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

[Rusty Muck 4167]

Scripps will not cancel the show just because it is not doing well in the early test markets. Plus, it is summer when there is traditionally lower tv viewership. The real test for the show will be this November and February sweeps of next year. Even then, if it's still doing bad after sweeps, there is no guarantee that it will get cancelled as Scripps tends to be patient (cheap) with low rated programs they have a vested interest in (i.e. let's Ask America, Right this Minute, etc.).

At the most, The Now could be retooled into more of a newsy show if it doesn't pan out. IIRC, RTM was tweaked with a few times during their first year, not that it made that much a difference...

[Rusty Muck 4167]

Besides, I still consider The Now to be an upgrade for WEWS at 4pm, where it replaces RTM. (And RTM only wound up at 4pm due to Dr. Oz bombing in the timeslot.) Plus WEWS will have Meredith Vieira as a leader in to The Now...

[ns8401 846]

 

Besides, I still consider The Now to be an upgrade for WEWS at 4pm, where it replaces RTM. (And RTM only wound up at 4pm due to Dr. Oz bombing in the timeslot.) Plus WEWS will have Meredith Vieira as a leader in to The Now...

 

Did (I guess does) WEWS air back to back RTM's at 4? We'll have to see how the Vieira leading into "The Now" does, it's happening at WXYZ and WEWS at least, anyone know if any of the other 6 stations that are getting "The Now" have Vieira as a lead-in?

[ns8401 846]

So we've heard the now isn't a newscast and really isn't supposed to be the news. I've also heard "talk show" from our GM here in Detroit.

 

Then they made this promo selling it very much as a news show:

 

Has anyone seen similar promos in KC or Denver or the other markets yet?

[MidwestTV 1173]

 

So we've heard the now isn't a newscast and really isn't supposed to be the news. I've also heard "talk show" from our GM here in Detroit.

 

Then they made this promo selling it very much as a news show:

 

Has anyone seen similar promos in KC or Denver or the other markets yet?

 

 

Exact same promo in KC except a different VO and city (obviously) and the text actually fits inside of the shapes...either way, Detroiters are in for a terrible, terrible surprise. Part of me actually hopes it ruins WXYZ like it's ruined KSHB so that maybe Scripps will start to look at it and go "huh...maybe Kansas City isn't an anomaly...maybe there really is something wrong with the show...maybe we should take a look at it again..."

[ns8401 846]

Exact same promo in KC except a different VO and city (obviously) and the text actually fits inside of the shapes...either way, Detroiters are in for a terrible, terrible surprise. Part of me actually hopes it ruins WXYZ like it's ruined KSHB so that maybe Scripps will start to look at it and go "huh...maybe Kansas City isn't an anomaly...maybe there really is something wrong with the show...maybe we should take a look at it again..."

I don't get why the text didn't fit, just sloppy.

 

I kind of hope the same thing, this looks more and more dreadful the more we find out about it. They should be giving this a year or two in one market to debug rather than roll it out and then debug it. Maybe this will finally tell them that their strategy is less than adequate in big markets.

 

I found out their CEO is a newspaper guy the other day too... But after the merger he'll still be CEO, he's been in management since 1988 and was a business editor/reporter at the Cinncinatti post before that. So part of the problem may be entrenched ideas at the top from people that have been around too long.

[NEOMatrix 1295]

I don't know why but I have a feeling that Scripps is imploding from the inside. I understand that they want to cut costs and control destinies but when the product coming out is really bad, then at some point something has to change. Hopefully, the Now can serve as a wake-up call to Scripps to actually put effort otherwise they will be un the same boats as the Allbrittons and Fishers of the TV industry.

[ns8401 846]

I don't know why but I have a feeling that Scripps is imploding from the inside. I understand that they want to cut costs and control destinies but when the product coming out is really bad, then at some point something has to change. Hopefully, the Now can serve as a wake-up call to Scripps to actually put effort otherwise they will be un the same boats as the Allbrittons and Fishers of the TV industry.

They actually are beginning to, if you look at their financials they have profits either side of 0. They might make $400,000 in a quarter and then lose $600,000. Yes hundreds of thousands either side of 0. How they can consider themselves to be doing well if they are so break-even? I could see a few quarters, but since the recession they have really done little from a financial health standpoint to improve. I think they would probably make more money going the way other companies invest in quality syndication. It's probably that when they split Scripps in half all the cable and internet ventures fueled the stations and without that fuel it's destined to flame out. What they really ought to do is just merge it together again.

 

They could also develop a two tiered strategy and have stations in the top-25 get much more investment and one kind of syndication and news look and general investment and those below 25 get more test market style shows, in-house shows and other things so they have a platform for their experiments. It might be more expensive but I think it would pay off in the long run.

