Archive for the ‘TV’ Category

Oriella PR surveyed 770 journalists from in 15 countries about their perceptions of the future of their media channels. More than half (52%) said their print publication, TV station or radio station might well be taken off the market, though they didn’t ask for a specific time frame. This was a sharp increase from the one in 3 who shared that view a year ago.

You can download a PDF of the study (free registration required).

I’ve been complaining for quite a while about the absence of any straight prime time cable news. On the right, we had O’Reilly and Hannity at Fox. On the left was MSNBC, with Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. That left a wide open window of opportunity for CNN, but until now they’ve squandered it by letting Lou Dobbs rant for an hour every night, primarily about immigration.

By replacing Dobbs with John King, they’ll have a solid offering of Wolf Blitzer, King and Campbell Brown. And my guess is that people are hungry enough for prime time news that they’ll pull CNN out of last place. Now if Larry King would only retire, CNN would be free to return in prime time to its roots.

People under 45 or so can’t imagine it, but there was a time when four men — Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, John Chancellor and Walter Cronkite brought us the news in a way we’ll never experience again. The best of them all was Cronkite, who anchored the CBS Evening News for 19 years and died tonight at the age of 92.

Cronkite brought us the moon landings 40 years ago, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the assassination of President Kennedy. And I remember the images and words from every one of those broadcasts. The man had power, humanity and credibility like nobody we’ve seen since. He retired nearly three decades ago, but he’s such an icon that his voice and face remain familiar to people who weren’t even born the last time he signed off with his signature phrase, “And that’s the way it is.”

The sad thing is that most people now have no idea what a national treasure we’ve lost.

I haven’t seen the numbers yet, but there’s no doubt that the death of Michael Jackson has trumped the struggle for a fair election in Iran, as well as the global swine flu pandemic. I usually avoid discussing content, but I couldn’t resist in this case, because it has been years since we have made such a choice between the titillating and the important. What are the public policy implications of Jackson’s death? I can’t think of a single one.

The event has exposed all the weakness of 24-hour cable news, as the cable networks virtually abandoned regular programming to cover the non-story. That, of course, meant “reporting” on every rumor and tidbit with no sense of perspective or concern for accuracy.

Publicly traded companies tend to dump their bad news toward the end of the quarter, which I believe accounted for the spike in media bankruptcies in April. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the same in June.

Editor & Publisher has a good story about just what bankruptcy means in terms of a company’s ability to survive. Read the rest of this entry »

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter had a great story over the weekend about the troubles TV sations are going through. I’ve paid this far less attention than the newspaper crisis, because the newspapers play a more important role in serious journalism.

The story cites a study by Robert A. Papper, a journalism professor at Hofstra,who surveys stations every year. He found that:

• Local stations cut 1,200 jobs in 2008.
• Reporter salaries dropped 13%.
• Anchor salaries dropped 11.5%.

I don’t follow broadcast nearly so much as print and web, so I completely missed the trend toward TV stations lengthening their newscasts even as they cut people. Fewer reporters covering more news and filling more time can’t possibly have a happy ending. Washington Post story.

Local Media: Starving for Ad Dollars – BusinessWeek

Why they’re doing far worse than national media—and why ad spending may not come back quickly, if ever

By Jon Fine
BW Magazine

This is a different kind of recession—one that started quietly in late 2007, before the very big bangs hit the very big banks. It’s driving a different kind of U.S. ad cycle as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Mmmm … hard to see this working out.

Hartford Courant, 2 TV stations combine operations — chicagotribune.com

Hartford Courant, 2 TV stations combine operations
Exec of parent Tribune Co. calls move ‘future of media’

By Phil Rosenthal | Tribune media columnist
March 31, 2009

Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co. said Monday that it is bringing together the operations of its newspaper and two television stations in Hartford, Conn.

Richard Graziano, senior vice president and general manager of Tribune Co.’s WTIC-TV and WTXX-TV who also oversees Tribune Co. stations in Philadelphia and Washington, has been named publisher of the Hartford Courant, effective immediately.

Graziano replaces Steve Carver, a longtime broadcast executive and onetime vice president and general manager of Chicago’s WGN-AM 720 who joined the print side of Tribune Co. as publisher of the Courant in 2006.

“This is the future of media,” Randy Michaels, Tribune Co.’s chief operating officer, said in a statement. “Whether in print, over the air, or online—the delivery mechanism isn’t as important as the unique, rich nature of the content provided. Bringing these media properties together will enable us to bring more resources to our news coverage, improving and expanding what we can offer readers, viewers and advertisers in the area.”

Tribune Co. last year moved WSFL-TV into the same South Florida building as its SunSentinel newspaper, installing the newspaper’s publisher, Howard Greenberg, as the TV station’s general manager.

The company also has announced plans in the Chicago area to move its CLTV cable operations into WGN-Ch. 9.

In Hartford, where the advertising sales forces of the Tribune Co. newspaper and two television stations were consolidated last year, construction of a studio in the Courant’s newsroom is expected to begin this summer.

“This move is a demonstration of our commitment to news and to downtown Hartford,” Graziano said in the announcement. “The people who live and work in this area have been through a lot recently and the local economy is tough, but the folks here are resilient and dedicated to making things better for themselves and their communities. So are we.”

WTIC and WTXX, a CW outlet, are the only Hartford TV stations broadcasting local news in Connecticut’s capital.

The Courant is the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper.

Excite News – CNN in third place in prime time for first time

Mar 27, 9:23 PM (ET)

By DAVID BAUDER

(AP) In this Nov. 11, 2008 file photo, Anderson Cooper of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” arrives at the…
Full Image

NEW YORK (AP) – CNN is poised to finish March third in the prime-time weeknight ratings behind Fox News Channel and MSNBC, the first time this has ever happened for the channel that pioneered the cable news genre nearly three decades ago.

CNN says its overall business is healthy and it is not straying from its straight news path. But it is suffering more audience erosion than its rivals since the peak days of the presidential election, further proof that the opinionated prime-time shows on Fox and MSNBC have greater audience loyalty.

CNN’s weekday prime-time ratings are relatively flat compared to last year during the primary campaign, up 1 percent from March 2008, according to Nielsen Media Research. Fox’s ratings have jumped 30 percent and MSNBC, the new No. 2, is up 24 percent. The biggest growth in cable news is for CNN’s partner, HLN, formerly Headline News, which is up 62 percent. Read the rest of this entry »