November Sweeps Woody Has Started

I don't know anything officially but it appeared Thursday marked the first day of the so called November book, based on all the scary promos leading up to Yesterday. I think the best piece of the day was one probably not even promoted as such. That would be KAKE's Deb Farris' story on a Pratt football player injured in September, back on the sidelines to watch his teammates last night. Sure we've seen a million stories like it, but they always offer some inspiration and compared to the other Sweeps offerings last night, I think it was the best. Deb should have gotten double pay as I think the promoted KAKE Sweeps piece for the night was hers on Vanishing Veins. It was OK but it didn't really interest me. I am sure it was average or better but didn't really peak my interest. After all I am a guy, that may be part of it, but it certainly was a story I would have been upset if I would have rushed home just to see it.
KSN heavily promoted a piece this week on gas prices and an interview with officials at QT down at their headquarters in Tulsa. By the end of Sweeps I think the promo might be the best one of the month, however the story itself kind of dragged on. Even with gas prices heading down, it was smart to do a Sweeps piece on the topic because about everyone has talked about the prices in the last few months. With the topic and the promo I am sure a few extra people tuned in. I did get some answers I had always wanted about gas prices like why prices in one area of town are different then the other when its the same brand of gas.
KWCH had an Answer Back 12 piece on delinquent taxes. I don't know if that was an actual Sweeps piece or not. Alana Rocha did a nice job and it was certainly better than a typical day's story. -Hal

KWCH's New Graphics

New KWCH look- Just in time for Sweeps (which should be starting real shortly), KWCH has debuted new graphics on their shows. It is a clean look using red, blue and white. No, it doesn't have stars and stripes. I am sure someone was waiting for that comment. Its not a bad look. It reminds me of another station's look, I have seen somewhere in this country during my travels. It's not overly busy and not distracting. The moving graphics getting into stories or signaling live shots are decent. This may happen and I couldn't see it, but I wish the backgrounds on those would move slightly, but that may not be possible. I haven't decided if the name graphics are the right size, yet. I was trying to find an example of a story with the graphics in it online, for the readers not in the viewing area, however the stories I saw online do not have the graphics inserted. E-mail me if you see one that has it.
Elgin Ray Robinson Jr. life verdict - I have been growing tired of the Elgin Ray Robinson Jr. trial. It is something that has to be covered. Yesterday a jury could not come to a unanimous decision on giving Robinson death so he will get life without parole. At 10, KAKE and KSN lead with the story. KSN basically repeated everything that was said that day and during the last month and didn't advance anything outside of saying his life was spared. I will give KAKE's Abby Barnett credit trying to advance the story last night. It can be an overused premise to find jurors and ask them to take viewers "behind the close doors of deliberations," and other metaphors. I was actually interested because a guy's life was being decided. However she lacked execution (sorry, bad word to use) in pulling the story off. If the normally strong Dana Hertneky (who had nothing new in her story on KSN) had Abby's material I think she could have pulled it off and made it better.
Sweeps Woody Warning: As I often say around this time, the scary voice guy promos are running so it has to signal one thing, Sweeps. As always little will change ratings wise, but will have to see if the stations' plans of attack change at all. -Hal

The Future of TV News, Headed to New York??

You can usually depend on larger cities to see trends in different industries. However in TV for years, TV stations in smaller towns have had limited employees. Employees often do more than one job like reporting, taking pictures and putting it all together, rather than have separate people report, photograph and edit. As budgets get trimmed many see the wave to "one-man bands" becoming all the norm. If I'm correct I think Wichita has at least one in the city while the stations' outposts all are staffed with "one-man bands." For the most part, I think the stations in Wichita have full crews. In an article in the NY Observer, it appears NBC station, WNBC, is headed in the direction of smaller stations by adding the term "content producer." Maybe "content producer" is the PC way to say "one-man band." If New York gets it to work out, that really may speed up the time frame of changes in the industry. -Hal

KAB Awards and KWCH Newsroom Remodel

The KAB Awards were handed out in recent days in Wichita. There is always grumbling it seems when awards are handed out each year whether it be from the KAB or the Associated Press. I don't follow the awards that closely each year, but it seems over time it all averages out. This year's awards included local individuals such as KWCH meteorologist Merril Teller being inducted into the KAB Hall of Fame. Former KAKE meteorologist Jim O'Donnell was inducted posthumously. Not to be forgotten, but on the radio side of things longtime Wichita and KNSS newsman Steve McIntosh was inducted as well.

As for news coverage awards handed out last night, KSN got station of the year and won 4 other first place awards while KWCH won two first place awards. Maybe KAKE didn't enter because I didn't even see them place. One criticism you hear about the KAB awards is the way they break the markets up. They have three divisions Major (Kansas City) Large (Wichita) and then Medium (Topeka and everything else). So it becomes a competition within each market. I think that can be a little goofy. Kansas City Star TV columnist Aaron Barnhart has an interesting blog entry on the topic. And as he points out all of the winners in the Major market division of the KAB are from Missouri, since the KC stations make up that division.

