nycnewsjunkie

Yikes, that’s shameless.

Oh I’m well aware of that; WABC has a whole history of ratings dominance despite anchors leaving for other stations (or retiring altogether). It just sucks to see a good anchor leave like that.

You called it, they’re live.

If it’s Ken Rosato, that would be a mind-numbingly awful move on channel 7’s part.

As much as I would love for CNN to “go back to what made them a household name,” I know in my gut that people wouldn’t watch it. American cable news viewers love outrage/conflict programming that’s hyper-focused on US politics. A shift to the center barely scratches the surface of what they need to do for someone like me to watch them. Tonight’s town hall was just another example of conflict television. There are YouTube channels (like TLDR News) that, while flawed and still growing, offer more sober and intelligent coverage of the news than anything I’ve seen on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc. IMO, cable news as a whole deserves to fail miserably, and considering that younger viewers generally don’t watch it, there’s hope that it will. Side note: The fact that the audience was basically full of Trump supporters made this whole thing a near farce. If you ask me, the audience of a town hall should be chocked full of people who are either undecided or solidly against the candidate. If the people aren’t going to scrutinize politicians, then what’s the point of a town hall anyway?

Correlation does not imply causation. Nearly every media company’s stock price has been dragging for the last month. The local TV business in general isn’t doing great right now. While this move definitely makes it easier for CBS to move the network in house in Atlanta and Seattle if it wanted to, I highly doubt that’s happening this fall. The Deadline article would’ve mentioned it, and CBS has affiliation contracts to fulfill. EDIT: If those agreements expire in 2024, I suppose things could potentially get interesting. Stay tuned, I guess.

If I had to guess, WPHL, KQCA, and KRON are almost certain to pick up the CW. Two hours in prime time plus LIVGolf on weekends doesn’t drastically alter the schedules of those stations. As far as MyNet is concerned, would Fox even bother to look for another affiliate if they lose WPHL? They already don’t have an affiliate in Miami, and it’s not as though MyNet is much of a network anyway.

I’m well aware of that; I’m also aware that KPIX uses more than one cut.

Suffice it to say, there have been better executions of the new package; WBBM’s is the worst I’ve seen so far. However, as bad as this is, I can’t say I totally mind the sloppy and out of place usage of Enforcer, especially given how repetitive that one cut of Dimensional can get after a while. I really don’t understand why stations don’t use different cuts of Dimensional to at least have a little bit of musical versatility. That said, WBBM had a lot of time to roll this out properly, and they fumbled imo.

Not to get too off-topic, but they did a fairly decent job of making a small, cramped set look big.

That’s a really good point; CBS does provide the best/easiest way to access their local newscasts digitally, especially compared to the other stations in the market. I wish ratings companies would take digital impressions into account; viewers are viewers at the end of the day, and it shouldn’t matter where they’re watching.

I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, but the station is not going to tell you or me if the ratings are not what they want it to be. As far as having a “great product”…I guess it’s good for what it is, and I’m glad CBS is finally making an effort after decades of nothing, but let’s not pretend they’re surging in the ratings if we don’t know the full extent of their ratings growth. That said, they expanded their newscasts quickly despite a delayed launch, and if they are seeing consistent and significant improvement, good for them.

The newest presidential ticket for the “Pricks for Hire” Party.

Tucker and Lemon both out. Merry Christmas, everyone. And a Happy Hanukkah too.

One example was in 2020 during the pandemic, when Andrew Cuomo and Cnris Cuomo swapped stories during a press conference. Bill basically waxed poetic about the whole thing and said something along the lines of “I wonder what their father would think.” I don’t have as much of a problem w/ that if you slap on a “Bill Ritter: Commentary” lower third, but that wasn’t present. As it turned out, the governor was less than truthful about NY’s COVID death count, and Chris would be fired from CNN for actively aiding his brother while working as a journalist. I know that Bill wasn’t aware of what both Cuomo brothers were doing, nor do I blame him for their actions. I also have nothing against Bill personally; he does a good job as an anchor, and perhaps I’m admittedly being a little pedantic about this and am judging with the benefit of hindsight re: the Cuomos. However, I still believe that what should’ve been healthy scrutiny on Bill’s part was substituted for nostalgia for Mario Cuomo. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/chris-cuomo-crashes-governor-cuomos-173839115.html That’s still a separate segment from the rest of the newscast though, and the signature at the bottom of the screen was the indicator that it was a commentary. To be fair, there is no specific “Commentary” or “Editorial” label, but perhaps the station didn’t think it was warranted due to the brevity of the segment.

