nycnewsjunkie

2 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

It could be heading for rejection. Tegna's best play right now might be to walk away. 

Tegna’s best play might be to do nothing and let the deal get rejected. IIRC, wouldn’t Tegna have to pay a termination fee if they call the deal off?

Good news: WINS finally gets a stronger signal.

Bad news: The newsrooms are merging (if I read the article correctly). It sounds to me like the first step in winding down WCBS (not right away of course, but it may not be around in ten years).

I rather liked the fact that WCBS and WINS retained not only their independent identities, but also their independent newsrooms even under common ownership. They were not only distinct in terms of identity, but also in terms of style (WINS being the traditional “22 minute headline news” station, and WCBS being “more than just the headlines”). It sucks that their newsrooms will no longer be independent. However, with the way radio is going, that was never going to last, regardless of who owned the stations. 

6 minutes ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

Which brand is bigger in NYC, WINS or WCBS?

In terms of ratings, definitely WINS. That’s not to say that WCBS isn’t big (it’s an institution in its own right).

2 hours ago, DJonNews said:

NewsNation: The 28-3 of News.

 

(You know what 28-3 stands for if you've watched Super Bowl LI.)

Nah. That assumes NewsNation had any sort of lead to begin with.

They’re more like the 2022 Denver Broncos. A very expensive flop.

28 minutes ago, Nick said:

All this being said, and eloquently,   (it almost reads like a press release) I , a viewer and I think a longtime one with some sophistication,  am simply unable to grasp the connection that McMahon and Khelmani are so enthusiastically trying to forge between CBS News and local-station operations,  trying to make them one and the same. They are two very different entities.    Local viewers identify with their channels and personalities.   I can understand graphic design, music, etc, to be standardized, probably more for cost reasons  than any other,   but to me this year-and-a-half-long attempt at trying to somehow combine  network news and local identity seems to be a task that has bitten off more than it can chew,   as of October creating an ever more awkward muddle of brandings.     

I didn’t get it at first either, and I’ll try to simplify what I think they’re doing as best I can. CBS knows that local news is more identifiable w/ viewers than the national network. That’s a problem for them, given that CBS national newscasts don’t perform well in the ratings. By slapping the “CBS News” name onto local newscasts, the CBS News brand effectively becomes more regional. The hope is that viewers identify their local newscasts with CBS News as a whole, and that they stay w/ their CBS News station for national news rather than flipping the channel.

CBS also wants to push local/national streaming, given the rise of OTT services, and also wants to integrate the operations of local streaming services. The best way they can do that is by having everyone brand around the network, rather than have the channel number on TV, the CBSN brand for streaming news, etc.

The current “awkward muddle” of brandings is because they’re transitioning. In NY, I’ve seen more references to CBS New York than CBS 2 in station promos. I have no idea if this would actually accomplish the first goal of increasing viewership, and I don’t see myself wanting to watch the CBS Evening News in my market just because WCBS doesn’t call itself CBS2 anymore. However, it would accomplish the goal of integrating the network in a streaming-heavy world.

14 hours ago, mre29 said:

This sounds like a big opportunity for professional soccer (y'know, what most of the world calls football), rugby, lacrosse, field hockey, volleyball, swimming, basket weaving, etc.

MLS is already going to Apple TV, a platform that makes much more sense for them than The CW. IIRC, many of those other sports have agreements w/ NBC Sports and ESPN, which are both much more valuable partners than The CW. Even basket weaving’s got The Ocho going for them.

If Nexstar were smart, they’d try to secure national rights to HBCU football/basketball. I believe those rights are syndicated at the moment, and a platform like The CW might offer them more exposure. The CW will never reach the level of the other major networks in terms of either sports or scripted programming, but any live sporting events would give it a chance to grow. I wouldn’t hold my breath on it actually happening, though.

3 minutes ago, TheSpeedKing said:

Well then, known commodities suck. Add a little bit of mystery. There’s a reason why it’s “The National” rather  than “The National News” on CBC.

And that reason is because the name “The National” is a known commodity. That’s a brand with decades of exposure. Newsy is not.

When your company has a long history of journalism, why not capitalize on it to grow both your streaming network and national portfolio?

