Scripps to launch national/local 4PM live program this fall

[A3N 996]

 

I hate bumping old threads. But, the discussion going on in the couple active Scripps threads made me realize there hasn't been much new provided here.

 

First, It looks like Scripps is spreading the "Hub" love around. As KMGH in Denver will house the new National News Desk. And, in turn the new Scripps 4pm National Newscast will be based there. They are still looking for National Co-Hosts.

 

Second, The newscast is being described in their job postings as an "This innovative news program, targeted at our 4pm audience, is a high-energy, up to the minute, interactive news experience. Through the power of social media and new technology, the audience weighs in and is involved in the show, real-time." So, take that for what it's worth.

 

Finally, It appears not all Scripps stations will be getting this "4pm National Newscast." The initial rollout currently looks limited to 8 stations: WCPO, WEWS, WPTV, WFTS, WXYZ, KSHB, KMGH & KNXV. It's a little weird they completely omit the Pacific Time Zone. The two national Supervising Producers are divided by time zones, one for ET the other for CT/MT. Not knowing the KMGH facilities I'm unsure if they have multiple studios and/or multiple control rooms. So, my first thought was that since they want to air this live at 4pm local in all time zones that KMGH's newscast at 5pm must interfere with producing a PT version. But, then I can't rectify KNXV being an hour behind Denver 3/4 of the year due to Arizona's non-DST observance. So, IDK maybe KMGH moves their 5pm newscast to 6pm (with "The List" airing at 5pm) in order to clear a live PT version? Or, KNXV will air the "4pm national newscast" at 3pm locally? Although, If KMGH has (or, will have) multiple studios and/or multiple control rooms then it's really a moot point.

 

It appears as though this is going to be some sort of hybrid national/local newscast ultimately under the control of the National Executive Producer. Scripps is also hiring for Senior Local Producers for this "4pm National Newscast" at each of the stations the and from the job posting(s) seem to have the task of acting as a bridge of sorts. They get to coordinate the local teams efforts with the national producers. It's a different concept. And, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

And, just for completeness it looks like "The List" will be expanding to WXYZ/ Detroit, WRTV/ Indianapolis & KMGH/ Denver. As they are looking for Photographer/MMJ's, Reporter/MMJ's and Supervisor/Bureau Producers for those markets.

 

They only have two stations in the Pacific Time Zone (KGTV and KERO). It's interesting that KGTV will not be airing this new show, I wonder why. Maybe KGTV jumps into the 4pm news bandwagon on their own and provides some content to KERO?

[MidwestTV 1173]

"It's a one-of-a-kind broadcast that connects viewers with minute-by-minute social media interactions and plugs in to trending topics that have both national and local impact. We're looking for broadcast producers that LOVE social media..."

 

Oh GOD. Not only was that one of the corniest, least professional recruiting videos I've ever seen, it was also awkward as hell. It almost sounds like Right This Minute being taken to the extreme.

 

This makes me think that it's going to bomb and fail miserably, especially if they plan to integrate social media as much as they plan to. I can tell you one thing for sure: social media-focused newscasts have been tried in Kansas City twice by two different stations and both of them have failed.

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

"It's a one-of-a-kind broadcast that connects viewers with minute-by-minute social media interactions and plugs in to trending topics that have both national and local impact. We're looking for broadcast producers that LOVE social media..."

 

Oh GOD. Not only was that one of the corniest, least professional recruiting videos I've ever seen, it was also awkward as hell. It almost sounds like Right This Minute being taken to the extreme.

 

This makes me think that it's going to bomb and fail miserably, especially if they plan to integrate social media as much as they plan to. I can tell you one thing for sure: social media-focused newscasts have been tried in Kansas City twice by two different stations and both of them have failed.

 

I know KMBC tried it with little/no luck, but what was the other station?

 

And if WFTS is going to replace Ellen with this as their lead-in to their 5PM newscast, they're making a huge mistake.

[tyrannical bastard 3464]

Scripps is embarking on a path of self-destruction similar to that of Advance/Newhouse. Instead of cutting print days to 3 days a week and focusing on their horrible websites that mangle the news of the day, they're handing off successful syndicated shows to their competition on a silver platter that "cost too much" for "exclusive" shows that NO ONE WATCHES.