Just because something used to be done frequently doesn’t make it a good thing by virtue of it being done in the past. I’m not a fan of commentary during the news; I think stations should trust their viewers to be informed enough to think critically and form their own opinions based on the information they’re given. If stations don’t trust their viewers to have informed opinions, to me that implies they’re doing a piss poor job of informing them. That being said, if a station runs editorials, they should be clearly labeled as such and separated from straight news. Bill Beutel anchored editorial segments at WABC after he retired, but to my knowledge, he always kept it straight when he anchored the news. There’s a difference between a clearly identifiable editorial and a newsreader who thinks his/her opinion needs to be injected into every story.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t understand this elevated perception of Deb McDermott. She runs just four godawful stations, yet I get the impression that people view her as some sort of broadcasting royalty. The only thing she’s known for is turning Young/Media General into a massive behemoth that got sold off to Nexstar; that does not count as a positive contribution to journalism or the industry in my book. I don’t really give a pig’s fart if she’s collateral damage of Soo Kim’s irresponsible greed.

I don’t think it’s as bad as I thought it would be. The idea of having separate domestic and world news channels was becoming a bit of an anachronism, and the BBC World News channel was already pumping out a lot of programming from the domestic channel anyway. That said, I have two primary criticisms. First, I remember reading that they were planning on adding a simulcast of a Radio 4 talk show (a la LBC). That stuff does NOT belong on BBC News Channel. The second criticism is the cancellation of Outside Source, which was, in my opinion, the BBC’s best news program. It was also a good model of the kind of journalism that we should be, but aren’t, attempting to cultivate in the USA. I know that the OS team is still contributing to the channel, and that Ros Atkins’ “explainers” are being implemented across more programs and platforms, but OS worked really well as a standalone show, and it was a big mistake to cancel it.

Honestly, that makes it even more puzzling. Why even ponder including the 3 if you’re not even mentioning it? Of course, this is assuming they even use that 3 as a visual brand for the station and its newscasts, and not just for promos or something.

The one pet peeve I have about the new package so far is the font; it looks a little bit outdated to me. Still, considering how old the previous Gray packages looked, beggars can’t be choosers.

This is a long one, so my apologies in advance. TLDR, Nexstar isn’t the future, local≠always better, and accessibility is paramount. I’ll have to disagree on quite a few of your points. First, Nexstar is not handling change in the industry well at all. They don’t have many other assets other than a mammoth amount of TV stations, which, in an industry that’s on the downswing, is like being the king of the coy pond. They’ve also put all their eggs in the proverbial basket of a floundering cable channel that has been hampered by distribution from the start. Also, it certainly doesn’t help that Nexstar actively restricts local streaming in order to “fulfill obligations to cable providers” or however they spin it. When you still live and die on retrans money, to the point where I can’t live stream a newscast, you aren’t handling change in the industry well. Also, where did you get the ratings info for the stations you cited? I find it rather surprising that KRON was able to beat KTVU. That said, if they did, I doubt it’s because KRON has more of a local brand; on the contrary, I would credit the amount of upheaval and turnover at KTVU more than anything innovative KRON has supposedly done. Also, no offense, but KUSI is a joke. Appealing to angry boomers is not a sustainable plan that anyone should follow. Granted, if WGN decided to call themselves “NewsNation Chicago,” people would notice. However, just because a station slaps on a local brand doesn’t mean they’re a better station, or one that has an advantage in the market. There are some stations that have enough legacy and clout to have a unique local brand, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. Most TV stations are bland, boring, and stuck in the 1990s in terms of branding, accessibility, content, and relevance. To get back to what this thread is about, what CBS has done is an effort to future-proof the company’s local newsrooms. Their stations are far more accessible than ever before; I can go on the CBS News app and see any CBS owned station’s local news, plus additional local content. It’s the best approach to accessibility that any station group has implemented so far. Compare that to your example, Nexstar, which does absolutely nothing on this front. That said, if some successful stations hold on to legacy brands either temporarily or permanently (like WBZ or KDKA, for example), I don’t think it matters as much as we think it does, especially since every station so far (except KCAL) visually emphasizes their presence on the CBS News app. Conversely, if most CBS stations drop their channel number, I don’t think it will either positively or negatively affect their ratings or viewer trust; there was neither outcry nor excessive curiosity among most viewers when KPIX and KCNC switched over. While *some* stations don’t need to drop legacy brands that are already working for them, they do need to reinvent themselves a bit, and prioritize accessibility in order for both older viewers and people in my age group to consider them relevant. So far, while the implementation hasn’t been perfect, CBS has done a decent job of that.

I’ll admit that I’ve changed my mind on that a bit; I know I said that Mester should’ve been more professional, but it was apparent that Pete Saiers didn’t exactly endear himself to the staff by giving Lynette Romero such a terse dismissal. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was only one of many missteps that he made.

Wendy McMahon basically said that the approach to the rebrand would be conducted on a market by market basis. There were some assertions made that WBZ and KDKA would drop their brands entirely because of the radio stations that share those call letters; as we know now, those assertions were inaccurate. Edit: I probably asserted something here or there too, so my apologies.

More like Soo Kim trying to perform CPR on a cadaver.

With all due respect, I doubt their ownership situation had anything to do with their ratings. Most viewers don’t know or care which station group is being sold to whom. I’d attribute it to WANF gaining traction in the market with their new product.