1 hour ago, LTSC1980 said:

In Romania, Antena 3 in Romania was rebranded as Antena 3 CNN as Intact Media partnered with CNN:

 

That’s rather ironic, considering Antena 3’s history. They’re apparently considered to be the Fox News of Romania, and were known for falsely reporting that George Soros was behind a series of protests against the Romanian government. The network also ranks as being among the least trustworthy in Romania, according to a Reuters Institute study.

I guess that given CNN International’s reputation, Antena 3 figured that a partnership with them might bolster their credibility.

I like the smaller score bug and the color matchup with the team jerseys. Unfortunately, it kinda goes downhill from there.
 

The theme sounds like something a SoundCloud rapper made in 30 mins and decided not to use. The pillbox shaped clock might’ve gone over better in 2002. And what’s with the recent affinity for stretched out fonts at ESPN? Did they hire WJZ’s creative director?

I’m not a moderator or anything (and I would never pretend to be), but perhaps this discussion about an affiliation switch would be best for the speculatron? CBS hasn’t given an explicit indication of wanting to pull its affiliation in Atlanta, and until then, everybody’s basically taking guesses.

Anyway, the ANF YouTube channel has been placing thumbnails with headlines on their videos. Even videos from before the launch have these thumbnails. Granted, this is an extremely minor detail, but I’ve never seen this style of thumbnail from too many local outlets (even O&Os). This is stuff I’ve usually seen from bigger outlets, like France 24 and DW, on their YouTube channels. Smart use of branding, if you ask me.

1 hour ago, Myron Falwell said:

Who’d buy them? Nexstar is grossly over the cap that, even if they tried to play the Mission route, it wouldn’t exactly work like they would want it to. The charade of selling WPIX to Scripps was set up in a way that Mission could buy them, this OTOH would be grossly flagrant and highly visible (as opposed to Mission shadow buying a station for Nexstar to create a duop in the middle of nowhere in market #179). Plus this is no longer an environment receptive to M&As as the Federal Reserve keeps hiking the prime interest rate.

 

If anything, CBS can use KSTW and WTOG to force Apollo to sell them KIRO and Tegna to sell them WTSP.

I hadn’t considered the interest rate hikes, so that’s a good point. That said, if CBS ever pulls the affiliation from WANF, would Gray accept it without pulling other CBS affiliations? Wouldn’t the resulting blowback from Gray end up being worse for CBS?

I know this is all wildly off topic and speculative, and I apologize if I’m inadvertently derailing the thread. That’s the last thing I’ll ask relating to that scenario.

5 hours ago, iron_lion said:

exactly what went down, contract renewal issues?

I guess you could say that. Supposedly (if former sports anchor Laura Behnke’s lawsuit is reliable), Lori Stokes was allegedly asked to…let’s just say, give certain favors to Dave Davis (the GM at the time) in exchange for a better contract. If those allegations are true, that probably contributed to Lori wanting to get the heck out of there.

1 hour ago, Weeters said:

CBSViacom/Paramount/etc has been more than transparent with their plans for local stations moving forward, mainly via all the PR they're putting out for Detroit. It should surprise no one if they finally pull the trigger in Atlanta and move CBS to WUPA (and, honestly, in Tampa and Seattle as well). Gray seems to be able to see the writing on the wall, and has prepared a new brand devoid of any CBS branding, one that may very well be set up to "borrow" a lot of CBS' new initiatives before CBS has the chance to set them up locally. 

 

 

The ball is in Gray's possession now. CBS can either continue the affiliation agreement with Gray calling the shots (so to speak) or they can try to launch their own newsroom that will be seen as "copying" what Atlanta News First already did. Unless Nexstar decides that minority stake in ownership means CBS doesn't need to pay affiliation fees, there is no incentive for CBS to continue to keep their CW stations affiliated with the network. 

CBS’s strategy for local stations wouldn’t surprise me, but I still have two questions:

1) Would Gray agree to an affiliation agreement with CBS that excludes WANF? What’s to stop Gray from telling CBS that they no longer want to carry their programs on most/all of their other CBS affiliates? Again, I wouldn’t be surprised if CBS really is going with that strategy, but doesn’t it have the potential to massively backfire?

