WCBS - CBS2 News

[GraphicsMan 109]

18 minutes ago, MisterBill said:

 

That seems crazy to me. They're salaried employees. It's not like they're paid by the hour. Do you think they get compensatory time off when there's a major news event and they need to be on the air for extra hours or anchor on the weekend after a big event? Wouldn't only freelance reporters by paid hourly? Certainly not their main anchors.

 

I can't speak for Maurice and Christine, but I can tell you that reporters like Jenna DeAngelis and Lisa Rozner post on IG and always seem to be thrilled when they do the hourly CBS Newsbreak segments on the weekend. I doubt it's because they get a day off during the week for doing it (if they do at all) or get paid extra for working overtime. Seems like they like the exposure.

 

Yeah becasue its almost impossible to get a network job, especially if you want to go local to national from the New York market, almost every person I've talked to either turned it down or didn't get picked, so it must be fun occasionally filling in. I was talking to Michelle Charlesworth on Instagram she told me she was offered a network job but turned it down becasue she was afraid she wouldn't see her family. Only journalist I've seen who was in the NY market that got a network job was Weija Jang. And I found out Marci Gonzales worked at channel 7 before going to ABC News. And ofc Sam Champion went to GMA. Besides that they just  seem to be uninterested.

Edited June 2, 2024 by GraphicsMan

[C Block 1566]

25 minutes ago, MisterBill said:

 

That seems crazy to me. They're salaried employees. It's not like they're paid by the hour. Do you think they get compensatory time off when there's a major news event and they need to be on the air for extra hours or anchor on the weekend after a big event? Wouldn't only freelance reporters by paid hourly? Certainly not their main anchors.

 

I can't speak for Maurice and Christine, but I can tell you that reporters like Jenna DeAngelis and Lisa Rozner post on IG and always seem to be thrilled when they do the hourly CBS Newsbreak segments on the weekend. I doubt it's because they get a day off during the week for doing it (if they do at all) or get paid extra for working overtime. Seems like they like the exposure.

 

I don't get what's crazy about that. Comp days for working additional days as a salaried employee is pretty standard. I'm salaried. If I work an additional day, I get a comp day to use either in that pay period or in the future. My paycheck doesn't change. Working late or long hours because of breaking news or elections is one thing – everybody more or less expects that. But I can tell you that people are not coming in on their days off to do extra work for whatever reason without getting compensated for it at all.

 

There are all kinds of work agreements out there. It's hard to know the exact details of anyone's agreement if you don't at least work for the same company. I do know of full-time on-air staff in big markets who are paid hourly. I don't think I've ever heard of an anchor in a big market who isn't salaried, but it's possible that there may be some out there. 

 

The point is that people like Maurice and Kristine aren't coming in on their days off to do network news just for the exposure and without anything in return. They are, at minimum, getting paid like it's any other day of work for them. I would imagine they have smart agents who ensure their contracts state that they might get paid a little bonus for doing network anchoring, but I can't be sure of that.

[carolinanews4 376]

On 5/25/2024 at 6:33 PM, GraphicsMan said:

Do anchors like Kristine Johnson who anchoring this Saturday broadcast and Maurice Dubios do they get paid for filling-in or part timing. I know they can’t be doing that for free, spending time away from their family and traveling and making no dough.

 

Everyone is compensated. No work happens for free. Having not worked there, I can't speak specifically to CBS. But I know when WNBC talent filled in on the network (either news or sports) they were paid as a freelancer. Typically a day rate. Don't get hung up on the name freelancer. They aren't an outside freelancer in a traditional sense, but they aren't network on-air talent. They are employees of the local station. 

 

There are also union rules and talent contracts to take into account. First, union rules differ by shop but it is highly unlikely that any union would permit a member to do additional work for something as arbitrary as an "extra day off" or "national exposure". The reason? The networks could begin to staff positions by offering national exposure. This isn't a work-study internship. I mention contracts because some local talent might be able to negotiate the inclusion of some national hits into their contract. But again, they would be paid for this work. 

