Rowe looks into the changing landscape of local news anchors

N&R writer Jeri Rowe looks into why there are no more news veterans at local television stations, this in the wake of recent movements over at WFMY.

And yes, more reader comments. They are intense.

E.C. :)

Go digital tomorrow

Finally...

Are YOU ready???

E.C. :)

We know what newsradio is...but newsradio is NOT...

...newsradio is NOT a simulcast of a TV news broadcast. That's simply...a simulcast.

It's what college radio WNAA (90.1FM) does during the noon hours everyday with a simulcast of CBS-2 news @ noon. It is also what WXII did on their former 830AM signal before giving it up to Truth Broadcasting's WTRU back in 2000.

Just venting...I see Roch is venting too...

E.C. :)

Bloggers watching the media in upcoming municipal elections

At least one Greensboro area blogger will be watching the media for what he calls "potential biases" in the city's closely-watched upcoming municipal elections this fall.

Dr. Joe Guarino says in a post on his blog that "there is enormous potential for biased media coverage of the 2009 elections." He posted a link to a story in a recent issue of YES! Weekly.

Guarino:

A reader has brought to my attention a story about the 2009 City Council elections.

One should note the discussion of the District 4 race. Challengers Joel Landau, and to a much lesser extent, Teresa Jobe, are given favorable ink. Incumbent Mary Rakestraw is not...Watch for sympathetic, positive portrayals of Joel Landau in particular; and watch for, at best, the absence thereof for Mary Rakestraw.

And when this happens, we need to point it out as best we can.

He also adds:

...it would be a mistake to give the voters too much credit in a place like Greensboro-- particularly when the media does not do its job well in terms of covering candidates and elections.

**********************
E.C. ;)

June 3 Storm Coverage: TV gets an "A", radio gets an "F"

(N&R)

Wall to wall storm coverage yesterday afternoon as the City of Greensboro nearly flooded with a record amount of rainfall.

Local TV did a fairly good job of covering the storms during the event itself. I thought FOX-8 and News 14 Carolina had pretty good coverage.

Local radio...noooope!

After leaving work early last night to rush home to ensure everything was AOK at the Huey ranch, I was disappointed that there was nothing on local radio, and driving conditions between Winston-Salem and Greensboro on I-40 were terrible at 8pm last night. Nothing on WSJS nor WZTK. WMFR? Nope. College stations...WNAA? No. WSNC? No. WUNC? No. WFDD? No.

Discovery? You bet...the Triad has NO local news radio station at all. Pathetic, in a time like last night. Even more pathetic is when WSJS is running promos on its station touting that they stay on the air during weather emergencies.

Something to think about...perhaps an opportunity can be created here.

E.C. :)

YES! Weekly unveils redesign

This week's edition of the YES! Weekly is summed up in one word...sharp. A redesign of the area's alternative weekly shows many surprises.

Editor-in-chief Brian Clarey:

The new YES! Weekly is sleek, clean and more sophisticated in its appearance than we ever thought it could be.
I think it looks like Rolling Stone, before it got tiny.

Big props go out to the new design team — Art Director Lindsay Emeigh, Ashleigh Waters and Loren Bailey — who logged some pretty serious hours on this project.
And kudos to Publisher Charles Womack, who was bold enough to drive this redesign through and see it home.

Don't worry — YES! Weekly still has the same great content from the same great writers, but we look a whole lot prettier.

I agree.

E.C. :)

How to fix CBS-2?

Comments are pouring in on just how to fix WFMY CBS-2. And the opinions are strong on both sides. It obviously shows the brand name of WFMY and its effect on this area. But this appears to be a golden opportunity on how to fix the ailing station.

H/T to John Robinson, who points us to this article in the American Journalism Review on what some other local stations outside of North Carolina are doing to re-jig their local news formats...and it seems to work.

See what the article says about WUSA-9, the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate in Washington, DC:

At WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C., the revamped early morning news looks nothing like the competition. The program appears to be channeling ESPN's SportsCenter. Video that used to be full-screen is now boxed on the upper left side, with a scrolling "rundown" on the right listing upcoming stories and rotating headlines on the bottom. Weather and traffic information, a priority for morning audiences, is always on screen.

"It's a visible strategy that puts information out for people whenever they want it, not when we want to give it to them," says Lane Michaelsen, vice president of the WUSA information center. He calls the rundown a "convenience item" that helps viewers decide when to watch. "They can run to get the paper or brush their teeth and not miss something they want to see."

If viewers can absorb it all without getting a migraine, they can easily catch the top news of the day in less than five minutes. Which raises the question: Why would anyone bother staying tuned longer?

"The hope is we are covering relevant things they want to watch," Michaelsen says. And even if viewers don't stick around for long, he believes they'll come back. "They'll see us as the station that's interested in [their] time."

Bold stuff is what's needed, folks. Why NOT try something different? And I'm not talking Sinclair's NewsCentral-different (that floundered and flubbed and failed)...let's talk something uptown.

How would YOU fix WFMY?

E.C. ;)

CBS-2's Hughes announces her retirement

Longtime CBS-2 (WFMY) anchor Sandra Hughes announced last night she will retire from the Gannett-owned station after 37 years. In her on-air announcement last night, Hughes said she will "ease away" from the station sometime next year.

The move comes only days after nightly co-anchor Kent Bates exited after his contract was not renewed.

Today's News & Record has more and editor John Robinson speculates about forthcoming changes at the Gannett-owned station.

Robinson:

With the announced retirement of anchor Sandra Hughes and the departures of anchor Kent Bates and sports anchor Greg Kerr, WFMY is losing a great deal of experience, institutional memory and brand value. (As jerseyfreeze commented on twitter: "Perhaps the station is moving to an all-weather format.")

I wouldn't go that far, but the station does have a golden opportunity to do something different and innovative with its news programming. The four news stations in this market tend to be the same. News, weather and sports. Nice chatter. Neat graphics. Live standups. They're even nearly right after each other on the cable dial: 9, 10, 11 & 14. Cookie cutter -- and I say that with all due respect.

Here is where we are: Advertising revenue is suffering. Technology has made everyone a publisher/producer. People's news consumption habits are changing. With all the change in the air -- plus vacancies in three of the four chairs in the studio -- why not do something interesting and radical with the newscast?

Maybe if 2 takes the blinders off and discovers the counties outside of Guilford, they may end up making a dent in some of FOX-8's numbers...maybe? Not....

Segmented news is dead.

But I do agree that with the financial problems Gannett is having up in Tysons Corner, Va., coupled with the new brass in the front office, this will be an opportunity for 2 to make some serious changes, and for the better. It can be done.

E.C. ;)