2) Wouldn’t it make more sense for CBS to just sell their standalone CW affiliates to another company? What CBS is doing in Detroit is difficult enough; do they really want the burden of launching news in Seattle, Tampa, and Atlanta when they already have affiliates doing it for them? Besides, Nexstar might be interested in owning three standalone affiliates in top-20 markets.
 

Granted, one can credit CBS with having enough foresight to know that station groups are uncoupling from their dependence on the networks. Perhaps CBS figures that it’s best to sever the cord to station groups sooner rather than later, when said station groups will be established enough to not need the networks. Gray’s desire to “fire CBS” in Atlanta might justify this reasoning. Come to think of it, I might’ve just answered my own questions there. Still, it would be like McDonalds attempting to replace every single franchisee with their own stores; it wouldn’t be practical (at least in the short term) and it presents a great risk.

9 hours ago, Metrodonmartin said:

Networks are going away. The GM here has already made the comment, “do we really need to be a CBS/network affilliate ?  They are banking on creating a local brand. CBS owns a station in Atlanta. Gray is well aware that CBS most likely will pull an NBC BOSTON type move in ATLANTA.  Gray is smart to create a non CBS yet local brand. 

I’m not familiar with CBS’ mindset here, but would they be that desperate for an O&O in Atlanta? It would make sense if they wanted one, say, 7 years ago, when WGCL was a dumpster fire, but if ANF turns out to be somewhat successful, why bother?
 

IIRC, NBC did what they did in Boston due to preemptions, wanting to dissociate from WHDH’s tabloid news, and the fact that they already had an established operation there (NECN). Those factors don’t really exist in Atlanta for CBS. Why waste money on a startup operation (that will likely bomb, given today’s media environment) when your affiliate is doing all the work for you? 

31 minutes ago, DENDude said:

NBC2 Says there is some minor roof damage on the main building that houses ABC7 (wzvn), but both stations seem to have come out of it okay.  WINK Though, yikes!!!!  Sun Broadcasting's WARO-FM is still off air. And does anyone know about WXCW TV ???

AFAIK, WXCW is down. WINK was doing a makeshift broadcast of sorts for a while, but they essentially signed off at 11:30pm and are supposed to be back at 6am. This frozen picture is what WINK’s channel on YouTubeTV is showing now (sorry I don’t have it in better quality).

1 hour ago, newsman123 said:

Eh. Lets see the ratings in a year. I dont doubt the new investment and money being spent is nice. But how many times has a station (including this one) gotten excited and said “its a new day!” “This time its gonna work”! Stations have time and time again rebranded, promising to focus on news that “matters” etc and it flops. 

To be fair, the station’s fate isn’t entirely in their own hands. How well ANF does will be influenced by how much the competition slips up (especially WSB/Apollo). That said, given that the station has been remarkably stable as of late, I’m optimistic that this goes beyond a name/set change.

IMHO, they don’t have to end up in first place (or even second) to consider this a success. They simply have to be competitive. Gray’s short-term goals were to make investments into the station, hire solid journalists, and maintain stability. So far, it looks like they’ve done that. Even in the worst-case scenario, they are at least putting out a better and more accessible product today than they ever have before.

Well, I guess it’s October somewhere.

Here’s the intro. Note that the WGCL calls are still there for now.

21 minutes ago, Georgie56 said:

Credit to @CaptainNewsfor flagging it on the Discord: WBBM is airing a promo celebrating Brad Edwards' 10th anniversary at the station that features the "CBS News Chicago" branding with "WBBM" in a black box, similar to what the Group W converts and WCCO have.

Interesting. I guess everyone might be getting the call letter treatment, at least temporarily. If so, it would be reminiscent of how CTV handled their standardization. Come to think of it, that might be the branding differentiation between newscasts on KCBS and KCAL.

I like it. I think Scripps is a much more familiar name for people, given both the Spelling Bee and the long history of both newspaper publishing and broadcasting.

4 minutes ago, tvtime07 said:

Newsy was a cool and fresh brand, I think it's more catchy than "Scripps News". 

 

I wonder if Scripps News and Scripps stations will have a unifying brand aka new graphics packages and music coming soon? I mean, they might as well standardize the whole thing. 

As far as graphics go, Newsy>Scripps stations IMO.

