KSN's Anita Cochran to Step Down as Main Anchor

It first came as a comment, but now I see it in a Wichita Eagle story: Anita Cochran to step down. It certainly was something that doesn't surprise me and something I would think if handled in the right way may improve things, ratings wise, at KSN. I always thought Anita was a great newsreader, she just for whatever reason didn't fit Wichita very well. Its unknown from the article whether she is still going to stay at the station and who possible replacements would be. It sounds like she would like to move on while KSN would like to fit her in a smaller role. So lets open it up. Who would you like to see anchor at KSN? Also, please vote in the new Poll question.
Also, here is an article which appeared on the station's website from the station's news director. -Hal

Cessna Layoffs and State Legislature Coverage

Although we still do not know the exact number in Wichita, Cessna confirmed they will cut 2000 jobs throughout the company. KWCH and KAKE (KSN led with Topeka) led with it at 10. Although KWCH did not lead with it at 6 (KAKE and KSN did), KWCH did at 10 and definitely had the best tease and angle on the cuts. I still think the story could have been better, however it could have just been that the wording of the tease really oversold me on the possibility of watching a different layoffs story, besides asking workers in their cars what they think (like KAKE and KSN at 10). Rebecca Gannon did not have those interviews and I was glad for that. The tease going into the KWCH 10PM newscast had county commissioner Gwen Welshimer on the screen as the voice talked about how the county and city had agreed months ago to give Cessna incentives to build a new pant. It talked about the layoffs and asked whether taxpayers would foot part of the bill of a new plant for a company laying off people. In the story Welshimer then says how those incentives haven't yet and wont be given to the company until they complete different phases of the facility. Of the three, I will give KWCH credit for advancing the story beyond asking the workers in their cars leaving the plant how they feel about the layoffs. I just felt I was going to get a little more on that story besides a sound bite from Welshimer about the county's incentive deal and then pretty much a summary of everything else that happened in the day regarding the upcoming layoffs. It may be no fault of Rebecca Gannon. I think she advanced the county and city incentive angle as much as she could, her story was simply upstaged by a well written tease. And in the TV business that should be considered a good night, when they sell themselves well and get people to watch.

State of the State - KAKE had Abby Barnett in Topeka at 5 and 6PM. They improved their coverage substantially at 10PM when I believe they had sister station, WIBW main anchor Melissa Brunner, cover the Governor's address. I didn't catch the name, but I believe it was her. I thought she was very good and do not understand why Abby and her don't switch and have Melissa head to Wichita and Abby stay in Topeka. Having the WIBW anchor do KAKE's report at ten improved their coverage from the earlier newscasts and evened things out among the three stations at 10PM. KWCH's Kim Wilhelm and KSN's Anne Meyer have covered the Legislature many times before and their experience shows in their reports from the Statehouse versus the always green Abby. -Hal

Missing Boy Coverage Continues

Throughout this week most of the newscasts led with the latest day's twists in the case of an El Dorado boy who went missing 10 years ago and how his adoptive parents never reported him missing. As I said in a previous post, KWCH certainly lead the coverage with gets of various relatives early on. The others followed in the days after. However, now I think its getting to be a little too much. All the relatives names are all running together to the point where you need a scorecard at home to not get confused as to who is being interviewed. Its almost like I will turn on to KWCH and hear big announcer voice guy say, "Tonight's long lost Adam Herrman relative interview is brought to you by ABC Grocery." (12 Troll, I know now, you are probably foaming at the mouth.) Let me just say there comes a point, even if there are not all the answers yet, to give the story a few days rest and come back when there is more and NEW information. Tonight at six, KWCH certainly could not resist giving it a rest as Rebecca Gannon talked to trainers of dogs used to pick up the scent of dried human blood and other things that might offer clues in the case. They will search an area on Saturday. I don't understand why she didn't interview the dog itself. It could've been their latest exclusive.

Fatal House Fire - A fatal house fire late Friday kept the stations busy and lead the 10PM shows. KWCH - Although I thought they won the battle on the Herrman coverage, they ranked last with the fire. (That doesn't bother me a bit, because you can win some and then lose some with breaking news. Sometimes the best its used for is promos after the fact. To me that isn't a loss, especially when you are already #1.) KWCH lead with Cindy Klose reading on camera that there had been a fire and then onto other news. Meanwhile KSN led with the fire and had reporter Justin Kraemer live from the scene. Although live, he didn't have the exact news or in his wrap-up say that it was a fatal fire in the midst of me switching channels. He mentioned that the victim was "Code Blue." I am not quite sure what that means, something like the victim isn't breathing or doesn't have a heartbeat. It would be helpful to have the reporter speak to his audience and say what the code means. Meanwhile KAKE was live with Natasha Trelfa and she did report and repeat that the fire was indeed fatal. Of the two live reports, her's came off a little smoother than Kraemer's, not to mention that she made it clear and repeated that it was a fatality. She certainly does well in these live breaking situations and is a nice change from past KAKE reporters who would make the viewer tired after the story because the reporters were so hyped up telling the news from the latest shooting or fire. -Hal

The Tale of 2 Newscasts: KWCH's 5PM and 6PM

I was caught up in the holidays, out of town and have not posted in awhile. I have a lot on my mind, but the media coverage of the missing boy in El Dorado has been interesting. For those of you who do not live in the area, an 11 year-old boy disappeared 10 years ago. His adoptive parents did not report him missing. Suddenly, last week, the Butler County Sheriff said he was working a missing person's case and couldn't release much info, not even a name, but would release more info at a Monday morning press conference. From last week to today the local media has worked the story and have found out more information. However, without a doubt, KWCH and reporter Michael Schwanke has been out in front of the story, since the beginning with interviews of family members before the other stations. (12 Troll, I complemented your station. You may not want to read the next paragraph.) Tonight at 5PM, KWCH leads with a great full story by Schwanke with an interview with the adoptive brother of the missing boy. The other stations do not have the interview. That 5PM newscast was well done. In a story that has lead for several days its good to get the freshest information. Although there was a press conference, there wasn't a whole lot of new information. While the other stations lead with the press conference and new interviews from people previously interviewed, KWCH had someone new and interesting. Then comes 6.