 

The only way I see this idea working is if it takes the "PM/Evening magazine" route with LOCAL hosts and LOCAL content with filler provided by each station in the group. A "one size fits all" approach is doomed to fail and will be crushed by "Judge Judy", "Ellen", "Dr. Oz", or any local newscast that airs against it.

[kcnewsjunky 14]

If the set is just KMGH's set this will NOT LAST

[MidwestTV 1173]

 

I know KMBC tried it with little/no luck, but what was the other station?

 

It was the original premise behind KSHB's then 4:30pm newscast (before they expanded it to 4 and dropped the social media attempt), but KMBC took it to a totally different extreme.

 

Long story short, social media-focused and driven newscasts just don't work. I haven't see one example of it actually being remotely acceptably successful. It annoys the majority of viewers, so why does everyone feel the need to keep trying and do it?

[NEOMatrix 1295]

It was the original premise behind KSHB's then 4:30pm newscast (before they expanded it to 4 and dropped the social media attempt), but KMBC took it to a totally different extreme.

 

Long story short, social media-focused and driven newscasts just don't work. I haven't see one example of it actually being remotely acceptably successful. It annoys the majority of viewers, so why does everyone feel the need to keep trying and do it?

I honestly think the reason why some stations attempt to do social media news is to get younger viewers in to watch because let's face it, the average age of a news viewer is skewing older and older. I, as a 20-year old, think that this is an insult to all of us technically inclined viewers. To me, just give me the news, weather, and sports CORRECTLY without anything from Twitter and we will be square.

[Rusty Muck 4167]

I hate bumping old threads. But, the discussion going on in the couple active Scripps threads made me realize there hasn't been much new provided here.

 

First, It looks like Scripps is spreading the "Hub" love around. As KMGH in Denver will house the new National News Desk. And, in turn the new Scripps 4pm National Newscast will be based there. They are still looking for National Co-Hosts.

 

Second, The newscast is being described in their job postings as an "This innovative news program, targeted at our 4pm audience, is a high-energy, up to the minute, interactive news experience. Through the power of social media and new technology, the audience weighs in and is involved in the show, real-time." So, take that for what it's worth.

 

Finally, It appears not all Scripps stations will be getting this "4pm National Newscast." The initial rollout currently looks limited to 8 stations: WCPO, WEWS, WPTV, WFTS, WXYZ, KSHB, KMGH & KNXV. It's a little weird they completely omit the Pacific Time Zone. The two national Supervising Producers are divided by time zones, one for ET the other for CT/MT. Not knowing the KMGH facilities I'm unsure if they have multiple studios and/or multiple control rooms. So, my first thought was that since they want to air this live at 4pm local in all time zones that KMGH's newscast at 5pm must interfere with producing a PT version. But, then I can't rectify KNXV being an hour behind Denver 3/4 of the year due to Arizona's non-DST observance. So, IDK maybe KMGH moves their 5pm newscast to 6pm (with "The List" airing at 5pm) in order to clear a live PT version? Or, KNXV will air the "4pm national newscast" at 3pm locally? Although, If KMGH has (or, will have) multiple studios and/or multiple control rooms then it's really a moot point.

 

It appears as though this is going to be some sort of hybrid national/local newscast ultimately under the control of the National Executive Producer. Scripps is also hiring for Senior Local Producers for this "4pm National Newscast" at each of the stations the and from the job posting(s) seem to have the task of acting as a bridge of sorts. They get to coordinate the local teams efforts with the national producers. It's a different concept. And, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

And, just for completeness it looks like "The List" will be expanding to WXYZ/ Detroit, WRTV/ Indianapolis & KMGH/ Denver. As they are looking for Photographer/MMJ's, Reporter/MMJ's and Supervisor/Bureau Producers for those markets.

I would suspect that, once WKBW is added into the fold, it will pick up both programs rather quickly, too. That station had Granite fumble away WoF and Jeopardy back in 2012.

 

Funny that the WEWS posting refers to the station as "ABC5" and not "NewsChannel 5."

 

WXYZ's pickup of "The List" raises the question: where will it go? Would they be forced to cancel their long-running (and arguably highly successful) 7pm news?

