SOME STATION OWNERS WON’T LIKE THIS
The FCC floats a plan to reward stations with local programming
Category: Industry Stuff
LONGTIME NEWS EXEC GOES THE CONSULTANT ROUTE
She's the newest member of Gray's growing in-house team
TEGNA NAMES A HANDFUL OF NEW GENERAL MANAGERS AND NEWS DIRECTORS
It’s happening across the country.
WEATHERING A PARTNERSHIP FOR CBS NEWS
Weather partnership coming to CBS News
BUFFALO FORECASTER EXITS WKBW
(MAY RESURFACE AT FORMER STATION)
GONE IN BOSTON
NBC10 Boston is losing a reporter to a new industry. Kathryn Sotnik got her start 18 years ago in Atlantic City, New Jersey as a small town general assignment reporter. She’s worked her way ...
WLS GOES STREAMING
It’s 1 of 8 stations jumping on the stream train…
FIVE (NOT SO SERIOUS) TIPS FOR SURVIVING YOUR FIRST SPORTS GIG
And more about the great sportscasters who started in small market, like you.
IN WEST PALM, HEARST TAKES THE WIN IN DIGITAL
In West Palm Beach, the Hearst station took the win for most unique website users in November. WPBF took the win and the station’s digital manager Brandon Lopez says he is proud of the ...
NEW SPINNER AT ABC
ABC News has hired a new person to join the corporate PR team. Alison Rudnick will join as Vice President of corporate communications. She comes from CNN, where she was Vice President of communications ...
NBC IS MAKING MASSIVE HIRES
“This substantial investment in streaming and digital allows us to meet the needs of news consumers.”
NO MORE “ACTION”
Another rebrand for Scripps.
SHHH
From the beginning, NewsBlues has had an anonymous tip line. It’s untraceable and, if you’ve got a story, it’s a way to get the word out. You’ll find it over on the right hand ...
AND IN FCC NEWS
President Donald Trump has nominated FCC commissioner Michael O’Rielly for a new, five-year term. O’Reilly’s term expired at the end of June 2019, but commissioners can continue to serve until the close of the ...
NAB 2020 CANCELED
NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith Wednesday issued the following letter to the NAB Show community regarding plans for NAB Show in light of coronavirus concerns: Dear NAB Show community, As you know, we ...
ONE CEO SEEMS TO HAVE THOUGHT THROUGH THE CORONAVIRUS ISSUE
We’re just as interested in the profit motive as the next guy, and we certainly hope this coronavirus emergency can be contained as quickly as possible. But when you have Nexstar CEO Perry Sook ...
SOLD!
Miami-based Spanish language broadcaster Univision is being acquired by two private investment firms, ForgeLight and Searchlight Capital Partners, and will enter a new era led by Wade Davis – longtime media executive, former Viacom ...
BATTLE LOOMS AFTER TEGNA SMACKDOWN
“Since Standard General invested in TEGNA in 2019, TEGNA has campaigned energetically – and wastefully – in defense of a long-term track record of underperformance. Instead of moving with urgency to explore all avenues ...
SINCLAIR PAYS TRIBUNE
Sinclair Broadcast Group has settled the lawsuit stemming from its failed $3.9 billion takeover of Tribune Media. The merger was scuttled after the FCC referred it to an administrative law judge, making it untenable. ...
TEGNA CHANGES ON THE WAY?
Another large investor in Tegna wants the TV station operator to pursue a merger or sale, arguing a tie-up could be very valuable at a time the industry is facing a wave of consolidation, ...
SO….WHADDAYA KNOW?
From the beginning, NewsBlues has had an anonymous tipline. It’s untraceable and, if you’ve got a story, it’s a way to get the word out. You’ll find it over on the right hand column, ...
MNF FOOTBALL SHAKEUP
With ESPN already starting the process of potentially another major shakeup on “Monday Night Football,” CBS’ Tony Romo is now even better positioned to eclipse John Madden’s game analyst record of $8 million per ...
THIS WEEK IN LITIGATION
A former television reporter appealed on Monday a civil court ruling ordering him to pay damages to Japanese #MeToo symbol and journalist Shiori Ito in a high-profile rape case. Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a former Washington ...
AND ANOTHER ONE STEPS FORWARD
Former Fox News reporter and occasional “F&F” fill-in host Courtney Friel has a memoir coming out, and in it, she writes that before he was president, Donald Trump told her she was “the hottest ...
TELEMUNDO BEEFS UP ITS ELECTION COVERAGE TEAM
Three Mexico-based journalists laid off after the closure of the “New York Times en Español” have been hired by Telemundo in advance of the 2020 elections. Left to right, Natalia Gutiérrez joined the Telemundo ...
AH ELECTION NIGHT PIZZA
A few States had elections Tuesday night and of course what better way to satisfy TV news and production crews than with free dinner as the final ballots rolled in. They say the best ...
AVOIDING BURNOUT
We’ve all been there. You are about 2.5 years into your stay at a station and you are starting to get burned out. All the stories feel the same, you work to make them ...
