cbs2newengland
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Posts posted by cbs2newengland
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... or that you kinda don't want the viewers to get thrown off that the following day the station's look was drastically changed overnight.
I did like how CBS tied the new look last year on the 11:00 Sunday news right after the Emmys. The start of a new week, and gave wiggle room in case any glitches happened so by Wednesday the look would become flawless.
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They were originally scheduled to debut the graphics on Wednesday, from the chatter in here, which makes me think it's more likely than not.
why on a Wednesday? The native Gannett stations didn't do that (correct me if I am wrong.) Even though the graphics have been used for over a year, its considerably "brand spanking new" "never been used before" for the now ex-Belo stations. They should be launched on the Sunday evening or midday on a Monday like how the others did a year ago (if I am not mistaken?)
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So...I just watch WCNC's 12pm newscast and at the end there's a quick promo that says "Purple is for Lifestyle, the new WCNC.com is coming", which it's means that finally they're going to upgrade to the Gannett look. Not sure about when they're going to debut it though.
I'm thinking that they'll push through next Wednesday, and wouldn't be surprised if they graphic switched next Wednesday as well.
Is there any evidence that WCNC would be switching graphics and site that quickly?
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LOL, that reply was all me.
I see.
Interesting how some stations actually use that for a hashtag, when I clicked on it, that could be a promo in itself (if not already.)
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I strongly think WVEC will be switching to This is Home next week. My speculatron is high on this one, based on this tweet:
https://twitter.com/13LaSalleBlanks/status/490078655507214336
the reply was awesome. All he needed to add was #spoileralert!
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Belo was mostly organized into two major geographic clusters in the South (WFAA, KHOU, KENS, KVUE and WWL) and Pacific Northwest (KING/KONG, KGW, KTVB, NWCN). These two clusters acted independent from one another, branding-wise. Belo's "outpost" stations--KHNL, KTVK, WHAS and WCNC--were left to do pretty much their own thing. The
only made it outside of that area to KHNL and WHAS, where at the latter station it didn't last very long before they adopted a custom Giant Octopus look. Same story goes for when WCNC briefly took on the; that stuck around for a couple years before going to the "NewsChannel 36" in-house look and finally the NBC Charlotte brand we're seeing today.This WFAA story from 1997 has a story of The Providence Journal acquisition in the late 90s - the story shows a graphic before and after the merger. youtube.com/watch?v=TBKAMezB75A.
Its easy to forget which station is owned by what without some standardization in today's standards.
However when Belo launched the Hothaus a couple years ago, did they still retain the graphics artists at each station? I do fear that they might get let go after the implementation of the Gannett graphics because everything is done in the cloud w/ the Axis system that might eliminate the need for dedicated artists. Mostly for promos I would say during sweeps period.
I was slightly surprised that KTVK even took on the Hothaus-designed Belo package, especially since their brand has always been so heavily dependent on a red/yellow color palette. Who knows, Belo might have had plans to finally standardize that look across the entire group before Gannett came knocking.to be honest, I wouldn't been surprised if Belo would roll out those graphics to the other stations, just given the need to be more streamlined - but not to the extent of Gannett mind you.
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I don't think the major markets in Texas (the former Belos) are at much risk of getting cut as much as the London stations do coming in. Gannett will own 40% of the Texas cable market post-London, and they already own Texas Cable Network (which will now get more station coverage with the London additions). One of their main reasons for acquiring the London stations however was because they are in "growing markets" (Gannett's words, not mine), so even then, I don't think we'll see much more than attrition in time.
I doubt the future of TXCN, wasn't that network been dead for a number of years only existing rerunning various newscasts throughout the state?
Another thing, I didn't know that WHAS was a Belo station, I knew they owned KING and WCNC. How come they didn't roll out the Hothaus graphics throughout the group a year or so ago like they did to KTVK, KHOU and WFAA (am I missing others?)
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Speaking of This Is Home, the entire theme and cuts of This Is Home can now be heard on SoutherMedia NMSA.
http://southernmedia-nmsa.com/#3,1,1699
The only cut l like is near :27, a gentle melody. The final cut that plays breaks so many rules of local news packaging. To me it's in the same class as like a Today Show. Entertainment not hard hitting news.
KHOU will likely debut the new look soon. Last night during a 11News ITeam report on efforts to control the bird population at Bush Intercontinental Airport, they used fullscreen elements from the Gannett package.
Unfortunately I can't post a link to the video from their mobile site.
