nycnewsjunkie

False. WRAZ simulcasts with WRAL at 4pm. Once again, simulcasting exists in the year 2022. The concept of 2 stations running the same newscast has been in place for at least 20 years. There is no written or unwritten rule that forbids something from happening just because some people don’t like it. There will be no mass affiliation changes if both NBC and Fox stations run 10pm news. There will be no volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, or tsunamis as a result of NBC and Fox stations running 10pm news. The state of Hawaii has not sunk into the Pacific Ocean just because KGMB/KHNL already simulcast their late news. Stations are not going to blow up their affiliation agreements just because some of us don’t like the idea of a 10pm simulcast.

They “sacrificed the network” when the TV industry became creatively bankrupt in the 2000s. You may not like it, but most TV shows are not all that relevant. NBC is not the only network that is “so desperate” to prioritize streaming, and no company in their right mind would ignore today’s trends and pretend that we live in the 1990s.

And CTV botched even that up. First they stated that he took leave to “spend time with family,” then they said it was pending a “workplace review.” That being said, even if Melling ends up leaving, this will change absolutely nothing at Bell Media. Melling is only one cog in the machine; he was put in this position because his managerial style is exactly what Bell wanted. Besides, the decision to fire LaFlamme was not something that only Melling could execute; it had to be approved by the top brass at Bell. Bell can conduct all of the “independent workplace reviews of the newsroom” it wants. What they apparently still don’t realize is that the newsroom doesn’t need a review; the executives do.

The New York Post originally ran with the story, along with the story about staffers being asked to promote Cuomo’s show. I know, it’s a daily rag and it’s not always reliable, but I suppose it’s better than RadarOnline.

One would be naive to think that station owners aren’t already greedy. Why do you think stations have news at 3pm now? Also, you’re focused on ratings when the driving factor (for the local affiliates, at least) is ad revenue. As many have pointed out many times now, local ad revenue is just as important to stations as ratings. I’m not saying that news expansion is a good thing from a creative/journalistic point of view (I hate it as much as the next person), but it makes sense from a business standpoint. And why the heck would NBC care what Fox thinks? Is there a rule that prevents NBC from upsetting Fox? If NBC can take away viewers from Fox stations at 10pm, all the more reason to do it.

Thing is, why would NBC and their stations care? If anything, they would want to take away from Fox’s prime time news audience. Besides, there’s no guarantee of it being a blow to every Fox station either (see: KTVU, WTVT, KDFW), and more local news competition can’t be too much of a bad thing, even if it is just a sign of less creativity in the TV business. This lack of creativity isn’t anything new either. I remember when NBC programmed Deal or No Deal 5 nights a week. They practically squeezed the life out of that show with how often it was on. Same could be said for Millionaire in the early-2000s. I wish TV hadn’t gone through such a creative slump over the past 2 decades, but a lot of that creativity has moved over to Amazon, Netflix, and Disney+. Peacock is way behind the game when it comes to streaming (if you want proof, look at some of the movies they have on there). NBC needs to do what it can to make it more lucrative. Besides, the local stations would prefer local news over yet another Dick Wolf series or Dateline rerun. What “decision” do they have to make? Just simulcast the damn thing. The stations would be more than grateful for the extra ad revenue.

IIRC, ESPN will have flex scheduling (along with NBC) in the new rights deal, so they’ll be more than fine. Amazon needed Al Michaels (and Fred Gaudelli) more than ESPN because ESPN already has the draw of (reasonably) important games on a well-established platform. Amazon needed to establish credibility and get eyeballs on a platform NFL a viewers aren’t yet accustomed to; they couldn’t afford to experiment when it comes to the booth and game production. ESPN has Buck and Aikman, who aren’t my absolute favorites, but they don’t put me off to the point where I won’t watch the game at all. They’re established, and that’s all ESPN needed. Besides, I’ll take it over Jason Witten and the Booger-mobile (God help us).

…in the 1990s.

