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15 minutes ago, scrabbleship said:

 

If there is any GM at Meredith who is a cheerleader for the company, it's Dana Neves at WFSB. Part of me wants to give her the benefit of the doubt but part of me thinks something else might happen. 

I think its the latter. And not in a good way for Neves.

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On 9/18/2020 at 10:02 AM, scrabbleship said:

 

Isn't Studio 10 produced by sales and not news? IIRC the only local lifestyle show that Meredith produces that is produced by news would be Better Connecticut.

I'd pin this on storm coverage honestly. Though these cuts in a storm are shades of when the ties between WALA and WVUE were cut in the wake of Katrina.

 

Graham on WALA would look pretty decent. WMC on WFSB would be a mess. WOIO would fit WFSB better to be honest.

 

 Studio 10 is primarily a  pay-for-play show, but they have added some news and weather updates, along with the "soft" news to fill in the gaps.   However, the hosts are both involved in the morning show Good Day Gulf Coast, which is softer than the two hours that precede it (it used to be 4.5 hours of straight news).  It's basically your typical 7-9 Fox affiliate newscast, with softer news...the only thing it lacks is the "around town" reporter doing live shots.

Chelsey Sayasane is also the morning traffic reporter, and Joe Emer anchors GDGC along with longtime anchor Sarah Wall.  It does sort of blur the lines a little, especially when Joe is hosting a "paid" segment.

 

In terms of station sales, much of them have been outright sales over the past several years, save for a divestiture or two to comply with overlap or getting under the limit.  The last true "breakup" of a group was probably Newport Television, who split their properties between Sinclair (and Deerfield), Nexstar (and Mission/other shells), Cox, Shield (a Young/MG shell), and Fisher (who wound up under Sinclair shortly thereafter).  Was it taxes that caused all of these groups to sell outright and largely intact?

 

Meredith may have some stations that may sell better individually than as a group, so if they get really desperate, that could be a possibility to make a quick buck.

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4 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

In terms of station sales, much of them have been outright sales over the past several years, save for a divestiture or two to comply with overlap or getting under the limit.  The last true "breakup" of a group was probably Newport Television, who split their properties between Sinclair (and Deerfield), Nexstar (and Mission/other shells), Cox, Shield (a Young/MG shell), and Fisher (who wound up under Sinclair shortly thereafter).  Was it taxes that caused all of these groups to sell outright and largely intact?

 

Meredith may have some stations that may sell better individually than as a group, so if they get really desperate, that could be a possibility to make a quick buck.

I think that would depend on the structure of the company the question becomes what does the taxes look like for the TV division with and without the publishing assets being there?

 

If the taxes are a bigger liability with TV and print together then sure I can see TV going piecemeal, however if its an issue for the TV division by itself then the only logical sense I could see making is splitting from Publishing and then they (Meredith's TV unit) doesn't bother with selling that division.

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1 minute ago, GoldenShine9 said:

Back to the layoffs, are there any more forthcoming? I think the Q3 finances in early November will be a tell-tale.

I suspect that this may be the last of the layoffs.

 

I suspect the Q3 finances will in all likelihood spell bad news for Meredith and probably furthering the calls to split the TV and Publishing businesses up.

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10 minutes ago, noggi said:

https://blog.welldunnetalent.com/september-20-2020/

 

Here's something... Meredith fires a lot of their creative services people and chooses to bring in someone from Nexstar for a corporate role. There wasn't one creative person amongst their ranks they could have kept and bumped up the chain? 

 

She was our creative services director, and her husband was one of our photogs. When she quit last month, the rumor was that she was going to KCTV for the same job, and we were curious why she would make a sideways move like that. But this makes more sense. She was a major factor in the look of our new set and implementing the new graphics before the sale.

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29 minutes ago, noggi said:

https://blog.welldunnetalent.com/september-20-2020/

 

Here's something... Meredith fires a lot of their creative services people and chooses to bring in someone from Nexstar for a corporate role. There wasn't one creative person amongst their ranks they could have kept and bumped up the chain? 

Danielle is super creative and I've always enjoyed her work. However, I'm a bit concerned that farming out creative services will lead to more homogenized work. 

 

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39 minutes ago, TheRob said:

 

She was our creative services director, and her husband was one of our photogs. When she quit last month, the rumor was that she was going to KCTV for the same job, and we were curious why she would make a sideways move like that. But this makes more sense. She was a major factor in the look of our new set and implementing the new graphics before the sale.

 

Yeah, no argument that she's talented. Just disappointed in what I am hearing from friends at Meredith on how poorly they are being treated by corporate, especially the ones who are now left behind. That said, I can't really think of any station group who has a ton of respect for their creative / marketing side... I can't imagine Meredith is going to pump a ton of money into this creative hub, it feels like it's set up to fail much like any of the graphics hubs out there.

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  • 1 month later...

Today could be a decisive day in the history of Meredith, as the stockholders are voting on an amendment to their charter regarding their dual class of stock, and their rights going forward

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2020/11/11/the-vote-is-today

 

The company needs to be broken up since the print is an albatross, even with the brand equity of their publications.  There are plenty of TV operators who could do a better job running their TV stations.

 

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7 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Today could be a decisive day in the history of Meredith, as the stockholders are voting on an amendment to their charter regarding their dual class of stock, and their rights going forward

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2020/11/11/the-vote-is-today

 

The company needs to be broken up since the print is an albatross, even with the brand equity of their publications.  There are plenty of TV operators who could do a better job running their TV stations.