[ns8401 846]

 

Scripps is embarking on a path of self-destruction similar to that of Advance/Newhouse. Instead of cutting print days to 3 days a week and focusing on their horrible websites that mangle the news of the day, they're handing off successful syndicated shows to their competition on a silver platter that "cost too much" for "exclusive" shows that NO ONE WATCHES.

 

The only way I see this idea working is if it takes the "PM/Evening magazine" route with LOCAL hosts and LOCAL content with filler provided by each station in the group. A "one size fits all" approach is doomed to fail and will be crushed by "Judge Judy", "Ellen", "Dr. Oz", or any local newscast that airs against it.

 

In Detroit Dr. Oz leads into our 5pm newscast and the audience goes from 3.1 to 6.2, that's a hell of a jump from the lead in. If they dump Oz for this they better pray it works. As I understand it the 8 stations will contribute news and hosted segments as well as reported ones and the national people will be the glue handling the hand offs between the stations. They may also do guests at the national site.

 

This 4pm thing will go up against "Local 4 News First At 4 / Inside Edition" on WDIV and back to back "Judge Judy's" on WJBK. It would seem to be DOA here.

 

As for WXYZ and RTM and The List:

They do have WMYD to fill with stuff as well so we will probably see some of those shows land there as well, the 7pm news probably will not go away. WMYD has Entertainment Tonight which WXYZ had dumped from the 730 last fall after carrying it since 1989. Maybe they stick it back in at 730 on WXYZ and put LAA on WMYD.

 

Remember they have the vacancy caused by "Katie" to fill as well. They could easily put "The List" and RTM at 3 in Katies old slot and expand their noon newscast back to an hour and keep Lets Ask America at 730 as well. That would be the smart thing to do anyway. That way they have a dedicated 2 hour block of related shows between RTM, The List and this 4pm thing. In theory they could dump "The Doctors" from the 10am and put Oz there if they really wanted to get creative.

 

My biggest fear is that this tanks their ratings for Action News just as it starts to recover from a 5 year slump and show some strength once again. WDIV has been killing WXYZ since the November 2009 book.

[Rusty Muck 4167]

WEWS scooted Dr. Oz to the 10am hour early last year, so a similar move by WXYZ wouldn't be out of the question.

 

One of my friends on the RadioInsight Cleveland board posted recently that, per a mention on a WEWS newscast, they acquired the rights to Steve Harvey's show for this fall. Which shocks the heck out of me... and almost sounds way too good to be true. I thought Scripps wasn't into acquiring any more syndicated shows by outside producers, period.

[tyrannical bastard 3464]

WEWS's move of Dr. Oz is a head scratcher. It must have been clobbered in the ratings by Ellen on WKYC and the newscasts on WJW and WOIO at 4pm. WJW bumped longtime 4pm mainstay Judge Judy to 3pm in order to start their 4pm show back in July of this past year.

 

At least WEWS got the Ohio Lottery drawings back....too bad they're crammed in between the crummy Scripps game shows instead of Wheel and Jeopardy!

 

As screwed up as WKBW is and the work it's going to take to make it a respectable station again, Scripps has been in total control of WEWS since they signed on in 1947 and has successfully run this once-proud station into the ground.

 

Some of the blame goes to WOIO and WKYC surging in the ratings, but WEWS has made a lot of mistakes, including their botched relaunch in 2004 (sans Circle 5 of ANY kind) which vaulted the station into 4th place in some timeslots

and chased away many longtime viewers when they sent Wheel and Jeopardy packing to WOIO. There's not been any act waiting in the wings to restore the station to its former glory.

[ns8401 846]

 

WEWS scooted Dr. Oz to the 10am hour early last year, so a similar move by WXYZ wouldn't be out of the question.

 

One of my friends on the RadioInsight Cleveland board posted recently that, per a mention on a WEWS newscast, they acquired the rights to Steve Harvey's show for this fall. Which shocks the heck out of me... and almost sounds way too good to be true. I thought Scripps wasn't into acquiring any more syndicated shows by outside producers, period.

 

TB: Ellen would easily clobber Dr. Oz, Ellen is a stronger show. News at 4 is usually a winning thing and I think only shows like Judge Judy and Ellen can compete with it. Even here Judge Judy, the #1 syndicated show in America gets doubled up by the WDIV 4pm news and Inside Edition combo. Something like 7.9 - 4.2, people apparently respond to more news or are dying for more after having to wait the whole afternoon.

