Fox O&O's "Retiring Traditional Anchorman"

[Nelson R. 569]

https://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/fox-television-stations-ceo-jack-abernethy-we-are-retiring-the-typical-anchorman_b99998

 

Not sure how I feel about this. Will be interesting. Even though WJZY won't be launching newscasts til January they have already hired two digital journalists, one from Fox News. They have already done some stories and posted them on the Facebook and Twitter pages. They are also using iPads.

 

It also mentions Fox is "looking for more opportunities to acquire stations." Will be interesting if they do purchase more.

[Mrtraveler01 738]

Oh God...I don't like the look of this, this sounds like what WPIX does.

 

This idea sounds just as stupid as that idea they had to report on a story for 5 minutes and then talk to someone for 3 more minutes about the same story. I watched WTTG and WTXF the other day and noticed that, it meant that they covered fewer stories because they talked about the same one for nearly 10 minutes. Watching those newscasts seem to be a waste of time anymore.

 

Usually Fox O&O's have decent newscasts but for some reason they always want to experiment with ridiculous concepts like this.

[sanewsguy 511]

Kudos to Fox for experimenting with this. They are helping keep TV news relevant. The idea of anchorman sitting in front of a background reading somebody else's writing with a co-anchor is somewhat dated. I think anchors should also report (in order to justify their ridiculous salary) and so good that Fox is doing this.

[Mrtraveler01 738]

"Abernethy also cited “Chasing New Jersey” as an example, saying the launch of the WWOR show — which replaced the station’s only newscast — was because it’s “easier to start from scratch at times than waiting to evolve.”

“It replaces a traditional newscast, uses new technology in a fast-paced, cost-effective environment that can best be described as TMZ for local news,” Abernethy said. “We are located in Trenton, the state capital, and we are fortunate to be focusing on Jersey at a great time with Chris Christie and Cory Booker in the national spotlight.”"

 

I've seen a few clips of Chasing New Jersey and it's pretty much TMZ set in New Jersey and produced by a high school/college level AV class. It's pretty terrible and unprofessional looking. Here are some examples if you want to see it for yourself.

 

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/07/chasing_new_jer.php

 

I really hope to God they don't expand on this concept without doing some heavy-duty tweaking first.

[sanewsguy 511]

 

I've seen a few clips of Chasing New Jersey and it's pretty much TMZ set in New Jersey and produced by a high school/college level AV class. It's pretty terrible and unprofessional looking. Here are some examples if you want to see it for yourself.

 

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/07/chasing_new_jer.php

 

I really hope to God they don't expand on this concept without doing some heavy-duty tweaking first.

 

Is it TMZ set in New Jersey? Absolutely. Is it professional? Yes. It may not be some guy sitting at a desk in front of a city skyline reading somebody else's writing. I think that's a good thing. As much as I love the news, I have a short attention span which is why I don't really sit past the A and B blocks. But Chasing New Jersey is interesting. They have a lot of fresh young people reporting which is good. The format may be TMZ like but the content certainly is. Chasing New Jersey is so much better than what it replaced. It has a lot of REAL news, just not in a traditional style. If you don't like Chasing New Jersey don't watch it. You can watch NJTV and get bored to death instead.

[24994J 5585]

I would welcome something like the Chasing NJ concept spreading to other stations, but as a companion broadcast. At this point in time, it is not something that can/should effectively replace the traditional newscasts. In 5 years? Who knows, but just not right now.

[Thundershock MN 169]

Whoa, how did this turn into Fox is replacing the Anchorman with MMJ's? All Jack Abernethy was saying is going forward they want people that can wear multiple hats. So, your anchors are no longer just going to be simply news readers. They will be expected to do some reporting for example. sanewsguy brought this up in the third post of this thread. By de-emphasizing the anchor I kinda get the impression they are also doing (either directly or indirectly) what ESPN did in mid/late 90's. Once Dan Patrick & Keith Olbermann became bigger than the "Sports Center" brand they made it a point to not allow anyone in the future to rise to that level. Instead they have been relying on a revolving cast of characters.

 

For Example, KMSP's Tom Lyden has seemingly added anchor duties to his investigative reporter role. Last fall they made him a co-anchor of their short-lived 6pm newscast. It was started to take advantage of the run up to the 2012 election (like they did in 2010) however, this newscast branched out from just politics (unlike the 2010 version) to include news and ran for awhile past the election (unlike the 2010 version.) The same thing happened to their weekend sports anchor, Dawn Mitchell, with her also adding on news anchoring to her duties. This is what Fox is looking for, folks versed in more then one thing. This is coupled with KMSP's 5pm newscast now seemingly using somewhat of a revolving cast. Since it's relaunch a few years ago it evolved from using a 4 person team paired with a meteorologist. Usually, this was the three main anchors plus, one of the aforementioned Lyden, Mitchell or weekend anchor Tim Blotz. Lately, it's become a random 3 person team selected from those 6-7 people who are rotated in the chairs. Now, some of this might have to do with vacation days being used and more recently Heidi Collins' departure. And, Some of this has to do with their scheduling, too. They have Randy Meier on a Monday-Friday schedule while Jeff Passolt is on a Sunday-Thursday schedule. So, you are bound to have a bit of a mix and match cast. But, this has been on going for a well over a year now. I can't help but think this is what Jack Abernethy was talking about and where FTSG is headed.

 

WRT, to the non-traditional newscast models. As I mentioned here (with some minor execeptions) I believe this is the direction they are headed with on the MNT O&O's. Pretty sure KCOP was the last remaining MNT O&O w/ a traditional newscast. And, that is now cancelled. WWOR is running the already mentioned "Chasing New Jersey". And WFTC is now running the non-traditional "On the Fly" that is co-hosted by another one of those "multi-skilled personalities and journalists", KMSP's Kelsey Soby. Connecting the dots it isn't hard to figure out the potential future strategy.