 

Opportunities for local news talent to fill in at the network have slowly evaporated. WNBC talent occasionally appeared on the now-defunct "NBC News at this Hour" updates and filled in as the newsreader on TODAY. The newsreader position no longer exists in the same form. And when Craig is out, one of the other TODAY personalities fills in. Same at ABC as both shows have large "enable" casts compared to the past. The biggest opportunity for network fill-in work is weather-related. CBS doesn't have a network weather staff like NBC and ABC, so they lean on their local meteorologists regularly. 

 

Long way to say, every person is PAID. Heck, every guest on a talk show is paid. When Chuck Scarborough recently appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show, he was paid. 

[MediaZone4K 2158]

Stepping outside the specific issue--- working for free is a common expectation in newsrooms. News directors fully expect their reporters to come in with pre-vetted developed enterprised pitches EVERY DAY even though they may not have time on the back end of their shift to do so.

 

How can this be accomplished?

 

I worked in a newsroom where the news director basically told reporters "I'm not asking you to work for free, but it does help to be following the news , browsing for stories, and making calls on your off time."

 

Those things may help but when we speak about work-life balance I don't think that's really what you want to be doing after an 8 to 10 hour work day.

Edited June 15, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[NYNewsCoverage 300]

Believe it or not it has almost been a year since Elise's sudden passing. With that in mind, it does seem like John is permanent on weekday mornings (with Tony) since there are promos with them; and just within the last week, Craig Allen was officially added as a bio on the website so I would say he is a permanent member of the weather team. His bio hasn't been officially added but there is a placeholder for him: https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/cbs2/

 

There's still no bio for Elaine Quijano and Andrea Grymes is still listed, although she hasn't been seen on-air since her demotion in February.

[mooneyhill1 11]

I'm glad Craig Allen is a permanent weathercaster for WCBS-TV's weekend morning newscast, while John Elliott is a permanent weathercaster (along with Tony Sadiku) for WCBS-TV's weekday morning newscast.  So that means Elaine Quijano is Doug Williams' co-anchor for the WCBS=TV weekend morning newscast.

[NYNewsCoverage 300]

Similar to WABC, Ashton Altieri from CBS Denver is filling in for Lonnie tonight.

[GraphicsMan 109]

4 hours ago, NYNewsCoverage said:

Similar to WABC, Ashton Altieri from CBS Denver is filling in for Lonnie tonight.

Virtual or in person?

[NYNewsCoverage 300]

21 hours ago, GraphicsMan said:

Virtual or in person?

He was in person

[NYNewsCoverage 300]

One of those rare days where Mary Calvi appeared at 5pm, alongside Jessica Moore (in for Maurice and Kristine).

[MediaZone4K 2158]

Minor observation: Since the rebrand, WCBS and the other O&Os have are having their reporters use stick mics less and going for the lav chest mics more---much like the national correspondents do.

 

From a production stand up why have national newscasts traditionally opted for a more hands free look during stand up shots?

Edited July 14, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[MediaZone4K 2158]

More national screen time for Maurice DuBois. He assumed coverage from Margaret Brennan at about 12:20ish AM ET during wall to wall coverage of the Trump assassination attempt. CBS was the first network to stop coverage at 12:30 AM ET.

He came in on Saturday to anchor WCBS' 11:00 news aswell

Edited July 14, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[NowBergen 679]

6 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

More national screen time for Maurice DuBois. He assumed coverage from Margaret Brennan at about 12:20ish AM ET during wall to wall coverage of the Trump assassination attempt. CBS was the first network to stop coverage at 12:30 AM ET.

He came in on Saturday to anchor WCBS' 11:00 news aswell

 

Where was CBS's lead anchor?  The other networks quickly brought in their lead anchors quickly.  They also used other well known network anchors or correspondents for the late night coverage.  It begs lots of CBS News questions.