 

That is the way it has seemed to me as well. WEWS getting Steve Harvey sounds like some insurance and that they may not have full confidence in their products. It's very very risky to try this in-house syndication thing with small market executives and personnel at the helm. They are attempting to drop it in markets big enough that it will be laughed off the screen just because the people in charge are not knowledgeable enough to know how to tailor it for the large markets. If they could do this correctly they could wow the small ones with incredible quality they don't normally see and win in the big ones. The people they have been hiring lately (St. Louis and OKC ND's) as executives are unknowns and are probably not familiar with major market strategies.

 

RTM has been successful because it is a 3 station group show with support from MGM that landed it on FOX and HLN. So Scripps is only one small player in an expanding pie. LAA is a dud and I don't expect much from the list or the 4pm thing. Their stuff is either going to fail miserably and they'll backtrack in a hurry or they are going to get bought and all this stuff will be scrapped outright. None of it will last long term. Their executives have always said "We know ratings will be low for a while for our shows", that isn't much comfort from somebody pushing his own shows. It's too bad SNI and EW Scripps were split up, things seemed better before the split, but they said the two parts of the company were stepping on each others toes somehow. I never really understood how when other companies run multiple businesses without huge problems.

[MidwestTV 1173]

My biggest fear is that this tanks their ratings for Action News just as it starts to recover from a 5 year slump and show some strength once again. WDIV has been killing WXYZ since the November 2009 book.

That's something Scripps seems to love to do, hold stations back and make them stumble once they start showing signs of strength, success and recovery.

 

 

I honestly think the reason why some stations attempt to do social media news is to get younger viewers in to watch because let's face it, the average age of a news viewer is skewing older and older. I, as a 20-year old, think that this is an insult to all of us technically inclined viewers. To me, just give me the news, weather, and sports CORRECTLY without anything from Twitter and we will be square.

 

If that's the case, then it's also ironic as despite thinking that young viewers would be interested in all of the technological gizmos because they're always using them, they just want their information straightforward.

[ns8401 846]

 

That's something Scripps seems to love to do, hold stations back and make them stumble once they start showing signs of strength, success and recovery.

 

 

If that's the case, then it's also ironic as despite thinking that young viewers would be interested in all of the technological gizmos because they're always using them, they just want their information straightforward.

 

As to the second point, I'm 24 and my thinking is the same, if I am coming to you to have you tell me something, why in gods name would I want you to have your shows revolve around telling me about things I can happily access on my own when I want to? It's intrusive to me that they want to simply blur the lines between these two mediums and lose the focus on their core product which is TV. It's kind of the same thing with that horrid social media box, I know the website, I know the slogan, please stop having it repeat over and over again and distract from the news I am trying to watch. And then they have the Gaul to make it hot orange so it hurts my eyes. I envy those people in the other markets where it's either red or blue. Best case scenario is no box at all whenever they decide to refresh.

 

I think Scripps may have lost it's way as a company which is very sad, back when WXYZ had more individuality it ran like Scripps didn't exist, then they retired the talent, changed the look and feel and it went to hell and fast.

[tyrannical bastard 3464]

 

 

Funny that the WEWS posting refers to the station as "ABC5" and not "NewsChannel 5."

 

Maybe they're hinting at something. They've been NewsChannel 5 for 24 years now, although they de-branded the non-news portions back in 2008 when the station was in "recovery" mode from their botched relaunch in 2004.

 

ABC5 may not be the smartest thing to try....seeing how ABC is in the toilet now (and played a role in their ratings decline in the 2000s when ABC dipped into 4th for the first time).

 

Cleveland is a VERY stable market that's had to endure some seismic changes over the last decade, mostly out of the retirement of long term personalities like Ted Henry, Wilma Smith and Tim Taylor. Scripps' ideas are the LAST thing WEWS needs now.

[ns8401 846]

 

Maybe they're hinting at something. They've been NewsChannel 5 for 24 years now, although they de-branded the non-news portions back in 2008 when the station was in "recovery" mode from their botched relaunch in 2004.

 

ABC5 may not be the smartest thing to try....seeing how ABC is in the toilet now (and played a role in their ratings decline in the 2000s when ABC dipped into 4th for the first time).