KWCH Newsroom - It looks like KWCH has a new shot from their newsroom or remodeled it. There is a wall of TV monitors and it appears good, even though it looks more like a set then a conventional newsroom. Some may say, what's the point, its supposed to be a set. No, not a newsroom shot, a newsroom should look like just that. You have people walking behind and all, but its still a little formulaic for me, but don't get me wrong I still like the look. It kind of reminds me when KSN actually moved their whole newscasts out to the newsroom a couple of years ago. -Hal

KWCH On-Air Tweaks

If you live in the Wichita TV market viewing area, I assume you have seen the promos on KWCH with Michael Schwanke. Apparently he will start co-anchoring the 5PM with Cindy on Monday. I think this will help them, but not in a way many would think. It will help their reporting. He was anchoring the weekends and then reporting 3 weekdays. I assume now he'll anchor at 5PM weekdays and then report during those evenings. I think KWCH has the weakest reporting staff as a whole and having their strongest reporter, now five days a week really helps them.

Another change I noticed this morning is Kim Hynes no longer anchors the Saturday morning newscast on KWCH. I must admit I never watched the show and don't know how long the change has been in place. New hire Kara Sewell now anchors the show and is a great improvement over Kim. Kara has a lot of confidence while anchoring, yet she doesn't come across as though she is talking down to the audience. She looks young, but her demeanor definitely helps out her overall delivery. So now I am wondering who will take over for Schwanke on the weekend evenings?

On one hand I have to say, when you are #1 and you make some changes you at least aren't taking things for granted. However, I am curious if the new news director is the one behind these changes? If so, it sure hasn't taken him long to start switching things up. -Hal

Facebook, Myspace and Twitter: The Savior of TV News?

Although only four people commented on the last post, I am going to continue with what appears as a not so local issue, but will alter TV news as we know it on a local level. In the interest of full disclosure I saw this on lostremote.com. I know a couple of the readers always say that the site is against broadcast TV and only cares about online issues. I think no matter how you feel, people have to be somewhat open for discussion on how TV news is evolving. An article in the Miami Herald, features one show which may provide us a glimpse of where TV news is headed. The article features a show on CNN from 2PM until 3PM weekdays, hosted by Rick Sanchez. It is high paced and many issues are discussed in the hour. The show is interactive by having an open dialogue with viewers and the host through social networking sites: Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace. The show is viewed as a success, certainly by the network, because ratings for that hour have increased 25 percent, since it began. Its this ratings success which worries me. Will shows like this become mainstream and eventually replace Today's newscasts as we know it? Also it would be cheaper production wise because you would need less reporters and production people. They could be replaced with a talking head who scans his or her social networking sites. Some may say a show mixed with Facebook and Twitter livens up a show. However, as I wrote in the last post I think it opens the media up for criticism if information, not so accurate, gets out all in the name of interactivity or citizen journalism.
In the Miami Herald article, John Klein, the head of CNN America is quoted as saying, "The speed of life has increased steadily for decades. We've gone from the network TV news cycle, delivering stories once a day at 6:30, to the cable news cycle, 24 hours a day, to the Internet news cycle, nearly instantaneous, to the blog news cycle, where it doesn't even have to be news, just whispers or rumor. Now we've reached Twitter, which is life beat-by-beat: I'm picking up the phone, I'm on the phone, I'm opening a Coke. That's the speed of Rick's show." I know the business is evolving and some (such as Sanchez) may call me a dinosaur, but I question if this really is good for informing the public. -Hal

A Hole in the "iReport" World?

Although this isn't exactly local, I think the topic certainly should be on the radar of all news organizations. National news networks and in some areas even local stations invite viewers to submit video clips and other news items to use for air. It has been called citizen journalism. For the most part, it is limited to viewers giving their opinions, like for instance, on the debate last night. However, a recent report on CNN's iReport had impact on Apple's stock price. Like other sites, viewers can submit their stories and make it on the CNN iReport site. For the most part they do not make it to air. This morning a story hit the site saying Apple's Steve Jobs was rushed to the hospital after a heart attack. Apple reps say it did NOT happen. It may not have made it onto CNN TV, however Apple's stock price took a big fall after the story hit "iReport" and until it could be determined it wasn't true. Here is an account of the incident. On the iReport site is a slogan, "Unedited. UnFiltered. News." It should be noted that although the site may be owned by the company owning CNN and says it is powered by CNN, the site says that CNN, "makes no guarantees about the content or the coverage on ireport.com!" I think some who go to these "citizen" input sites may assume these sites would take these submissions by "citizen journalists" as a traditional media source would and check it out with sources before publishing, broadcasting or posting, but not in this case. That's why media literacy is key more than ever. Citizen journalism may be fine for the opinions of so called "normal Joe's," but I think using the submissions for hard news stories unfiltered is irresponsible at this time. It is also an example where citizen journalism puts the responsibility of deciding fact or fiction solely on the reader. One may say that has always been the case, but now its true more than ever. -Hal

Economic Bail Out: Local Fall Out

An interesting opinion on the economic problems and how it affects local TV news. The following two columns say it won't effect the National media nearly as bad has it is set up to effect local media, because often they depend on auto dealers and small businesses for advertising. The article continues to say even aggressive efforts on the internet will not be able to make up for the difference. So, is this a major moment in local TV and will TV news be forced to downsize even quicker? Will we see one-man bands now even sooner than expected? -Hal


http://www.lostremote.com/2008/09/30/the-perfect-economic-storm-for-local-tv/

http://www.lostremote.com/2008/09/26/economy-has-profound-effect-on-local-tv/