[MediaZone4K 2158]

9 minutes ago, NowBergen said:

 

Where was CBS's lead anchor?  The other networks quickly brought in their lead anchors quickly.  They also used other well known network anchors or correspondents for the late night coverage.  It begs lots of CBS News questions.

To be fair, David Muir was not on ABC either, Whit Johnson lead coverage.

 

CBS did have Margaret Brennan leading coverage who should be considered a familiar face.

 

None of MSNBC's ususal commentators came in, the network simulcast regular NBC. 

 

It's always interesting to see how networks handle major breaking coverage on the weekend. So many factors like off times (and summer vacations) play in. 

Edited July 14, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[NYNewsCoverage 300]

Kristine Johnson joined Jessica Moore for the 11pm tonight

[TheNewsTV 251]

8 hours ago, NYNewsCoverage said:

Kristine Johnson joined Jessica Moore for the 11pm tonight

And at WABC we had David Navarro and Sandra Bookman. Only WNBC didn't bring their main anchors to the late news.

[24994J 5552]

Do we need to document other stations' line-ups in the thread of another, when one of those line-ups was already mentioned in that respective stations thread?

 

Nah

[Dave Lampstein 98]

4 hours ago, 24994J said:

Do we need to document other stations' line-ups in the thread of another, when one of those line-ups was already mentioned in that respective stations thread?

 

Nah

Is any of this even worth documenting?

 

Nah

[MediaZone4K 2158]

5 hours ago, Dave Lampstein said:

Is any of this even worth documenting?

 

Nah

The novelty of main anchors being on sunday for a major historical event is certainly worth a note. Keeping talk of other stations in their respective threads is a fair call. 

 

BUT To be fair, Now Bergen asked where CBS's main anchors were which drew comparisons to other stations for a context based response to their answer.

Edited July 15, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[MediaZone4K 2158]

I like the corporate synergy and national FaceTime that Maurice and Kristine are getting. Kristine lead initial coverage of Biden dropping out of the election, and hate being a Maurice spammer but he did a segment for BET. 

 

Edited July 22, 2024 by MediaZone4K

[MisterBill 99]

Maurice and Kristine are in at 11pm or the breaking news coverage.

 

Kristine just shared that she was working at the network this afternoon when the news broke and went on the air within minutes of the announcement.

Edited July 22, 2024 by MisterBill

[MisterBill 99]

On 7/15/2024 at 7:58 AM, TheNewsTV said:

And at WABC we had David Navarro and Sandra Bookman. Only WNBC didn't bring their main anchors to the late news.

 

And WNBC did it again this week. Same for MSNBC, they had their weekend people. WABC brought in Bill and Sade for the 11pm news.

Edited July 22, 2024 by MisterBill

[Jman7885 64]

14 minutes ago, MisterBill said:

 

And WNBC did it again this week. Same for MSNBC, they had their weekend people. WABC brought in Bill and Sade for the 11pm news.

What’s wrong with the weekend people?

[NYNewsCoverage 300]

There can be an argument made for both cases. The argument in favor of bringing in the A team is that more people will be tuning into the news than usual on a Sunday, so the station wishes to highlight the main team (in this case Kristine/Maurice and Bill/Sade) as opposed to its weekend team. 

On the other hand, it can be a bit dramatic and unnecessary for stations to go out of their way to bring in a main anchor (like having Mike Marza come in when Joe and Tonya could've handled it just fine, same with bringing in Kristine and Maurice as opposed to Jessica Moore). 

I think WPIX handled it well at 10pm, Kaity anchored solo as usual but Dan was brought in not as coanchor, but as contributor to handle live interviews. 

 

[MediaZone4K 2158]

Weekend teams are fine. I suppose station thinking is that bringing in a primary anchor like Maurice on the weekend signals urgency and importance to viewers.

 

Similarly, on the national level, Kristine is a capable anchor but Norah was brought in eventually so the leading face of the network could be with viewers through this big story. Having Norah (and Lester and David) in on a Sunday signals that the situation is huge.

 

Anywho...back to WCBS before the admins come.

Edited July 23, 2024 by MediaZone4K