For a station who so overwhelmingly beat the other two at 5, KWCH failed miserably at 6. They had all the ingredients needed, but the producing failed. With better producing KAKE and KSN made it seem like they had just as much as KWCH at 6. KWCH led with Kim Hynes setting the scene from El Dorado and sound from the press conference. It drug on way to long. I know they were trying to set the scene of what happened today, but that could have easily been done from the desk in 30-45 seconds and then immediately to Schwanke's story with the adoptive brother like they did at 5PM. Instead, following Hynes' report, they have one sound bite from the adoptive brother. The story Schwanke did at 5PM would have been a much better fit at 6 and they could have touted the "exclusive" part of it more. Schwanke is anchoring and the 12 troll could argue that played into the decision making on why Schwanke didn't do a full story at 6 on the brother like he did at 5PM. To that, I say you must decide which is the more important newscast, 5 or 6. I would say the longer version runs at 6 instead of 5PM. Take the 6PM newscast out of the equation and KWCH has been out ahead of this story, but Tonight's 6PM newscast is an example of how a poor newscast structure can undermine a station's great coverage. -Hal

The DTV Test & The Crawl as a Bargaining Tool

I was watching the local Fox news as they were hyping their DTV test last night and then I heard recaps of similar tests done earlier on KWCH and KSN. I assume KAKE might have done the same thing last night. Apparently if your TV was not equipped you would have seen static and if it was fine you saw bars in some tests like on KWCH and on the Fox one I saw "Everybody Loves Raymond" promos, signaling I guess, all was good with my cable and I was ready for the switchover. Plus the stations had special lines people could call to have their questions answered. It appeared as if they were local numbers and answered by local people. What a concept or was it just cheaper that way? I am curious how the tests went at the various stations.

The Crawl as a Bargaining Tool?
It has also been interesting to watch the crawls lately through the tests. Back in the day you only saw crawls for severe weather. Lately you started seeing them warning people about the switch to DTV. Last night I saw a crawl on one of the stations using it as an apparent leverage tactic in bargaining agreements with various cable operators in the area. The crawl basically stated that if you had one of the cable companies listed as a cable provider to contact that provider because if they don't reach an agreement with the TV station, the viewer wouldn't see programming from the station after a certain date. Because of all the crawls, I haven't been reading them lately and the one last night lumped in with the rest so I cannot remember which station did this. Maybe more than one is doing this and I simply have missed it in growing tired of the crawls. The airwaves are the public's in one sense, but the programming and content is owned and controlled by the stations so they do what they think they need to like running bargaining crawls. I really don't have any views one way or another about it, but I am curious if anyone else has seen the crawls aimed specifically on the cable agreements and if any of them has interrupted your viewing of key programs. Of course when the crawls are aimed at weather info and maybe saving people's lives, angry viewers call in for that, so I am curious what happens on something like this. -Hal

Gallup: Local TV News Leads But Declining

A new Gallup survey shows that although a majority of Americans still get their news from local TV stations, it has declined from the previous year along with many other daily news sources, except cable TV news and of course the internet. Local TV news declined 3 percentage points. Sorry to say, but declining only 3 points in a year I think is a mini victory for local TV news. Digging deeper into the results, a higher percentage of viewers say they watch cable TV news than they do nightly network newscasts for the first time since Gallup started the survey in 1995. I think another one of the problematic issues for local TV news is if viewers don't watch the nightly network newscasts. I feel many local stations put more effort into a 6PM newscast than a 10PM and I really don't understand that. However, local TV stations should still be happy that a majority in the survey say they still get their news from them.

Moonves Foreshadows Network TV's Future? - CBS Chief Exec. Les Moonves said in a Marketwatch article that in 10 years the traditional model of airing new network programing on local affiliates may not exist in favor of offering a feed directly to satellite or cable operators and bypassing those local stations. This doesn't come as a surprise in premise, but it does surprise me that Moonves said it publicly. It definitely shows that local stations must look to diversify and expand its product on other platforms in order to continue to remain viable. -Hal

The Local TV News Business Game

Upon reading news today of NBC Universal slashing 500 jobs and Viacom cutting about 850 jobs, I began wondering how are things evolving locally. I think some of the cuts at NBC, Viacom and other networks were going to happen whether the economy took a turn or not, because of changes in technology and media consumption. However, the economic downturn stirs the pot even more and accelerates change in the media world. I have found it interesting in reading articles and watching stories about the economic problems how the example of local car dealers' slumps across the country have forced them to cut back on advertising in newspapers, radio and television. Not only are these stories appearing in trade publications, but also on shows and publications watched and read by the mainstream population. Its been awhile since I have heard of any large layoffs happening in Wichita at TV stations. There have been comments made to the posts that one station isn't replacing people when they leave and making 1 person do the job of a couple. Is it just a matter of time before we hear of big cuts in this market? Or are Wichita stations already dealing with minimum staffs and there are no cuts to make? With technology and the economy influencing the business at identical times, it will be interesting to see what happens. I am curious to hear your opinions.
KPTS Larry Hatteberg Special - KPTS airs a special called, "Larry Hatteberg's Kansas People," Tonight at 7PM on the local PBS station. It re airs Sunday, December 14 at 6PM. The website describes it as "collection of some of his favorite stories from the television series on KAKE TV." The special happens to run during one of the station's fundraising drives. -Hal