NORAH HAS YET TO MOVE THE NEEDLE
Norah O’Donnell, the former “CBS This Morning” host who is getting paid at least $7 million a year by CBS News boss Susan Zirinsky to revive the perennially third-ranked newscast — is getting hammered ...
BNC LAUNCH DATE
In a joint teleconference broadcast live from the Four Season’s Hotel in New York’s Financial District Monday, the Black News Channel (BNC) and the National Newspaper Publishers Association announced the official launch date and ...
DENVER LEGEND HONORS
Max Goldberg, IJN Publisher 1943-1972, will be posthumously inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado Hall of Fame, Class of 2019. Max Goldberg was the “father of Channel 9,” (KUSA) (NBC) the first network ...
DIGITAL FIRST
Well, the Corporate folks have been preaching “digital first” for the past few years and a new survey out is showing they aren’t far from the mark. Consumers are nearly as likely to turn ...
THIS WEEK IN CORD-CUTTING
Our 92-year-old mother had some choice words this week for Nexstar, which owns the CBS affiliate she was devoted to and which has been dark for….well, it’s a month now. And with no end ...
KPIX IS A MESS
Our man on the scene in San Francisco, Rich Lieberman reports CBS O&O heads are going to KPIX in an attempt to jump-start things. The long time blogger by the Bay offers a few ...
THE RATINGS ARE IN FOR CBS
Media Confidential points out CBS’ heavily-promoted debut Monday of Norah O’Donnell as the new anchor and managing editor of the network’s flagship CBS Evening News failed to break CBS’ long run in third place ...
CBS PEP RALLY
You may recall, we told you Tuesday newly minted CBS Evening News Anchor and Managing Editor Norah O’Donnell was in Houston, continuing the victory tour with various CBS stations. Upon returning to NY, O’Donnell ...
RATE A TV STATION
It’s been a well kept secret since 2017 but ratemystation.com is making headlines as it’s review base grows. 27-year-old Valeria Sistrunk came up with the idea after working at a few stations. You can ...
BILINGUAL JOURNALISM FINDS ITS VOICE
There are about 58 million Hispanics in the U.S. – about 18% of the population, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. About 40 million people in the U.S. speak Spanish at home, according to a Pew ...
WANNA BE A TV PUNDIT?
While I worked at The Blaze a few years back producing various shows I found it interesting to see how folks who basically had only social media and blogging backgrounds with no TV or ...
IN OTHER ATSC 3.0 NEWS
Major public broadcasters and an established broadcast engineering firm have formed a partnership that plans to build single frequency networks in markets across the country and lease them to broadcasters implementing ATSC 3.0-based services. The ...
MARQUEE SPORTS NAMES MANAGER
Marquee Sports Network, the TV venture the Chicago Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group announced three months ago, on Tuesday named Michael McCarthy the channel’s general manager. McCarthy has been a consultant for the Cubs since ...
A PLAYER ONCE MORE
Former Media General and Young Broadcasting (remember them?) executive Deb McDermott is back in the game. Standard Media, of which McDermott is CEO, is buying two of the last three Citadel Communications stations, shelling ...
ESPN AND CAESAR’S: A MATCH MADE IN VEGAS
ESPN is joining forces with Caesars Entertainment to bring sports betting news and entertainment content to fans around the world. Media Confidential reports the deal includes building a new ESPN-branded studio at The LINQ ...
CHECK OUT THIS NEW SET
Hearst’s Kansas City ABC affiliate, KMBC 9 News, has debuted a new set from Devlin Design Group. Newscast Studio reports KMBC wanted the set to feature a variety of venues for story telling along with a strong visual connection ...
HE’S BAACK
Billy Bush has found a new TV home. The former Today host will anchor Extra Extra, a new iteration of the syndicated entertainment show, which will debut this fall when Extra moves to Fox, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. The job ...
TEGNA STEPS UP
TEGNA Inc. Monday announced the company has entered into a definitive agreement with Cooper Media to acquire leading 24/7 multicast networks Justice Network and Quest. According to a news release, TEGNA will pay approximately ...
NEW OWNER PREPARES FOR THE TAKEOVER
John Cochrane will be the next GM for Lockwood Broadcasting’s soon-to-be WCAV in Charlottesville, VA once the company completes the purchase from Gray TV. Cochrane is currently GM of Lockwood’s WSKY Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News, Va. He ...
GUESS THEY NEEDED THE MONEY TO MAKE THE RENT
No sooner did CNN move into its shiny new digs at Manhattan’s Hudson Yards than the company (and parent monolith WarnerMedia) announced that it was selling its share of the complex. That’s a cool ...
BURYING THE LEAD
With much fanfare, CBS News trumpeted its bolstered coverage of the White House with the assignment of Ben Tracy as still another White House correspondent. But the lead was buried (for us, anyway) at ...