They've also been using the Gannett package base maps for about the last month or two
I love to see how the Deathstar will kill the ex Belo stations. KHOU is their second flagship station behind WFAA. I actually don't have much faith with them running that group or even the London group. Remember it's all about the USA Today brand, not anything else. These stations will get cut in the next 5 years down to the bone but yet they'll treat KUSA, WXIA, KARE like the teacher's pet (notice how I left WUSA out of the picture since their station is not performing as well as the other stations in the DC mkt.)
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Looks like KHOU is next on the list of getting the Gannett website look.
The DIN and the Helvetica don't look right. Will KHOU's logo change to blend in better?
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Gannett was big on getting everyone aligned onto the "same" package last year. I doubt anyone will be keeping any other package....
Well I guess good themes have short shelf span and replaced by cruddier ones. That was one of my favorite themes from 615 Music, one of their best in years. Just like how the superior 360/NBC O&O package got thrown into the dumpster at WCAU this past winter replaced by you know what. At least for Houston, V2 will almost lasted 3 years, a few months longer than WCAU had the NBC O&O pkg.
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WVEC has been using those maps now for about three or four weeks, ever since the KING launch. What's weird is they are alternating between both the old style maps, and the new ones.
In all honesty, I'm waiting more for the website refreshes from the platform all these ex-Belo stations are currently using, sans KVUE since they are already using Presto. The current websites are too cluttered with....everything. Guess we'll wait with baited breath on who'll debut graphics by waiting for the promo either tomorrow, or who'll show up noon on Wednesday.
I've tried to load KHOU.com and it took like nearly 2 minutes to complete The code seems to be cluttered or one too many scripts running.
I thought KVUE was using the look in promos.
Texas would be interesting because that's a longtime signature theme... and Gannett has used Propulsion in the past.
If they have to get the graphics, I would hope they'd keep Propulsion. Especially when its grandfathered like WKYC in this instance, they used it a couple years ago, even before a peep about a Belo acquisition. And they used V2! If they used it then, than I'd say let the Texas stations keep it! I can't remember when the two last used "The Spirit of Texas" branding on air, has been since the late 90s? That be awesome if they brought it back at least for a secondary branding.
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I did notice something a few minutes ago that perturbed me about WHAS's use of "categories" to delineate the content of each story. They used a teal-colored travel category when discussing a local bridge closing and some other construction work. I get that this is technically "travel" information, but when I think travel I think of something like a trip to a faraway location, rather than having to take the longer way to work in the morning. Does the Gannett package really not have a category for traffic?
The native Gannett stations explained this last year when the package was rolling out. First thing after I saw the WUSA piece was that "travel" and I'm like "shouldn't this be traffic?" Did they explain the similarities to USA Today and explaining this is part "of our new owners" (like the native Gannett stations did?)
A work commute technically IS travel.
In some cases, not always as pleasant a traveling for pleasure.
Yeah. Travel conditions. I know that. But that doesn't mean they can't place the word TRAFFIC on there. Again, that would lead to the impression that they're talking about traveling to a vacation destination, and not an actual morning commute segment. I don't see anything wrong with changing its graphic from TRAVEL to TRAFFIC. It can be done.
This was one of my issues since day 1 of the Gannett graphics package. The "travel" is better fit for their online portal at the USA Today not the local news outlet at the Gannett owned TV stations.
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The video isn't up on the FOX website yet but maybe it will be later.. Anyway on the show media buzz they showed a clip of a station somewhere showing a storm doing a report on it.. Then showing Lonnie Quinn using the same EXACT video and script for his report.. They took the original voice out and put his reading it word for word.. It was kinda funny to see since this isn't the first time we've discussed WCBS copying another station.. But this time it was actually someone else's report.
The video probably won't be available on FNC's website unless someone DVR'd it or posts it on YouTube. Already checked and it looked like it didn't make the online cut. This brings the copycat to a new (or low) level. Promotions is one thing, but a news story unless that copy was in the Newspath (Howie said CNN ) rundown then I could understand. They need to learn to do "original" reporting!
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I am definitely one of the minority here, but I like the new graphics. I like being able to see what the story is, as I am one of those people that will have the sound turned down. Especially at work. I also like knowing the line up. I will look for the story I am waiting to see and time when I will be back to watch. The colors are a good idea, and I do agree consistency there needs to improve. KING is horrible about it. The ticker, yeah that could go. Never been a fan of those with any graphics package.
I think what it comes down to, you will never make everyone happy. I see on Facebook pages there are usually 20-100 comments after they go live with graphics packages, most are negative. A good majority of them are people that have made modifications to their TV and now the screen is zoomed - not Gannett's problem. But what you have to remember is, that is 100 people out of thousands watching. Most are indifferent, and some like them. And most of the time, you will only get those that complain to be the vocal ones.
