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CBS O&O's New Websites


24994J

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48 minutes ago, 24994J said:

Blow some dust off this thread. The debranding of the channel numbers is gaining momentum with the roll-out of new station sites, extensions of the network's.

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/

I wonder how soon we will see https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/  or https://www.cbsnews.com/kdka/

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1 hour ago, Tyler said:

Interesting. I’m on an iPad and the link directs me into the CBS News app.

 

This looks completely hackneye. They aren't even taking the time mask the domain name record. The menu isn't frozen and the top of the screen is left blank and black. This looks like complete crap!

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  • 2 weeks later...
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On 2/23/2022 at 3:50 PM, Kenneth Kissel said:

It’ll be “CBS News Pittsburgh” for three reasons:

 

1) It ties in the O&Os as part of a major rebuild of CBS News (which, quite frankly, needs to happen) as the O&Os completely power the network news division.

2) Improved online SEO. @Samanthais better at elaborating on this.

3) Audacy pays Paramount Global money to use the KDKA calls as a brand with AM 1020/FM 100.1 and FM 93.7, those two stations have little in common with channel 2 outside of past history and some current marketing tie-ins. Same situation exists in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston (let alone the KCBS calls in both San Francisco and Los Angeles).

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A few notes here in re: @Kenneth Kissel's comment.

 

CBS has done something no other network does. They don't have a network news division and the local stations, they have News and Stations which are one leadership group and are integrated. This makes sense because, as O&Os, editorial responsibility for both lies with one company. It also makes sense given that both needed to do something different badly.

 

CBS as a whole has gone big on a federal brand that is sprawling and consistent. News and sports share big pieces of their visual language with entertainment, etc. The local stations haven't yet had a revamp of their looks to integrate them into this, but that has to be coming (watch for Detroit later this year).

 

Also, why city name? It helps distinguish the social media pages from other stations that are also CBS affiliates and it improves search and app rankings if people search for, say, "Pittsburgh news" or "Denver news". This is especially apparent with the NBC, CBS and Fox groups in re: websites and app names and branding, but you'll see increased city/region name usage across a lot of station groups—"ABC15 Arizona", the "Very Local" OTT channels from Hearst, etc.

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Those sites look nice but they automatically lose 5,000 points for having those stupid Admiral nag pop-ups.... the ads were already paid for, disabling your adblocker doesn't make a difference. if they get rid of that this revamp wil get an A++ in my book.

Those hideous CBS Local sites needed to go ten years ago.

Interesting to see the defense of the above two posts given that most people on this site yearn for station individuality. I guess not in this case?

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On 2/23/2022 at 3:50 PM, Kenneth Kissel said:

They aren’t going to streamline the locals and continue to let KDKA do whatever they want (thankfully). It will be CBS News Pittsburgh. 

Edited by Tyler
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2 hours ago, Tyler said:

They aren’t going to streamline the locals and continue to let KDKA do whatever they want (thankfully). It will be CBS News Pittsburgh. 

The irony here is KDKA is the dominate station in its market while most CBS O&Os are anything but.

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On 3/20/2022 at 10:28 AM, newscopter7 said:

The irony here is KDKA is the dominate station in its market while most CBS O&Os are anything but.

Not exactly. Pittsburgh is a lot more competitive then you think (as you can see here). KDKA is LAST in the Morning News (they tried to Rebrand as "Your Day Pittsburgh" and that isn't working). 

Screenshot_20220310-091655_Chrome.jpg

Edited by Kenneth Kissel
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56 minutes ago, newscopter7 said:

Yeah, KDKA is competitive. Can the same be said of WCBS, KCBS, or WBBM? 

Definitely not WBBM. WGN included ratings for all the stations in the press release they put out that was posted here. WBBM was awful. 3rd, 4th or 5th all day. 
 

https://wgntv.com/community/news-releases/wgn-tv-delivers-strong-viewership-and-growth-in-february-up-against-the-winter-olympics/

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  • 4 weeks later...
4 hours ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

I guess they couldn't decide on the branding. They slapped a "KDKA" in a white square next to the CBS News Pittsburgh logo. They clearly spared no expense with that /s.