 

And it's been approved.. https://wwd.com/business-news/media/meredith-shareholders-pave-way-for-potential-split-1234655819/

 

5 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

Would this be a Tribune-like situation, where broadcast and print became two different divisions?

According to the article right now there's no imminent plans to split the 2 up all they did was by approving the charter, they made it easier to seperate the 2 divisions if they wanted to than what they had before. So no its not quite like what happened with Tribune.

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 9/11/2020 at 8:52 AM, scrabbleship said:

This is a good look on nobody at all, much more Meredith than a very atypically silent Dennis [House].

 

 

In a year-end piece for the local publication Seasons of Connecticut, Dennis House revealed that his departure from WFSB this past summer was a layoff.
(This link is to a PDF, relevant content on page 44.)

 

If you as a company are laying off the face of your flagship and sole dominant station, in the middle of the most eventful news year ever, less than a year after the other face of your station passed away very suddenly, then something is gravely wrong.

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13 hours ago, scrabbleship said:

 

In a year-end piece for the local publication Seasons of Connecticut, Dennis House revealed that his departure from WFSB this past summer was a layoff.
(This link is to a PDF, relevant content on page 44.)

 

If you as a company are laying off the face of your flagship and sole dominant station, in the middle of the most eventful news year ever, less than a year after the other face of your station passed away very suddenly, then something is gravely wrong.

Meredith's idea of a flagship station is likely tied to the dumpster fire that is WGCL-TV in Atlanta.  It seems they are getting all of the TLC despite it's constant turnover and drama that has persisted ever since Meredith got it back in the 90s (and likely getting CBS in the first place in the New World deal).

 

Meanwhile, a station like WFSB has suffered immensely through tragedy and a shrinking market (whch is why Post-Newsweek saw the writing on the wall years back and swapped it for WKMG....WFSB WAS  Post-Newsweek's flagship, after Detroit News took over WTOP to become WDVM.   Corporate neglect and recklessness is the final nail in WFSB's coffin.

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20 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Meredith's idea of a flagship station is likely tied to the dumpster fire that is WGCL-TV in Atlanta. 

 

Meredith's TV division is headquartered at WFSB's facility. While WGCL has the MCO hub, the day to day operations are in Rocky Hill, not Des Moines or Atlanta.

 

20 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Meanwhile, a station like WFSB has suffered immensely through tragedy and a shrinking market (whch is why Post-Newsweek saw the writing on the wall years back and swapped it for WKMG....WFSB WAS  Post-Newsweek's flagship, after Detroit News took over WTOP to become WDVM.   Corporate neglect and recklessness is the final nail in WFSB's coffin.

 

The fact that they seem to be in no rush to train anyone to anchor there seems to be a huge red flag. I seriously wonder what the next shoe to drop will be.

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37 minutes ago, scrabbleship said:

 

Meredith's TV division is headquartered at WFSB's facility. While WGCL has the MCO hub, the day to day operations are in Rocky Hill, not Des Moines or Atlanta.

 

 

The fact that they seem to be in no rush to train anyone to anchor there seems to be a huge red flag. I seriously wonder what the next shoe to drop will be.

 

WFSB would probably relish the thought of someone else coming in, as in new ownership.

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WGCL getting all the “TLC”? What TLC? 

 

They have let go of more than half a dozen onair people, the building and set is a dump. WFSB was a palace in comparison.

 

Now as for FSB, its beyond me why they would get rid of the top anchorman in the market, eliminating the longest running team that helped make them dominant in the market. 

 

Also.. question for WGCL insiders. FTVLive had a paywall article about the station demoting people in exchange for new contracts. What did the article say? And who is being demoted? 

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42 minutes ago, newsman123 said:

Now as for FSB, its beyond me why they would get rid of the top anchorman in the market, eliminating the longest running team that helped make them dominant in the market. 

 

Because his contract was up and they wanted an easy out? WFSB was dominant before either of them came along, namely owing to WTNH being on the Sound and WVIT being UHF.

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4 hours ago, newsman123 said:

WGCL getting all the “TLC”? What TLC? 

 

They have let go of more than half a dozen onair people, the building and set is a dump. WFSB was a palace in comparison.

 

Now as for FSB, its beyond me why they would get rid of the top anchorman in the market, eliminating the longest running team that helped make them dominant in the market. 

 

Also.. question for WGCL insiders. FTVLive had a paywall article about the station demoting people in exchange for new contracts. What did the article say? And who is being demoted? 

It claimed that reporters were being told they’d have to become MMJs when it came time to renew their contracts. Says that some photogs will likely be cut as a result. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
1 hour ago, Glimmer said:

Haven’t been able to find more than this, but according to TVNewsCheck Meredith is possibly in downsizing mode and has put KMOV, WFSB, WALA and WNEM on the selling block.

The story has been updated, it's actually WGGB not WFSB.

 

"Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the call letters of Meredith’s Springfield, Mass., station."

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7 minutes ago, ScottJ said:

The story has been updated, it's actually WGGB not WFSB.

 

"Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the call letters of Meredith’s Springfield, Mass., station."

 

I bumped back up the Speculatron thread. I do believe it will be a complete sale of their TV division though.

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6 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

So much for Gray getting all 4, unless they're willing to part with WJRT.

 

I could see this going either way, either partial or total.....2021 being the year after a disastrous 2020 could bring a fire sale of epic proportions for MANY companies.

 

 

 

A total sale would be Gray's to lose. But a partial sale would leave open different possibilities - Scripps isn't any of those markets, neither is Hearst.

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