I like crawls, not the flipper news tickers. And not the FNC style where it rips off a full story off an RSS wire feed. A good story on a crawl can fit into a single sentence, or the worst case have the story broken up w/ the stations logo.
I miss the days when humans ran a CG for an entire newscast.
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You know what I've always wondered (and furthermore why I hate this package)? Who determines which story gets what color? I understand they have a key they go by. But let's just say there's a massive tornado affecting the region. Would they use yellow for weather, or blue for news? There's no definitive answer to that, because one producer may categorize a story differently from another.
Scott Jones over at FTVLive said it best:
WHAS in Louisville is trying to make the news easier to watch....."trying" might be the keyword here.
The station says that viewers told them that they were tired of flickering graphic animations that added nothing to the story they were watching. Now our new, easy-to-read graphic design actually helps you watch the news.
Sounds like a great idea right?
Maybe not.
WHAS explains their new graphic format and it seems a bit confusing, plus you need to learn what all the colors mean?
They write, that on the screen during the newscast, the first line of type tells you what’s happening right now. If you have the sound turned down, or if you just walked into the room, the first line will tell you exactly what’s happening on the screen.
The second line of type tells you what’s coming up next. If there’s a story you’re interested in, the second line will tell you when to expect it. Those stories are also color coded to help you find exactly the kind of news you want, and see when it’s coming up:
- Blue – General News
- Bright Red – Breaking News
- Yellow - Weather
- Green – Money
- Purple – Life
- Orange – Technology
- Dark Red – Sports
At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see a ticker of all the latest news from WHAS11.
How about just telling us the news with video and forget all the graphic crap?
I know, it's a novel concept.
Thanks a lot news consultants.
He's right. You shouldn't have to learn how to navigate graphics. All newscasts really need is a lower third to tell people the name of a person being interviewed, and maybe a full screen graphic if there's information that the viewers may want to know. That's it. There's really no need for tickers since nobody reads them. No need for the rundown because nobody reads that either. Time and temp somebody can check on their cable box or phone. And I think we all know what channel we're watching. And if I wanted to follow a reporter on Twitter I would just look them up there. No need to give me their handle.
I can understand the color concept for newspapers, as many local ones, even ones not owned by Gannett, like the San Francisco Chronicle, use color coding for sections. But TV is not the same as a newspaper.
Thanks a lot news consultants for sure.
I question the quote "that viewers told them that they were tired of flickering graphic animations that added nothing to the story they were watching" because isn't that what people bitched to WUSA, KUSA and KARE? I love how stations can get away lying about "well our new package is in part of our acquisition from the Gannett company which owns the USA Today, if you can tell by the colors!"
What's worse is the color code is more than your daily USA Today (9 colors on TV over 4 on the paper) and I said before the colors are hard to catch on the bottom. I disagree on the temperature and time bug and the twitter handle, IMO for some its value to others its not. The rundown in the current format is more tame than the Pyburn, because that was so SportsCenter like. At first I thought it was for some stations not in native HD or something then when I saw it outside the flagships - I was like this is crazy! I remember reading Mike Bloomberg's autobio written around the time he launched Bloomberg TV (and if you want to talk about cluttered graphics for the mid/late 90s - that had a lot of empty space!) but his defense was this: you don't look at your entire Windows desktop at the same time, you only look at what is relevant to you at that time.
If Gannett wants to get viewers to take the graphics more seriously, then maybe they should cut the colors, cut out the rundown and then get rid of the black box in favor of the colors to stand out.
- Blue – General News
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I am critical of the Gannett package because in this example it shows how there is no structure of writing a lower third.
From the WHAS embed:
"ALEX SCHULMAN - @WHAS11ALEX
2ND STREET BRIDGE ACCIDENT CIVIL LAWSUIT"
Obviously, I object to the top tier. I don't like the dash, and his handle should feature a Twitter icon below his name, then have the slug run by itself. On top of that, (correct me if I am wrong) but the headlines are not in 2 lines. So if a story is very wordy, then the L3 can be so tight because its trying to fit the text onto that single line. That's just crazy.
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It was also used for NBC's Look C graphics.
Dinot is one of the variants that is available on a commercial scale.
Ok, I thought Gannett's was more Bell Gothic.
DIN is meh to me. Look C graphics were nice, the font really was an eyesore IMO.
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What's "DIN"?