 

But I doubt we'll ever see that sort of new idea... Scripps is dying... Very slowly.

[A3N 996]

 

They actually are beginning to, if you look at their financials they have profits either side of 0. They might make $400,000 in a quarter and then lose $600,000. Yes hundreds of thousands either side of 0. How they can consider themselves to be doing well if they are so break-even? I could see a few quarters, but since the recession they have really done little from a financial health standpoint to improve. I think they would probably make more money going the way other companies invest in quality syndication. It's probably that when they split Scripps in half all the cable and internet ventures fueled the stations and without that fuel it's destined to flame out. What they really ought to do is just merge it together again.

 

They could also develop a two tiered strategy and have stations in the top-25 get much more investment and one kind of syndication and news look and general investment and those below 25 get more test market style shows, in-house shows and other things so they have a platform for their experiments. It might be more expensive but I think it would pay off in the long run.

 

But I doubt we'll ever see that sort of new idea... Scripps is dying... Very slowly.

 

In this day in age, if a company- especially a media company breaks even, or close to it then they're doing good. The problem with Scripps isn't that they are imploding, it's that some of their ideas/venture/proposals sound or are ridiculous and overambitious. Since they keep things relatively lean, they can afford to make more gambles/risk with new ideas more so than let's say a Sinclair or even the ABC O&O's. TVNewsCheck recently did some articles on Scripps' future plans with regards to the digital side of the company and it gave some insight into their reasoning for putting WCPO's website behind a pay wall. Links to the article are below...

 

http://www.netnewscheck.com/article/35459/for-scripps-digital-is-destiny

http://www.netnewscheck.com/article/35391/scripps-leaders-put-digital-at-center

http://www.netnewscheck.com/article/35438/scripps-learning-quickly-on-digital-sales

http://www.netnewscheck.com/article/35371/inside-scripps-wcpo-paywall-gamble

[channel2 869]

There's no way Scripps Networks Interactive and E.W. Scripps rejoin. SNI is obvious Big Media bait (whether or not they do sell to a Big Media entity has yet to be seen), and rejoining the two would lead to Wall Street moaning about how Scripps's TV stations don't bring in as much dough as their cable channels.

[Weeters 1811]

I'd imagine if they canceled one of these shows, they'd just come up with something new to stick in it's timeslot.

 

I'm willing to bet that you'll see Scripps stations start launching their own versions of "The Morning Blend" once the Journal merger goes through, too. It would be pretty easy to turn that show into one of those national/local hybrids if they wanted to go that route.

[ns8401 846]

" Interestingly, WCPO.com’s traffic saw 1.5 million uvs in January after it had announced its paywall and was at the height of its content ramp up leading up to it."

 

I would think this is because their content got better and people said "look, they've done a better job and I like this content". I also imagine the reaction was mixed at best to the idea of paying $80 for it although some may have been gung-ho for it. There is something to be said for simply providing better content and spending a little more to get more in return, something they did before the SNI deal. None of that is surprising, these are old concepts and ideas, I understand it's only one approach though. On the positive side if there can be more cross-over that aids the TV side of the operation and the content becomes better that way then that's a good thing. I think the challenge then becomes figuring out how to make the on-air quality in terms of look and execution match the fact they want to charge folks for content. If the online quality were to become better than the on-air quality you would risk losing viewers and ad dollars.

 

I did take a look at their sample articles, they look like the kind of features I wish they would do more of on TV. I suppose if they kept syndication, did this and ran a companion TV station that focused on stories like these and had more ability to do stories of real relevance I would be happier. The traditional if it bleeds it leads mentality could be contrasted with a different brand of content on-air. I have heard a lot of people say they don't watch because it's too depressing... Well there's your answer, contrast yourselves as the positive station with content more relevant to you. It might work. It would be worth a try at least.

 

If this becomes really big it might mean eventually the stations go out of Scripps portfolio, especially as TV encounters a brick wall with pay TV numbers declining recently and more people going to other media to watch content. If digital is the future then the TV stations would probably become marginal over time.

 

Overall it's actually one of the better ideas I've seen Scripps come up with. Maybe at it's core Scripps is still a newspaper company trying to run TV stations. I suppose (if there's any merit to that thought) with the merger, having only broadcast and digital may shift their focus a bit and free up/bring in some more money for investment in broadcast since that will be their only game with digital as a branch off the main business at least for a while.

[Rusty Muck 4167]

I'd imagine if they canceled one of these shows, they'd just come up with something new to stick in it's timeslot.

 

I'm willing to bet that you'll see Scripps stations start launching their own versions of "The Morning Blend" once the Journal merger goes through, too. It would be pretty easy to turn that show into one of those national/local hybrids if they wanted to go that route.

