Comments on: Re-education camp

By: Is Television News Next? « The Brookhaven Bear Report

Is Television News Next? « The Brookhaven Bear Report — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:43:17 +0000

[...] view into that world. It reveals the behind-the-scenes stuff, such as sending reporters to “Back Pack School”. It also offers a clue to the state of mind of television management, and they have to be [...]

By: Scott Hedeen

Scott Hedeen — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:51:51 +0000

“Being #1 is NOT the goal. Making a profit is the goal.”

It’s a hard lesson to learn. I got a great eduaction on that at a job I had in PA back in the 90′s. It’s a business. Journalism …GOOD journalism… is just a happenstance that stations get if their news crews can…or are given the chance… or take it on their own. It was true in 1990… same as it is here in 2008.

By: Steve S

Steve S — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:26:06 +0000

The bottom line for WXIA and possibly most tv news of late is that the station is doing a balancing act. How many screw-ups will the viewers tolerate and yet still watch. Right now WXIA is making more money in advertising on their newscasts than it costs to produce their newscasts. Their goal is to bring down the cost even more (not replacing those who leave or if they do, they pull people in from small markets). As long as they can continue to sell air time to advertisers and that money is more than the cost to produce the newscast, then the newscast was a success. Being #1 is NOT the goal. Making a profit is the goal. That is the Gannett way.

By: JasonC

JasonC — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:25:35 +0000

For 30 something years, everyone has been chasing WSB, now WXIA has a news strategy… knock 46 from the bottom of the pile. Interesting.

I wonder if there were any shock waves felt at KUSA or KARE.

By: Scott Hedeen

Scott Hedeen — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:40:36 +0000

I learned a long time ago. TV news stories were the things that went in between the commericals.

By: Cameraman

Cameraman — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:52:49 +0000

Just to make things clear. Cal Callaway was forced out of his job. Bob Walker, the station President, has been looking for his replacement for months and this dog and pony show that Cal wanted to return to “day to day” news is a big cover. A new “Director of the Information Center” is in the wings.

WXIA needs their reporters to do one man band duty because they are not replacing news photographers that leave. WXIA will never hire another news photographer. When the time comes Paul, Jon, Jerry, Julie, Catherine and whoever else WXIA can find will be doing their own live shots as well.

Come October, no news photographer or OMB reporter will be able to drive their news car home after their shift. At that point, to cover a story a WXIA journalist will have to drive to the station and move their equipment into an available “pool” vehicle and go to their story.

Gannett and WXIA has made it very clear, by all of this, that if it comes to providing the best news coverage for their community or saving a buck or two, where their priorities are.

By: Inquiring Mind

Inquiring Mind — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:31:54 +0000

Any truth to word that Cal Callway resigned from WXIA?

By: SSG Daly

SSG Daly — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:56:07 +0000

Julie Wolfe is a former “Runner Cam” intern and one of the best interns ever. No surprise she’s making a good career for herself. The last “Runner Cam” I did before leaving WAGA had a great intern run along with myself and Gail Deevers. I can’t remember her name, but she had the same type of guts as Wolfe and may be following in Ms. Wolf’s shoes some day.

By: live apt fire

live apt fire — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:58:25 +0000

@ Hedeen: You’ve set an LAF record. Thanks for visiting and making 15 comments. I need guest bloggers. Consider yourself recruited.

By: JasonC

JasonC — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:17:01 +0000

“Have they figured out how to do one-man band live shots yet??”

They had that tackled years ago! Don’t you remember watching Al Franken on SNL with the dish on his head? Actually, I hear UGA has ENG Scooters that is specifically for this purpose and has cameras mounted on the motorcycle.

Ultimately this all comes down to management using the best methods to allocate their resources and clearly Gannett/WXIA isn’t doing that. Julie and Jerry do a great job, so let them do one-man-band, but why take the legs out from under the rest of your reporters and especially your photogs which is the strength of the station. It’s like having Dan Marino at QB, but deciding to run the wishbone.