When a newscast comes off without a hitch, the Anchors look so cleaned and polished and in total control.
But, when the technology craps out, it can leave the Anchor sitting on a very uncomfortable island, looking dazed and confused.
That's what happened at WFSB in Hartford a couple of nights ago:
H/T New England One
Some people think that local TV news is nothing more than fluff with no substance. Well here is a clip from LA's KTLA that proves those people might just be right.
This has to have Emmy written all over it.
MSNBC is number 1 over Fox News and CNN, but not in the cable ratings.
The cable network is still far behind when it comes to getting viewers to watch them, but a new study shows that MSNBC is on top when it comes to harnessing Facebook’s user base to reach audiences with their content.
Variety writes that the rankings are based on a proprietary scoring of each network’s reach, impact and and responsiveness by Toronto-based social-media analytics firm Engagement Labs.
On Twitter, meanwhile, the firm found that sports and entertainment networks were top performers, led by NBCUniversal’s E!, NBC Sports and Oxygen with the highest scores.
On Facebook, MSNBC has a score (on a scale of 0-100) of 94.11 from Engagement Labs, edging out with Fox News at 93.31 and CNN at 93.21. Among the top Twitter networks, E! has a score of 89.58, with NBC Sports at 88.43 and Oxygen at 88.21.
But what the rankings really mean is opaque.
For one thing, the TV data — pulled directly from Facebook and Twitter — covers only a two-week period, from May 11-24, 2015. Moreover, the firm’s rankings are about effectiveness, not absolute reach. It’s worth noting, for example, that MSNBC has just 1 million followers on Facebook, while Fox News has 10.3 million and CNN has 17.5 million.
For what it’s worth, here are Engagement Labs’ top 10 rankings for U.S. TV networks on the two major social services:
Facebook
1. MSNBC
2. Fox News
3. CNN
4. Fox Business
5. HLN
6. Logo
7. Al-Jazeera America
8. CNBC
9. Bravo
10. PBS
Twitter
1. E!
2. NBC Sports
3. Oxygen
4. Logo
5. Fox Sports 1
6. Discovery
7. truTV
8. MSNBC
9. Al-Jazeera America
10. Fox Business
A new app is trying to turn anyone that has an iPhone into a one person TV News crew that will work for $10 bucks.
You know, kind of like Nexstar?
The app is called Fresco News and wants to turn iPhone users on the street into photojournalists.
The idea is this: if Fresco had enough users out in the world, news outlets would never be lacking for photos of an incident or an event. With its new product, Fresco Dispatch, announced today but going live on June 30, newsrooms can use the power of geolocation sensors to find users of the service nearby when news breaks.
Seventy-one news stations are signed on to participate in Fresco Dispatch. Stations will pay $700 per month for access to the network of Fresco users. The Fresco app will become a completely crowdsourced news source, with photos from news events as they happen around the world. With Dispatch, regular people will also become journalists.
“I had this really interesting meeting with a photo editor at the New York Times,” John H. Meyer, Fresco’s creator and founder, told The Observer in a phone interview. “I was bouncing around this idea with her, ‘what if we could get photos from our own users?’”
Fresco had needed to pivot. It couldn’t afford to pay for photos from newswires, but it needed more users in order to completely crowdsource images of the news. It needed something else to bring people in.
The company hopes that the chance to be part of Fresco Dispatch will do the trick. When news happens, newsrooms that have paid a subscription to Fresco Dispatch will be able to locate users on a map, near the scene in question, and offer them a payment to go to the site, snap a photo or video and turn it over to the newsroom. The images will be made using the Fresco app, which will use geolocation to verify that the user is at the right place.
Photos will be earn at least $10 and videos will at least $40, according to Meyer, who also said that Fresco will keep 20% of commissions.
Of course, this idea seems ripe for staged and photoshopped pictures and video. How long before a station gets burned with bogus video?
Stay tuned....
H/T Observer.com
Sometimes for TV News Anchors, there on air persona takes over in real life.
There is an old rule in covering sports, there is no cheering in the press box.
In other words even though YOUR team might be winning the big game, as a Reporter, you're supposed to stay impartial.
But when you work for the TVG Network, which covers horse racing and you have a horse on the verge of doing something that hasn't been done for 37 years, you forget there is no cheering in the press box.
Watch as employees of the TVG Network watch American Pharoah go for the Triple Crown at Saturday's Belmont Stakes.
Sources are telling FTVLive that WCBS has canned assistant ND, Valerie Feder.
Feder has been the #2 there for eight years. Previously, she was an EP for reality and scripted shows and an EP at KABC.