3 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

WINK is huddled in the 2nd floor, there until the water recedes then will need to find a new facility.

 

I have a feeling they will need a whole new studio too and a complete rebuild. Can a small independent company afford such?

Sadly, most likely not. In any case, here’s hoping everyone over there stays safe, and that they get back on air ASAP.

This is video from Matt Devitt. The studio’s a goner, and there’s flooding in the newsroom too.

1 hour ago, ATLNewsExpert said:

Well FTV says the set will debut before week's end. Take that as you will

Geez he can’t even get the damn abbreviation right. ANF, Scott. It’s right in front of you. As he loves to say, if you screw up the little things…

According to the station, it will launch the new name “beginning in October,” which starts Saturday. They could opt for a weekend launch if they plan on debuting the new name “before the week is out.”

3 hours ago, ATLNewsExpert said:

And the new set is done, dress rehearsals are being done in between newscasts, what do y'all think about it? 

Taken from a video on Twitter:

 

Not a big fan of the tiny anchor desk or the sponsored weather center. Other than that, it looks really good.

25 minutes ago, CLETVFan said:

I'm not exactly thrilled of the HBO Max/Discovery+ merger into one streaming service.  Business wise, it makes sense.  Content wise, we have to see.  I hope they don't overload on (insert family with multiple kids), "Naked and Afraid" and "My (insert weight) Pound Life."

Unfortunately, that’s what I’m expecting it to be. David Zaslav ran Discovery by pumping out cheaper, non-scripted stuff, and WBD has already been cutting a lot of original productions on HBO Max.

The rumors about a potential sale to Comcast is definitely in speculation territory, but I don’t think it’s as far-fetched as some might think (the DOJ notwithstanding). I wish I had links, but I remember reading articles (from before the completion of the WBD merger) that talked of a potential sale of the company in the future.

18 hours ago, Spintech33 said:

As for the newer faces: Johny Fernandez and Janice Yu (Most recent pick ups in July and August)

Janice Yu: https://abc7ny.com/about/newsteam/janice-yu/

She's from Atlanta worked at the Fox Affiliate.

 

Johny Fernandez: Freelance Reporter - WABC. (No profile)

The new hires have been good imo, and Fernandez seems more confident now than he was when he started. That said…

1 hour ago, RGSJenkins said:

Well, Johny has another career, real estate.

https://www.nestseekers.com/agent/johny-fernandez

…I don’t think he’ll be a full-timer.

14 minutes ago, SoCalLocal said:

“Several sources at the station said it was common knowledge that staffers were concerned about Mester’s temper and what was described as his “disrespectful” behavior to women and had complained to  management.”

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-09-23/ktla-lynette-romero-mark-mester-timeline

“Several sources at the station” could theoretically be the news director, the general manager, the janitor, and maybe a couple of coworkers that didn’t like him.

I understand that people will never publicly attach themselves to these claims, but they’re too hard to independently verify outside of this article. It’s enough to just acknowledge that Mester violated the terms of his employment and he could’ve handled things a bit better. There’s no need to get into character assassination without a real basis.
 

Also, there seem to be zero public mea culpas from management for their end of this situation, which indicates how dismal things are at KTLA right now, regardless of one man’s behavior. And even if Mester’s behavior was as bad as the LA Times article alludes to, that’s also on management for not firing him sooner.

Wow. They actually tore down a decent set only to downgrade. This is like the TV version of demolishing a ranch home only to build a gaudy McMansion. I’m sure all the money they blew on that thing will fix all of their ratings problems. /s

Seriously, they thought they needed to junk a 3 year old set? And they replaced it with the same FX corner garbage they use everywhere else? What a waste. No, it’s not bad enough for viewers to notice or care, but that’s not the point. The point is that there was no need to waste loads money on a new set, especially when it adds nothing that the old set didn’t already have.
 

I remember someone brought up concerns over early HD-era sets being less energy efficient, but as far as I can tell, the now-old set didn’t seem to have that issue. If anything, it wouldn’t surprise me if the new set was less energy efficient than the old one, with all those monitors they’re using. If that’s all Nexstar can come up with in a top-20 market, I don’t have high hopes for what WPIX/KTLA are getting.