Screenshot 2022-04-20 112354.png

They ought to bring back the italicized Group W font and make it fit the box 

 

KD

KA

 

That’s the recognized brand in Pittsburgh—not third placed CBS News. 

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4 hours ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

I guess they couldn't decide on the branding. They slapped a "KDKA" in a white square next to the CBS News Pittsburgh logo. They clearly spared no expense with that /s.

Screenshot 2022-04-20 112354.png

Here we go . I fixed the awkward white square CBS. Your Welcome. I did a 2nd one with the Group W logo for @newscopter7 and @tjt24.

KDKA mock.png

KDKA mock 2 .png

Edited by Kenneth Kissel
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On 4/20/2022 at 3:41 PM, newscopter7 said:

They ought to bring back the italicized Group W font and make it fit the box 

 

KD

KA

 

That’s the recognized brand in Pittsburgh—not third placed CBS News. 

Hate to break it to everyone but "KDKA-TV 2" is already being deemphaized in favor of "CBS News Pittsburgh" and "CBS Pittsburgh".

 

KDKA means radio, and Audacy has a rather sweet licensing deal with Paramount Global to continue using the call letters as a brand. Let them continue to use that name and lessen the confusion, like when people were complaining at KDKA-TV because of Wendy Bell flaming out at KDKA radio.

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1 hour ago, Myron Falwell said:

Hate to break it to everyone but "KDKA-TV 2" is already being deemphaized in favor of "CBS News Pittsburgh" and "CBS Pittsburgh".

 

KDKA means radio, and Audacy has a rather sweet licensing deal with Paramount Global to continue using the call letters as a brand. Let them continue to use that name and lessen the confusion, like when people were complaining at KDKA-TV because of Wendy Bell flaming out at KDKA radio.

Normally, I’d argue that de-emphasizing a heritage brand is a terrible move, but given the collateral damage caused by the Wendy Bell hiring, it actually makes sense in this case. KDKA 1020 is a talk radio outlet that no longer has anything to do with the TV station, and the call letters arguably have a stronger connection to radio than TV (a similar comparison can be made to WABC-TV, which only references their call letters in station IDs and legal disclaimers.)

 

That said, I’m not sure why CBS wants to de-emphasize local brands on all of their stations, given that there tends to be more trust in local news than national news (and CBS News isn’t exactly dominating the ratings in mornings and evenings.)

Edited by nycnewsjunkie
Repetitive language
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Is the heritage brand truly being de-emphasized? That's counter to Wendy McMahon's textbook marketing strategy when she was at both WCCO and WBZ.

 

I would agree, however, that the O&Os branding is very inconsistent; not just within the group, but even at the station-level.

 

I present the table below with no intent of making this a "list" thread, but to simply illustrate my point. 

 

 

Screen Shot 2022-04-24 at 3.40.47 PM.png

Edited by bostonmediaguy
typo
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1 hour ago, bostonmediaguy said:

Is the heritage brand truly being de-emphasized? That's counter to Wendy McMahon's textbook marketing strategy when she was at both WCCO and WBZ.

 

I would agree, however, that the O&Os branding is very inconsistent; not just within the group, but even at the station-level.

 

I present the table below with no intent of making this a "list" thread, but to simply illustrate my point. 

 

 

Screen Shot 2022-04-24 at 3.40.47 PM.png

Perhaps the branding changes are just on the digital side, then. They could be sticking with heritage/local brands on TV while emphasizing the connection to CBS News on most social media sites. Those changes could also be a way of generating more traffic to the main CBS News website (given that the local websites are integrated with CBS News.) That actually makes more strategic sense than wiping away local branding wholesale.

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2 hours ago, bostonmediaguy said:

Is the heritage brand truly being de-emphasized? That's counter to Wendy McMahon's textbook marketing strategy when she was at both WCCO and WBZ.

 

I would agree, however, that the O&Os branding is very inconsistent; not just within the group, but even at the station-level.

 

I present the table below with no intent of making this a "list" thread, but to simply illustrate my point. 

 

 

Screen Shot 2022-04-24 at 3.40.47 PM.png


Extremely inconsistent on the social media and website domain. So the adding of the station to the CBSNews.com format will be much more easier.

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