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"NewsCenter" is WCSH, Portland WLBZ In Bangor and also WGCI-LD
It was a rhetorical question. However do both stations still have separate newsrooms/studios/whatever? I feel its dumb branding for the Maine audience that needs things simplified branding without the complexity of virtual VHF channel numbers. They did call themselves NewsCenter 6 years and years ago. Anyways jts wacky marketing for a Gannett station.
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I wished they could go back having the reporters end their reports with "Channel 4 Eyewitness News" instead of just "Eyewitness News".
Other than that, (including incorporating the CBS Logo next to the WWL logo again (and btw the "4" looks a bit bolder)) it really do look sleek on them.
Oh gawd, that's just annoying like WCSH's signoff "NewsCenter" - what channel is "NewsCenter"?
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What do they mean "This is Home?"
I still don't get that campaign. Its lame, written by someone with poor English skills!
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I actually liked Battery V.4, since the station used a good amount of cues. But with that said of course, this doesn't have the superiority as any of the Arnold themes that came before the 2006 SESAC episode.
Should we see it on WFAA, I strongly wish that they would incorporate a version with "Spirit of Texas logo", preserved for WFAA & KHOU, although I have a feeling that Gari would probably desecrate the theme, just as similar as 615 did when the first installment of Propulsion. I'm a die-hard traditionalist when it comes to the music and the certain muslcal logos that have very close ties with the station's traditions and histories. It would hurt me deeply if Channel 8 have to alter its 30 year familiar Spirit of Texas logo.
It would also hurt me if WHAS forgo its 23 year Newschannel package. But I wouldn't feel the same way as the WFAA (since many composers have composed the Spirit logo within that 3-decade span, while WHAS have been with just one). And I tell you why. Since WHAS have been using the Newschannel NG (now its been recycled as one of the themes of The Edge), the station have been using just that one theme for everything. You don't really hear too much variety in the cues. Hell, they don't even use themes from the pre-NG package anymore.
Yeah, I'm strongly to hope for the best, but I have to also expect the worst. Whether we like the new graphics or not, it looks like the Deathstar is wasting no time implementing the new digs on the Belo stations. And I doubt all the stations will get it prior to the July 3rd start of the July books.
The Spirit of Texas is like a trademark, when I think of that tag, I think of WFAA (and KHOU to be fair, but I've associated with 8 the longest in my memory.) With the Deathstar buying out what was 6 TX stations, they can actually expand on it and not just the two established ex-Belo stations. Gannett needs to execute the branding very carefully, 2013 was probably the first time where major groups bought or merged with other major groups in ages. I am in no defense that "each station is different and we should treat them special" kinda BS, however I wished the packaging would fuse.
And Gari music isn't been the same to some from the mid 90s and to some from the late 80s, and yes I could be a fanboy of Propulsion V2, but I'd love maybe a new 615 package if they so choose. Gari is more of a brand name to some CSD lemmings, and not understand there is more to news music than Gari. (Personally, for years I never "got" Stephen Arnold - thought he was just another "heartland" composer and wether it's taste or I am just getting older, I am actually a fan of his music and his 360 unit.)
On the graphics, I am at a lost why the Miranda system can't do a "Chyron/Deko export." I thought they used Viz (must be judgmental) and maybe that was way they couldn't. I said before, I don't like how graphics are made by twentysomethings that are very PC (the computer) when designing graphics and never design it with the mind of a viewer watching it on a 22" screen or a 9" incher, etc. TV is still the first product to deliver information, and the web comes in second, so thats how the graphics should be done.
I wish them luck. And hope the viewers don't take the change the wrong way.
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LOL I saw that too, and forgot to mention that. And they had that logo for nearly 25 years (1970s to 1997) before they went radical to the current CBS2 logo. WCBS' was the best Channel 2 logo out of the group at that time, classy and all. I'd love to see it return though.Reminds me of one of the older WCBS logos from the 80s/90s for some reason (the 2 logo that is).
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I have to say HulkieD, there is a difference between a web designer and a CG/graphics operator. You can't put the two skills together. No wonder why people can't see L3s like they used to. IT/computer types ruined it for all. I'll defend the old Chyron way of graphics design any day, if you take visual content seriously.
TEGNA Broadcasting and Digital General Discussion
in Corporate Chat
Posted
OMG - why are they treating the Gannett ownership like they owned them for years? It is not scandalous to say "our new parent company."
BTW on a side note - because I live far far away from a Belo station, I noticed watching KHOU 11 recently that the OTS are to the far right of the screen. Do they single-stream their channels as HD only or does the OTS get cut off when watching on an SDI channel?