doublejman69

That would be correct.

WWL/Tegna didn't have much of a choice on keeping local news 7-9am. Even before the changes WWL was losing viewers in the morning.

Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy among others have been blocking legitimate reporters on twitter that have question CNN's reporting about this story. Everyone talks about Fox News having mainly older viewers (even though MSNBC and Fox average age of viewers is the same at 61). Fox News tops MSNBC and CNN in every major demo 18-34, 18-49, 25-54 etc.

The CW audience aren't really big news or sports viewers and The CW is probably happy that its programs are seen at its mandatory time in market number 3.

I was told at the time that there was such a huge bidding war to acquire Wheel and Jeopardy and WDJT over paid so much that advertising doesn't even come close to the cost for the syndication rights even with WDJT being in 1st place from 6-7pm since getting those shows. It's very likely TMJ was/is turning a profit in the 630 half hour when they have done local news even though its been 3rd or 4th.(in the fall/winter Packers programming makes a lot of money for TMJ). Anyways its a moot point now, Scripps doesn't spend money on outside syndication. I believe just WTMJ and WGBA so far.

Look for more long time veterans to "retire" its been happening the last year or so. Scripps is struggling, the last thing on their minds are graphics.

That is disappointing, Janet is a very good News Director. Weeters is right, one reason she came to WTMJ when it was owned by Journal was because she was given free rein on the News Department. Over time Scripps corporate has taken over more control, and in turn ratings have gone lower. Several rounds of budget cuts haven't helped either.

WISC has a very good in-house graphics department. Yeah, there might be some Renderon looking elements to the graphics, But this is more of a continuation of previous looks going back to more than 15 years.

Has Brian Williams anchor news coverage outside of his show lately? I didn't notice him on Thursday afternoon during the breaking news in Spain.

9/11 coverage from WTMJ. while airing NBC and local coverage you also see them switching to CNN and MSNBC at times.

I know there is alot of Milwaukee people on here, if you haven't checkout the tv madman youtube page there is alot of good stuff from the 80's thru 90's. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw0YMe-ZEEm33KqDdbPlFag CBS58 newsbreak from 96 right before launching their full news department https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=KFc4iouKeP8;list=PLLO34BKhySfAwhKB-P0x-nvtDhjrPjFF- Not many people were fans of the Six is News branding but the opening and the rest of the look was good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=UOD3KPW1KC4;list=PLLO34BKhySfAwhKB-P0x-nvtDhjrPjFF- Classic WTMJ newscast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=6hkFv5EKpcI;list=PLLO34BKhySfAwhKB-P0x-nvtDhjrPjFF- This year is WTMJ's 70th annivesary, this is a clip from there 50th. and a report about WTMJ's 50th annivesary website i believe the website lived on until the early 2000's.

WFLD in Chicago is like that too.

I'm thinking this forum needs to stop with the hot takes about politics...

Aries had deep financial problems and couldn't compete, the news room was barebone. The only time WGBA had news personal levels that were comparable to the other stations in the market was the first five years or so Journal owned the station, not seeing ratings gains like Journal wanted and the recession deeply hurt the station after that time period. I think losing Larry McCarren hurts (you need recognizable people to get viewers). The other stations have double the news staff WGBA has and so far since Scripps ownership hasn't increase it any.

A set and graphics change isn't going to move the needle in the ratings. The Green Bay market has a population that is older and its hard to change their habits. When Journal bought the station in the early 2000's they did pour a lot of money into the station but the ratings were still low. Maybe one of the other stations will mess up and then WGBA can grab some viewers? WGBA has low overhead and makes a little money. A company like Scripps isn't going try to compete.

It should be pointed out WTMJ's version of The Now is so much different than what other Scripps stations are doing. WTMJ doesn't air the social media or viral video garbage, its mostly locally produced feature stories and its 30 minutes. The only things that are the same is the graphics, the name and the hosts dresses casual. My guess is that WTMJ was forced to use "The Now" name when local management wanted to retool the 6:30 half hour and then they got to do whatever they wanted...

WMTV 15.2 in Madison is taking over the CW on September 12th. According my guide they will be running a newscast from 7am to 9am starting on the 12th (don't know if its a rebroadcast of .1's 5-7am newscast or live) WMTV has hired an anchor for a 9pm newscast but won't be debuting it on the 12th. WBUW will be an independent most likely producing more local programming and sports.

My last point about this.. Berra does that where ever he goes. It seem like Wexler didn't care as long as WTMJ brought in $$. The last year or so of their leadership everything went down hill and Journal had to make changes fast. Even though the executives in Cincinnati have made some questionable moves, Janet has made WTMJ's newscasts respectable again.

Its Scripps anything is possible. Steve Wexler didn't handle the day to day news operation of WTMJ, Bill Berra did and the longer he was there the more power he got. Its uncanny how similar WTMJ and WFTS where he use to be the ND was, Bill uses the same formula. Bill is now working at WFLA is now becoming WFTS lite.

If MSNBC wanted Olbermann back they would have hired him this spring for the presidential election. Once the election is over ratings will go down big time for all the cable news channels and opinion programming suffers the most. Ever since Andy Lack came back and changed daytime to more news and less opinion the liberal primetime block kind of sticks out like a sore thump. I wouldn't be surprised if Brian Williams or even Chris Jansing and Willie Geist are placed in primetime before this time next year.

I wouldn't be surprised if WTMJ drops the "Today's" branding. KIVI did a couple of weeks ago and installed a virtual news set. With the changes Janet has making WTMJ news into a hard news format, hopefully Scripps doesn't make them use "Action News", "On Your Side" or "Works For You".

I wasn't really criticizing them, station groups have different opinions for hubbing and automation and they have positives and negatives. but to say a station group isn't automating because they're "cheap" is laughable and 100 percent false.

Scripps is installing Ignite and hubbing master control to cut cost in the long term, employing people cost alot of money. It really isn't alot of money to spend investing in automation but it can cause alot of problems. Scripps isn't adding news staff, they're returning to staffing levels from the Journal days, but they're replacing veteran reporters and photojournalist with mmj's with very little experience. Scripps had alot of poorly run station before Journal. WTVF is top 2 in revenue for the whole group and Nashville is the 10th largest market for them. WTMJ and KTNV also produce more revenue than other Scripps stations in larger markets than them.