It’s a bit ironic that NBC is the first traditional “Big Three” network that is rumored to want to do this. Ed Ansin must be smiling from the Great Beyond and thinking, “I told you so.” This move would make sense for both sides. The networks see streaming as their most important commodity, while the affiliates view local news in the same regard due to the ad revenue. The networks can focus on their OTT platforms, while the local affiliates can focus on pumping out more local content.

Here’s the thing: don’t take these statements as meaning much. Those companies are merely taking advantage of the trending story of the moment in Canada. It comes across as desperate, disingenuous, and as a Canadian retail analyst said, “opportunistic.” There are few things I hate more than faceless corporate entities trying to show off how “socially conscious” they are when they don’t actually give a crap (see also: #BellLetsTalk). Besides, the issue of gray hair is a bit of a red herring here. Lisa wasn’t fired just because she had gray hair. She was fired because of egotistical executives, the fact that she was willing to stand up to management in the face of cost-cutting, her higher salary, and the fact that Bell already operated on a philosophy of cutting their way to the top. Her hair was certainly not a non-factor, but to say that hair was the main issue is missing the forest for the trees. These major brands know that, but are capitalizing on the situation anyway. Of course, Bell could get away with firing Dan O’Toole, Natasha Staniszewski, and a slew of local news personalities. They aren’t getting away with firing the top anchor in the country. That said, the fact that these companies are willing to risk losing ad space on Bell’s platforms certainly speaks volumes on both the state of Bell Media and how horrific a miscalculation this was on the part of Bell’s top executives.

To be fair, the matchups don’t stink as much as they used to. Ravens v. Bucs, Titans v. Packers, and Bills v. Patriots are pretty good gets for Thursday Night Football. Even in weeks where the teams aren’t as strong, hopefully they’ll at least be more competitive than last night’s preseason game. But yes, you can thank Fred Gaudelli for the excellent production quality. IMO, last night’s game was produced better than any football game I’ve seen on Fox or ESPN in recent years. And that game was just a preseason blowout. Also, the entire game is available to replay on Prime Video. I’m not sure how long games will be available for, but that feature gives Prime an edge right off the bat. Come to think of it, I wonder if we should start an “NFL on Prime” thread?

None of this addresses the point I was making. I didn’t say stations shouldn’t use social media; in fact, I explicitly said stations can (and should) use TikTok as an information platform. Stations have news gathering resources and credibility that the average content creator will never have, while TikTok has the platform to deliver that info to younger audiences. The problem isn’t that journalists are on TikTok; it’s how they use TikTok. That was my whole point. FTVLive has a post on this story today. I don’t agree with Scott Jones all the time, but he nails it here. How are cringe TikTok posts bringing in viewership? They aren’t even bringing in that many views on TikTok. Mary Ours’ 22k followers might sound impressive, but it doesn’t really count for much on TikTok when your competition is a deli owner with 3.3 million followers and much better content. The ironic thing is, these posts from news anchors aren’t even reaching the right demographic! Look at the comments on those three links I embedded. They’re mostly from older people who already watch news on TV. I still maintain that the Post-Gazette article was piss poor. You mean to say that in two weeks time, someone who reports on the media couldn’t reach out to other journalists for opinions on the subject? This isn’t an exploration into the debate over how local media should utilize social media; it’s an ad.

Given the unprecedented blowback, I wouldn’t say that they don’t care at all. On the contrary, they care a lot, given that their ratings are about to plummet (if they haven’t already done so). Even I thought the story would fizzle out by now, but it hasn’t. An editorial from The Globe and Mail puts it best: They know they screwed up, but they can’t do anything about it because it would only further tarnish the reputations of the top executives at Bell Media. They’re probably hoping and praying this blows over before Sachedina takes over. I don’t think it will.