WKBW already has "AM Buffalo" (or as the letter-deficient Granite renamed it, "AM BFLO") which dates back to "Dialing for Dollars" in the 1960s and has evolved into an infotainment program of its' own.

 

I don't know if such a show would work on WEWS, as infotainment programs already exist on WKYC (the half hour "Live on Lakeside" at noon) and on WJW ("New Day Cleveland," although to a lesser extent).

[Thundershock MN 169]

Surely Scripps is looking at KSHB's numbers and wondering what is that they can do to fix the show? If it's decimating KSHB, it'll do the same to their other stations and the show will fail miserably. If they're not looking, then they're fools for waiting it out and using their philosophy of "We know we'll take a hit in viewership but am confident that our shows will find an audience." Things haven't gotten better in Kansas City yo, they've gotten worse.

Unless the programming flops in every market it doesn't matter. It's a big picture deal for Scripps. In other words if it helps the company as a whole and a couple stations struggle with it then that's the way it is.

 

From EW Scripps 10-K:

2013 compared with 2012

Programs and program licenses decreased by 5.2% during 2013 primarily due to reduced costs for syndicated programming. Syndicated programming costs decreased $5.7 million in 2013

 

2012 compared with 2011

Programs and program licenses decreased approximately 23% on a same-station basis. Syndicated programming costs decreased $14.4 million year-over-year due to decisions we made to take control of more programming on our stations and rely less on syndicated programming.

 

That isn't chump change and will only grow further as more Scripps stations jettison "costly" syndicated shows. And, Scripps is now attempting to clear the some of their shows (LAA & RTM) nationwide. So, they will also receive a cut of the programming fee for each station that picks up the show.

 

Great. There goes WXYZ's ratings gains.... maybe. I'm hoping we are getting enough tune-ins for the 5pm that nobody will really care. Losing a point from Oz's May 2.7 would be bad leading into a 5pm newscast that drew a 6.5 in May combined with the 6pm's 7.9 rating. Scripps seems content to hand viewers away to everybody else. Notice other groups aren't trying this kind of experiment with the station programming in terms of syndication being dropped and replaced with company shows at every turn.

Scripps isn't the only one. We are kind of seeing a reversal of sorts with the return of more and more "in house" production. Omitting the big O&O groups* here is a list of recent "in house" production/syndication from station groups.

 

Scripps:

• The Now
  
• The List
  
• Let's Ask America
  
• Right This Minute (w/ Raycom & Cox Media Group)
  

Raycom:

• Fix It & Finish It
  
• Flip My Food
  
• Right This Minute (w/ Scripps & Cox Media Group)
  
• America Now (recently canceled)
  

Meredith:

• Better
  

Sinclair:

• Ring of Honor
  
• American Sports Network
  
• Just launched Sinclair Original Productions
  

Fox Television Stations*:

• Hollywood Today Live
  
• The Daily Helpline
  
• Laughs
  

Tribune:

• Arsenio (recently canceled)
  
• The Bill Cunningham Show (now sold to The CW daytime)
  
• re-launched Tribune Studios
  

Cox Media Group:

• Right This Minute (w/ Scripps & Raycom)
  

Gannett:

• Entered into partnership with Debmar-Mercury
  

Gray:

• MomsEveryday
  

Honorable Mention

KSNV:

• Dumped most syndication
  

So, it's not just Scripps a lot of the other station groups are doing the same (or similar) things....Scripps is just a little more frontal and ambitious with their plans.

 

*21CF recently reassigned oversight of Twentieth Television to 20th Century Fox. As a result FTS started an "in house" programming division to develop programming for the O&O's. So, I added them to the list.

[DirtyHarry 719]

 

• The Bill Cunningham Show (now sold to The CW daytime)
  

 

I really don't get how the Bill Cunningham show has lasted so long. Especially given Tribune's purge of anybody who came in through or had anything to do with Randy Michaels. He has a face for radio and his schtick is old. I used to like him about 20 years ago on WLW, but I can't listen to him anymore. His TV show doesn't even do so well in his home market! Or is everything so fragmented these days that even the paltriest of ratings is enough?

[Rusty Muck 4167]

I really don't get how the Bill Cunningham show has lasted so long. Especially given Tribune's purge of anybody who came in through or had anything to do with Randy Michaels. He has a face for radio and his schtick is old. I used to like him about 20 years ago on WLW, but I can't listen to him anymore. His TV show doesn't even do so well in his home market! Or is everything so fragmented these days that even the paltriest of ratings is enough?

It could have been much worse.

 

Randy Michaels and Pig Vomit tried to recruit Willie to join WGN/720, but it fell apart at the last minute, sparing the Chicago radio dial one of the biggest bombs since Randy Michaels' original pet project:

[yt]yZkZpWLGGw0[/yt]

[tyrannical bastard 3464]

 

For what it's worth here's the ad for "The Now Detroit":

 

 

with "Happening" where the "G" vanishes into the white background

:bang: :bang: :bang:

 

I know it's nit-pickey, but it's just BAD DESIGN to let things like this happen!