 

Cleveland is a VERY stable market that's had to endure some seismic changes over the last decade, mostly out of the retirement of long term personalities like Ted Henry, Wilma Smith and Tim Taylor. Scripps' ideas are the LAST thing WEWS needs now.

 

This is the WXYZ one:

our ABC affiliate, ABC (WXYZ-7)

I don't exactly know if that means ABC 7 or WXYZ 7 or what. I think it may be that someone in corporate wrote the ad and just doesn't have a clue what they call it. We had a similar thing in an ad that called it "7ABC" which it's not.

[Rusty Muck 4167]

This is the WXYZ one:

our ABC affiliate, ABC (WXYZ-7)

I don't exactly know if that means ABC 7 or WXYZ 7 or what. I think it may be that someone in corporate wrote the ad and just doesn't have a clue what they call it. We had a similar thing in an ad that called it "7ABC" which it's not.

To wit, the WPTV posting also refers to "NBC5" instead of "NewsChannel 5."

 

That being said, the "NewsChannel" brand should be retired (my personal preference for WEWS would be "TV5" and "5 Eyewitness News"), but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

[Rusty Muck 4167]

WEWS's move of Dr. Oz is a head scratcher. It must have been clobbered in the ratings by Ellen on WKYC and the newscasts on WJW and WOIO at 4pm. WJW bumped longtime 4pm mainstay Judge Judy to 3pm in order to start their 4pm show back in July of this past year.

 

At least WEWS got the Ohio Lottery drawings back....too bad they're crammed in between the crummy Scripps game shows instead of Wheel and Jeopardy!

 

As screwed up as WKBW is and the work it's going to take to make it a respectable station again, Scripps has been in total control of WEWS since they signed on in 1947 and has successfully run this once-proud station into the ground.

 

Some of the blame goes to WOIO and WKYC surging in the ratings, but WEWS has made a lot of mistakes, including their botched relaunch in 2004 (sans Circle 5 of ANY kind) which vaulted the station into 4th place in some timeslots

and chased away many longtime viewers when they sent Wheel and Jeopardy packing to WOIO. There's not been any act waiting in the wings to restore the station to its former glory.

 

Part of WEWS' decline was attributed to the group wide ABC deal, where "Morning Exchange" was moved to 9am-11am to clear "GMA." Now mind you, that was their signature show, and a show that spawned not only GMA, but other existing breakfast television programs - local, national and international - copied almost every single aspect of the show. (Why no one at WEWS thought of splitting the show in half and running it from 6a-7a and 9a-10a is beyond me.)

 

Then WJW underwent a drastic rebrand in late 1995 where all aspects of their CBS-era "Newscenter" branding were stripped for "ei8ht... IS... NEWS!" which included a retooling of their entire morning news output into one singular, news-and-talk newscast. That took off like a rocket, and to this day WJW still leads the market in the breakfast television department. (It's worth noting that in that retooling, WJW cancelled "Good Day Cleveland," which was a knockoff of "Morning Exchange" in the 7a-9a timeslot which debuted a bit before their defection to Fox. Moreover, everyone on "Good Day," including hosts Bill Martin and Stephanie Schafer, were retained.)

 

You also had WKYC, which was still trying to break free of the stigma of having been a poorly-run NBC O&O, that hired Romona Robinson after WOIO/WUAB let her go. That station was already in a long journey into respectability, and hiring Romona was a much-needed shot in the arm.

 

Plus WEWS tragically lost Nev Chandler, and then went through succeeding sports anchors in alarming fashion for the next 15 years before finally settling on the Andy Baskin/Mike Cairns/Andre Knott tandem. It's also understandable as to why it took forever for them to replace Ted Henry, but having no set lead anchor team in the 6 and 11 newscasts for well over a year is beyond me.

 

And that's not counting 19 Action News, which has had their 11pm news buoyed almost totally by CBS' strong prime time lineup, regardless of what WOIO runs in that time period.

 

WEWS's decline is multifold and went beyond any cosmetic, personnel or programming changes. That doesn't mean that Scripps should be absolved from blame, because they shouldn't be. But a lot of problems were and are beyond their control.

[NEOMatrix 1295]

Maybe they're hinting at something. They've been NewsChannel 5 for 24 years now, although they de-branded the non-news portions back in 2008 when the station was in "recovery" mode from their botched relaunch in 2004.

