IMO.

Dude no offense, but one rando on Facebook isn’t evidence that the whole thing is a disaster. It’s day 1. Look, they had a rough start this morning, but these things don’t always start smoothly (look at KOTV a few months back.) The assignment desk isn’t perfect, but as I said elsewhere, at least they’re peeling back the curtain on news gathering and trying something no other station is doing. That’s how you stand out. Keep in mind that the alternative was a morning newscast that got 0.0 in the ratings and a network that was airing morning infomercials instead of live programming. I’m happy to point out some flaws, but this is an improvement by every stretch of the imagination, and I think we’re overreacting if we say otherwise.

Maybe I’m in the minority, but the assignment desk is growing on me. Yes, I’m well aware that it’s a gimmick, and I normally hate gimmicks, but it’s nice to see the curtain peeled back a tiny bit on the news gathering process, and it’s nice to see the assignment editors get some screen time. Also, I’ll credit them for doing something a little bit different to the rest of the market instead of putting a new coat of paint on an identical product.

I mean, isn’t it obvious enough? They can go to CBS. That’s the least of their issues. That being said, the audio issues…holy crap. Several mics keep cutting off, and now I can’t stop hearing that audio hum in the studio. First day jitters are normal, but they‘re really having problems today.

Here’s KCAL’s launch (h/t @Georgie56 on another thread.) Also, some screenshots of KCAL’s sign on, the severe weather ticker, the CBSLA streaming feed, and what was seen on KCBS at 4am PT.

See, this is the kind of promo they should’ve been going with a month ago. I know not everything was ready yet, but you have to give people something to look forward to. I don’t think making KCAL the primary station is a bad thing at all, but *if* the goal is to build around CBS News, that should be indicated on some level in how they advertise themselves. Yes, KCBS is a ratings trash heap compared to the more stable KCAL, but this is still the nation’s #2 market. CBS will have to make its brand more prominent at some point (especially with the streaming component factored in).

I think the more confusing thing (at least for me) is why they aren’t calling it “CBS News Los Angeles.” I get that KCAL gets viewers and KCBS doesn’t, but when the whole point is to unify the branding and put CBS News at the forefront, this doesn’t exactly help. You’d think they’d at least do what KPIX is doing and cobrand the newscasts, but they’re not even doing that. I haven’t seen any mentions of CBS News Los Angeles outside of the website and references to the streaming channel. It’s all “KCAL News.” On the last CBS2 Morning News, they introduced the entire KCAL morning team. At one point, one of the anchors said something to the extent of “it’s a little confusing, we’re trying to get used to it ourselves.” When even the on-air talent is confused by the arrangement, and most viewers won’t find out until tomorrow because of a lack of promotion, I don’t think they’re setting themselves up for success. I like the overall strategy given the ratings mess at KCBS, but I don’t like the implementation so far.

It really would’ve helped if they’d actually promoted the damn thing instead of waiting for the 11th hour to do it. It made sense to move most of the local news to a station that actually gets ratings, but the branding is going to be confusing, and is counter to what CBS is doing in the rest of the country. Not even WCCO, arguably their most successful station, is going to get this treatment (I know it’s because of the radio station, but still). Is CBS so damaged as a brand in LA that they have to put the KCAL name on everything? That set does look fantastic, though. I’ll give them that.

Nailed it. I’d love it if we could get stuff a la carte too, even though that’s never going to happen. Outside of live sports, I barely watch TV. I get my fix from streaming, a little bit of social media, and YouTube (which costs absolutely nothing). Local news too, but even that doesn’t require traditional TV anymore (unless your station owner acts like they’re in the 1990s.)

It’s the right decision IMO. I know they haven’t made changes to week 18 so far, but I really wouldn’t blame the NFL if they postponed those games too.

I would like the branding more if a) CBS weren’t integrating their stations news departments into CBS News and b) they weren’t simulcasting an hour on KCBS. When you’re relaunching KCAL with only minimal references to CBS News LA (which I’m sure we’ll see on KCBS), it runs counter to what they’re trying to do, especially when KCAL News is going to stream on the CBS News LA streaming channel. I guess they want to leverage the KCAL brand, given that KCBS has never had much luck in that market. When you consider that, I guess calling it KCAL News makes sense in the short term.