CNN DECONSTRUCTION
You didn’t think they were getting all new furniture did you? The signs of CNN’s move of its Manhattan base of operations from Columbus Circle to the Hudson Yards are visible for all to ...
LOGAN ON THE MOVE
Seems like it was just yesterday we reported that former CBS News foreign correspondent Lara Logan quietly left the Network last year and gave several controversial interviews regarding alleged bias within the Big Eye. She ...
INTERACTIVE JOURNALISM
If you’ve been out lately, you probably have noticed a lot of people around you striking the pose, head down reading or listening to whatever may be on their phone. It’s that very reason ...
THINGS ARE A CHANGIN’ AT WHAS
The all female leadership at WHAS (ABC) Louisville Kentucky is making history. President and General Manager Christy Moreno and News Director Julie Wolfe joined WHAS in late 2018 and are transforming the station into ...
DEFINITION OF JOURNALIST IS CHANGING
So, recode.com reports last month alone, 2,000 people working at media publications lost their jobs. Such layoffs were only the most recent in what has been a years-long trend of media job insecurity. But new data ...
CHANGES WITH COX
Some changes with Cox Enterprises you may not have seen. Cox said last week Apollo Global Management will buy a majority interest in Cox Media Group’s broadcast television stations, including the company’s radio, newspaper ...
NEWSROOM BURNOUT
We’ve all been there, especially after a big news event that includes days of wall to wall coverage, cut-in’s and all the rest. But as a news manager or reporter, how do you overcome ...
CBSN RECOGNIZES WRITERS’ UNION
The WGA East has been recognized voluntarily by CBSN, the digital arm of CBS News. Kudos to CBS. CBSN agreed to recognize the union and enter into negotiations for a first-time contract after more ...
STATION FEATURES DRONE SEGMENT
If your station has a drone, you know it’s like owning a corvette but not being able to drive it due to to nit-picky regulations. The FAA has some pretty tight regulations across the ...
WHOA, DID YOU SEE THIS?
Some guys in Dallas Texas have launched a product line that benefits not only local businesses but TV station Production Departments and at least one Broadcast company is taking notice. Rev Up is a ...
CHATTANOOGA NEW GM
Sinclair Broadcast Group has selected the new GM of its ABC and FOX affiliates serving the Chattanooga, Tenn., market, as well as Sinclair’s JSA for the market’s affiliate of The CW. Since 2012, Todd Ricke has ...
THE FRUITS OF COLLABORATIVE JOURNALISM
What happens when a print reporter and a tv reporter are thrown together in a new partnership aimed at innovation? Such an experiment is underway at WLBT, the Raycom station in Jackson, MI, where ...
DALLAS REPORTER NOW AUTHOR
Longtime KXAS (NBC) Dallas entertainment reporter Bobbie Wygant has been in the business for 70 years. She recently published a memoir, “Talking to the Stars,” detailing her career and the celebrities she’s interviewed. The book starts ...
WE STILL WANT OUR TV NEWS
Maybe it’s because viewers require the visual stimulation. Maybe it’s because they need the direction that many anchors helpfully dish out: “Look at this video!” “You have to see this to believe this!” “Watch ...
SCRIPPS AWARDS
The Scripps Howard Awards, one of the nation’s most prestigious American journalism competitions, will accept entries from Dec. 1 to Feb. 8 for reporting and storytelling that gives light and changes lives. The Awards’ ...
DALLAS ANCHORS GIVING IT ALL
It’s “Giving Tuesday” which is a movement to create an international day of charitable giving at the beginning of the Christmas and holiday season. In Texas, the main anchors of the Dallas stations are ...
ABQ ABC NEW GM
Hearst Television has promoted Lori Waldon, KCRA (NBC)-KQCA’s (MyNetworkTV) news director and the regional director of news, to president and general manager of the company’s Albuquerque property. Waldon will oversee KOAT’s news team effective January 1. “Lori is an accomplished, award-winning journalist ...
CALL IT WHAT IT IS – INTERVIEW SHOPPING
It has been noted more than once over the past couple of years that Mr. Trump has made a habit of granting interviews to media outlets he deems friendly – Fox News far outdistancing ...
SINCLAIR’S BIG DREAMS BEING STIFLED – FOR NOW
Sinclair Broadcast Group has not given up on its dream of becoming the biggest media group in the land. It’s looking at cable sports (see the next story) and it still is casting a ...
TRIBUNE HAS NEW SUITORS
There is something about Tribune Media that Administration fanboys find irresistible. First it was Sinclair, whose inability to be straight with an extremely pliant FCC ultimately to the failure of its attempt after well ...
APPLAUSE FOR COX
Cox Media is garnering some well-deserved praise for a plan to expand its participation in a program that has already connected over 400,000 low-income Americans to the internet. Connect2Compete is the industry program providing ...
A MILESTONE FOR RTDNA
Members of RTDNA elected the organization’s first African-American leader at the conference last week in Baltimore. Terence Shepherd will be Chair-Elect for the next year, and Chair the year after. He’s the ND at WLRN ...