 

ABC5 may not be the smartest thing to try....seeing how ABC is in the toilet now (and played a role in their ratings decline in the 2000s when ABC dipped into 4th for the first time).

 

Cleveland is a VERY stable market that's had to endure some seismic changes over the last decade, mostly out of the retirement of long term personalities like Ted Henry, Wilma Smith and Tim Taylor. Scripps' ideas are the LAST thing WEWS needs now.

Honestly, I think that Scripps wants to take a page out of the WOIO playbook and rebrand the non-news stuff as ABC5 and the news NewsChannel 5. It's going to back fire and look very stupid on Scripps' part. Somehow, they're making S!nclair look like good owners.

[MidwestTV 1173]

So is the general consensus here that Scripps is slowly destroying their stations and they may or may not realize it?

[Rusty Muck 4167]

Honestly, I think that Scripps wants to take a page out of the WOIO playbook and rebrand the non-news stuff as ABC5 and the news NewsChannel 5. It's going to back fire and look very stupid on Scripps' part. Somehow, they're making S!nclair look like good owners.

I don't think that will ever happen. If WEWS was to have ever taken the "ABC5" name, it would have happened a decade ago.

 

And it should be noted that the "Channel 5" non-news branding only lasted for less than a year before all aspects of the station became known as "NewsChannel 5" once again.

[ns8401 846]

So is the general consensus here that Scripps is slowly destroying their stations and they may or may not realize it?

Yes and the execs are so small market they probably cannot realize it just through inexperience. The horrific programming says something about the mindset they have of what works but they have markets that are oversized for horrid programming nobody cares about. I am often embarrassed to be seeing the LAA promos for example. I am beginning to think that our armchair quarterbacking is better than their real thing.

[TVIntheDesert 183]

 

Yes and the execs are so small market they probably cannot realize it just through inexperience. The horrific programming says something about the mindset they have of what works but they have markets that are oversized for horrid programming nobody cares about. I am often embarrassed to be seeing the LAA promos for example. I am beginning to think that our armchair quarterbacking is better than their real thing.

 

The programming execs for Scripps operate out of KNXV. Sure, Phoenix is a big market, but the stations here act medium-sized. I was scratching my head when KNXV made a programming shuffle last month swapping around "RTM," "The List," and "LAA." Everyone here can agree that "LAA" is a better executed show than "The List," but KNXV put the latter as the ABC prime-time lead in. It's no "ET," "Extra," or "Inside Edition." Hey, it's not even "OK! TV" (which is mainly seen overnight on unwatched independent stations).

[ns8401 846]

The programming execs for Scripps operate out of KNXV. Sure, Phoenix is a big market, but the stations here act medium-sized. I was scratching my head when KNXV made a programming shuffle last month swapping around "RTM," "The List," and "LAA." Everyone here can agree that "LAA" is a better executed show than "The List," but KNXV put the latter as the ABC prime-time lead in. It's no "ET," "Extra," or "Inside Edition." Hey, it's not even "OK! TV" (which is mainly seen overnight on unwatched independent stations).

I haven't seen "The List" in person yet since we don't carry it, but looking at the website it's the most idiotic concept I have seen for TV in a while. Detroit may be market 11 but it operates like market #5 still or tries to. Isn't KNXV in 4th in Phoenix? You would think for being right behind us at #12 they would be major market stations.

[TVIntheDesert 183]

 

I haven't seen "The List" in person yet since we don't carry it, but looking at the website it's the most idiotic concept I have seen for TV in a while. Detroit may be market 11 but it operates like market #5 still or tries to. Isn't KNXV in 4th in Phoenix? You would think for being right behind us at #12 they would be major market stations.

 

Out of the English-language stations sign-on to sign-off, KNXV is ranked fourth. In terms of news ratings, they have no winning time slots (KTVK does better in the morning and evening, but ranks #5 sign-on to sign-off, and at least KPHO can claim they win at 10pm on occasion when CBS has a popular lineup). Funny thing is that "The List" is produced out of KNXV.

 

If it wasn't for Scripps' dysfunctional management, KNXV would be the biggest beneficiary from the impending merger of KPHO and KTVK's news departments.