And if anyone at Scripps doesn't care and lets things like this slide, (or worse, FORCES people to do it) then it's a sign of bigger issues with that company.

[rkolsen 1678]

with "Happening" where the "G" vanishes into the white background

:bang: :bang: :bang:

 

I know it's nit-pickey, but it's just BAD DESIGN to let things like this happen!

And if anyone at Scripps doesn't care and lets things like this slide, (or worse, FORCES people to do it) then it's a sign of bigger issues with that company.

It was mentioned earlier but all of the text hung off clearly no quality control or it was rushed to air. If this was once in a blue moon mistake then it's probably a rush but if they are frequent then their is a problem in the CSD.

 

Here's a still from WBAL that most likely was rushed after a severe weather event. See if you can spot the mistake:

 

[ns8401 846]

It was mentioned earlier but all of the text hung off clearly no quality control or it was rushed to air. If this was once in a blue moon mistake then it's probably a rush but if they are frequent then their is a problem in the CSD.

 

Here's a still from WBAL that most likely was rushed after a severe weather event. See if you can spot the mistake:

 

I spy a plus over the guy on the right and colors on the women in the pinks hands.

 

As for WXYZ's CSD the only other mistake since he joined in November or December last year was they spelled a reporters name wrong, but it was corrected. Overall the promos look better, way better, than they have since they had a GO package.

 

If they fix the promo I'll post it.

[MidwestTV 1173]

But it still doesn't make sense how the 'XYZ promo could have had that 'G' error in it seeing as KSHB is running the exact same promo just fine. Surely they made it to be ran across every station just with different branding and voice over needs as necessary.

[ns8401 846]

But it still doesn't make sense how the 'XYZ promo could have had that 'G' error in it seeing as KSHB is running the exact same promo just fine. Surely they made it to be ran across every station just with different branding and voice over needs as necessary.

I thought the same thing but apparently they didn't do it that way or something. I'm wondering if the hub made it, or if this was a rough draft that got loaded by mistake and has ran since? It's really strange.

[DirtyHarry 719]

 

It could have been much worse.

 

Randy Michaels and Pig Vomit tried to recruit Willie to join WGN/720, but it fell apart at the last minute, sparing the Chicago radio dial one of the biggest bombs since Randy Michaels' original pet project:

 

 

LOL - In Randy's defense, he had one hell of an ear when it came to CHR with a beat. WKRQ and WFLZ both sounded great under his tutelage, both sounded like crap after he left.

 

(I understand that Randy was the consultant behind WYTZ Z-95 circa about 20 years ago. Another great sounding station though it bombed against B-96. At least it was to my ears ...)

[tyrannical bastard 3464]

 

But it still doesn't make sense how the 'XYZ promo could have had that 'G' error in it seeing as KSHB is running the exact same promo just fine. Surely they made it to be ran across every station just with different branding and voice over needs as necessary.

 

It could be issues between stations and their editing systems.

It appears to be an AfterEffects file and the issue could be that the font used to create it WXYZ didn't have. The proper font would fit in the holes. It does look a little hodge-podge using a form of Myriad for the first part, while the "Now" font is more Helevetica-esque. And the "4pm" is either Euromode or Eurostile. KSHB's fonts on their show are clearly different, and they may not have been sent along with the promo.

 

Then again, the producer in me would have caught such a thing, and at the very least, I would have fixed the protruding "G" either by moving up the gradient to give it some background visibility, or by adjusting the box to better house the text.

[rkolsen 1678]

It could be issues between stations and their editing systems.

It appears to be an AfterEffects file and the issue could be that the font used to create it WXYZ didn't have. The proper font would fit in the holes. It does look a little hodge-podge using a form of Myriad for the first part, while the "Now" font is more Helevetica-esque. And the "4pm" is either Euromode or Eurostile. KSHB's fonts on their show are clearly different, and they may not have been sent along with the promo.

 

Then again, the producer in me would have caught such a thing, and at the very least, I would have fixed the protruding "G" either by moving up the gradient to give it some background visibility, or by adjusting the box to better house the text.

Yes but the individual stations should not have to edit a syndicated or network promo. In an ideal world Scripps should have sent a file with the text burnt in leaving a space at the end for the station to add their logo and or time.

 

But since Scripps has a hubbed creative services department and master control facilities the individual stations shouldn't have had to edit it at all.

[ns8401 846]

The Now Detroit will be anchored by Glenda Lewis (10pm co-anchor on WMYD) and Brad Galli (Sports Reporter). Galli will be replaced at the sports position it would appear, they just hired a sports MMJ but I don't have a name yet.