As someone in the younger demographic who occasionally watches TikTok and has friends who frequently watch TikTok, perhaps I can offer some perspective, for whatever it’s worth. First, with all due respect, that was not a “great piece” at all; on the contrary, it was a puffy advertorial for KDKA, their news director, and some of their talent. A great piece on the news business’ use of social media would’ve also sought the opinions of journalists (young and old) who don’t agree with the notion of “I’ll dance until I die” when the entire industry is facing a credibility crisis. They also would’ve sought after the opinions of the viewers they’re supposedly catering to. Not to mention, Bob Pompeani going on TikTok might be the most “how do you do fellow kids” thing I’ve heard in a long time. Second, when I go on TikTok, I usually watch for funny short videos, food-related stuff, sports highlights, a new workout routine, and the occasional fun fact about NYC, where I live. My friends, who use it more frequently and are not news junkies, watch a lot of the same stuff and watch some dance videos as well. We all recognize it as mindless entertainment for when you need a break. The point is, NONE of us watch TikTok to get informed. I don’t know a single person who actually watches it to see Mary Ours or [Insert News Personality Here] do a dance routine. Even if we take journalism out of the picture, a news anchor dancing in the studio isn’t stuff that appeals to us. This is a 50+ year-old GM/news director’s IDEA of what appeals to us. That’s not to say that I think TV news shouldn’t have a social media presence; on the contrary, stations can easily use TikTok for short-form reporting and quick summaries of important stories. But that’s not what KDKA and other stations are using it for. They’re taking the potential they have with a popular platform like TikTok and using it exclusively for bull$h!t. Stations aren’t going to win our trust and attention by doing what other content creators do and throwing journalism out the window. They will only do so by meeting us where we are and adapting journalism to the platform while not sacrificing it whole. Having news anchors do what Addison Rae already does will not yield either viewership or credibility. That’s my humble $0.02 (adjusted for inflation; it isn’t really worth that much tbh).

According to SBJ, this was a one-off transaction due to “an aggressive and willing buyer,” and it isn’t necessarily a harbinger for the sale of other NBC RSNs. Monumental reportedly plans to merge NBCS Washington with their existing streaming service.

The set looks good (especially for a market this size), but I’m not really a fan of the random faux brick pillar in the middle either. WJZY has a better execution of this set IMO.

I mean, these particular talent opens aren’t going to be around for very long anyway, so this is much ado about nothing imo.

They don’t look that far off from the “NOW” and CBS News streaming graphics, and they look to be using the new CBS font, so it seems plausible. They’re only 2ish weeks away from debuting that newscast, though I imagine they’ll be ironing out any kinks over that period

Damn…when stations are even outdoing WSVN in terms of news hours, you know things have gone crazy. Then again, I suppose this isn’t a new development, so it’s not as shocking as it might have been years ago. SW Florida stations must be raking it in when it comes to ad revenue.

Nice catch! It’s difficult to make out the graphic on the lower left, but the title of the show seems to be “WCCO The 4.” The “WCCO” logo they’re using in the top left of that graphic seems to correspond with this one: EDIT: I also could’ve just read the article first and confirmed the title. I guess that’s what I get for reacting too fast.

I see your point and I understand what you mean now. I don’t know how many similar media critics there are out there, but perhaps it would’ve been better to re-tool Reliable Sources with a new face instead of junking the show entirely. In some ways, I suppose having zero independent media critics on staff at all carries its own set of negative and even dangerous implications, and a “just the headlines” strategy doesn’t have to include dumping media critics entirely.

You must’ve watched a different Brian Stelter than I’ve watched. For nearly its entire run under Stelter and Jeff Zucker, Reliable Sources was a PR machine for CNN disguised as a media analysis program. While they rightfully pointed out instances in which Fox News lacked journalistic ethics, I can’t remember the last time they seriously scrutinized their own network for blatant bias and lapses in judgement. Not to mention, in June the show only averaged 79k in the 25-54 demo. People should’ve seen this move coming from miles away. You mention Ted Turner, but even he mentioned that today’s CNN needed to tone down the opinion. Letting Stelter walk is a start.

It has a little bit of a college football feel with that trap beat on the snares. Nice theme, I could definitely get used to it.

That’s old news, no? Frank stated it himself in January, and it was established when KTVU moved Mike Mibach to the evening/late news in April. He’s been “officially out” for a while now. I’m surprised TVSpy posted this as if it were a new development just because of a Facebook update.

I had no idea that was even a feature. Good on YouTube for making it available. People don’t like losing their local announcers on national games, so this eases that loss a lot.