Operators of television news operations are real innovators, constantly seeking new methods to take the working environment to a new level of hellishness. The latest Dogbertian development, news at 4:30 in the freakin’ morning – and in some markets, 4:00 am! Wow. Think the HUT levels are strong at 0400? Not at all. What this […]
The Q13 scandal keeps growing!
August 9, 2010 by
The freelance photographer, Jud Morris, at the center of the Q13 police video cover-up fiasco is now accused of stealing a couple of cameras from the station – the same station that fired him for selling his video to KIRO after Q13 allegedly sat on it for fear of ruining its cozy relationship with the […]
The new normal
August 4, 2010 by
Media earnings reports are in – and the news is great – along with a whole lot of other economic data that’s sitting just beyond the mainstream media’s gaze. Belo (KING5), Sinclair, Nextar and a bunch of ownership groups are reporting good numbers. What will happen? Well, I think we’ll continue to see the erosion […]
Running my yap about an app
August 2, 2010 by
ABC News’ App for iPad features a fisheye globe that the user can touch and spin to select a news story. The “TV anywhere” model has always been the Holy Grail of the content creation community. It holds the promise of giving end users control of the content they consume when they want, and where […]
Does Q13 really need an “Imaginator?”
July 28, 2010 by
Of all the things that have driven TV news viewers away, the Tribune Company seems to think it’s the anchors and reporters. Mike McGuff’s Houston-based media blog reports that starting with KIAH-TV in Houston, this fall Tribune is going to roll out something called “NewsFix” – which will be a series of “fast paced” photo […]
TV news body count
June 25, 2010 by
Hofstra University did a study about the number of worker bees in the exciting world of TV news. This year, only about 400 folks lost their jobs – quite an improvement over last year when about 1,200 were axed. This of course doesn’t count the hundreds, if not thousands, of others who decide the industry […]
The starbucks bureau
June 19, 2010 by
Mark my words, every Starbucks in America is now a new “bureau” for local news teams. Seriously. The last TV station I worked at was actually rolling out a digital strategy that involved feeding content back from wi-fi hotspots dotted around the market, and now with Starbucks offering free wi-fi, those hotspots are well mapped […]
Q13 – Why it hurts
May 25, 2010 by
I’ve spent a little time hammering Q13 for its censorship and editorial conspiracy issues lately, and I thought it was time to hand out some kudos. Darren Dedo did a story on tow truck driver Gordon Simmons on this morning’s show. It was great. Darren’s writing was outstanding, and the photog/editor did an amazing job […]
Q13 not the norm
May 21, 2010 by
One of the things that drives me most crazy is when people’s unfounded suspicions, superstitions, magical thinking and faulty logic is confirmed by real world events. These coincidental alignments of fantasy and reality are often responsible for this country’s voodoo culture which encourages bad science, prayer in place of study, misappropriated authority, litigiousness and the […]
Size doesn’t matter
May 14, 2010 by
Independent stations work double time trying to prove they are not the “off brand” choice for news, and then @#$% like this happens. To catch you up, Q13 had the video of the recent Seattle cop-versus-innocent suspect incident but sat on it. The freelance photog who shot it, saw what was happening, and sold it […]
Belo hits a big one
May 3, 2010 by
KING’s parent, Belo, is reporting some strong earnings news – following a recent and welcome trend among broadcast groups. Belo is up 17% in the first quarter over last year. Now remember, last year the bottom fell out, but still – the trend is in the right direction. A local station’s life blood, automotive advertising, […]
Get interested already
April 7, 2010 by
Comcast won a little victory in court allowing it to continue to throttle high-demand services like Bit Torrent without the FCC being able to get involved. Comcast loves the ruling and promises to keep the net available and fast for most customers. Net neutrality advocates say the FCC had better jump in right now to […]
Give Diane Sawyer a camera?
February 24, 2010 by
ABC is swinging the axe and taking about 3-400 people in its news division. It’s been death by a thousand cuts at all the networks, and most local affiliates around the country too. The trades I read are filled with the stories of people in the TV news business either getting canned, or hitting the […]
Death on the luge
February 17, 2010 by
As you might imagine, there has been quite the tempest in a teapot over the airing of the fatal luge accident at the Olympics. I have no inside information on this, but Iím sure the phones were pretty active at KING after the footage aired. But frankly, I wonder about that too: The viewership is […]
Sharify Shining
February 15, 2010 by
We have a few master storytellers in the Seattle market. They wouldn’t make it anywhere else because they’re probably too old, or too stubborn, or too opinionated, or too old school for management’s current taste for cheap and malleable pawns who think it’s cool just being on TV – even if you’re working in a […]
YouNews: It’s Coming
February 10, 2010 by
Guess what the hot new gadgets are for local TV stations? Answer: Devices that allow the quick and easy ingestion (non indigestion) of viewer-generated content. Why in the world would a TV station fill its newscast with poorly shot video? Because it’s cheap. In fact, think about carving out a YouNews space in your market […]