No word on why Feder was shown the door; but now someone else has to do schedules, so it couldn't have been a casual decision.
Almost daily, some reporter is posting a potentially career ending Tweet, video, or Vine. Jonathan Brannan, a reporter at WLOX-TV in Biloxi, decided to use his time driving to a story, to make a music video.
We can't comment on whether Brannan is a good reporter, but he's not bad as a singer. And if he wrote this, then he has a couple of fall-back career options should he ever want to, "spend more time with his family".
H/T New England One
The staff at WFTV in Orlando, had cake for breakfast. Their boss, Shawn Bartelt, told them she's retiring. Bartelt has run the Cox station for 9-years.
Cox already announced her replacement; corporate VP of Sales, Paul Curran.
Bartelt's last day is June 19th, after which she'll serve as a consultant to Curran, who's moving down from Atlanta.
It's the second GM departure in Orlando, this week. WKMG's Skippy Valet announced he was out on Monday. The only difference is, Shawn is getting a pension and Skippy got a pink slip.
H/T Hal Boedeker
According to a survey, TV news is still a man's world.
In an annual report by Women's Media Center analyzing 27,758 pieces of content, 62.1 percent of news in 2014 was produced by a man.
The report, titled "The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2015," found that women are significantly underrepresented when it comes to all areas of the media industry, including reporters, broadcasters, contributors, writers, editors and guests.
Last year, women were present on camera in the evening news just 32 percent of the time. Only 37 percent of print news stories were reported by a woman; just 38 percent of news articles in 2014 featured a female byline.
The gender gap is particularly stark when it comes to political news. Sixty-five percent of all U.S. political stories in 2014 were reported by a man. With the 2016 presidential election fast approaching, the lack of female voice is shocking.
“Our research shows that media needs to do better,” Women’s Media Center president Julie Burton said. “The bottom line is this: Overwhelmingly, men still dominate media. Women are 51 percent of the population -- but hardly equal partners in telling the story."
This gap really stand out when it comes to network newscasts. In fact, it is very hard to spot a woman on CBS's Evening News and ABC News isn't much better:
H/T HuffPo
Normally the News Director is the one that tells the Reporters what to do. But KOKI (Tulsa) Meteorologist James Aydelott spotted his severe weather forecast to yell at the Reporters, Producers and Assignment Editors.
Hope you didn't get too wet covering that storm from the studio James.
WGCL in Atlanta is going to be bring some old faces for a new segment on their newscasts.
The new segment on their 5PM newscast is called “Just a Minute” and it begins next week. The new segment includes a Who’s Who of former Atlanta broadcast journalists.
The station says that each weekday at 5:56pm, “Just a Minute” will feature one of ten well-known Atlanta Journalists giving their perspective on hot topics from local, national and international news stories. The journalists for “Just a Minute” have over 250 years of Atlanta television experience.
“To assemble this type of team is truly special. There is nothing like it in Atlanta television today and we can’t wait for “Just a Minute” to get started. The team is going to give their perspective on the biggest stories of the day. Viewers may agree or disagree on what’s being said but it makes for spirited dialogue inside our community on important topics,” said CBS46 Vice President/General Manager Mark Pimentel.
“This type of team is unheard of in the television industry. You’re blown away as you look at their resumes and see the stories they’ve covered, the awards they’ve won and the community efforts they’ve put toward the city of Atlanta. It’s going to be an honor working with them daily,” said CBS46 News Director Larry Perret.
Interestingly, all the Journalists the station is using appeared on other stations in the market and not WGCL.
Here are the people the station has signed on for the new segment:
Paul Crawley, former Reporter at WXIA.
Amanda Davis, former Anchor at WAGA & WSB.
Kimberly Kennedy, former Anchor/Reporter at WXIA & WSB.
Bill Nigut, former Reporter at WSB, currently at Georgia Public Broadcasting.
Mark Pettit, former Anchor/Reporter at CNN & WXIA.
Angela Robinson, former Anchor/Reporter at WAGA & WXIA.
Sally Sears, former Reporter at WAGA & WSB.
Cynthia Tinsley, former Anchor/Reporter at WXIA.
Lyn Vaughn, former Anchor/Reporter at CNN & WXIA.
Ken Watts, former Anchor at WAGA & WXIA.
FTVLive was the FIRST to tell you about another round of layoffs going down at Nexstar's KLAS in Las Vegas.
In the end 18 people were laid off and that included News Director Ron Comings.
But, it appears that Comings was fired by Nexstar and grouped in with the layoffs. Brian Jones (no relation), Nexstar’s executive vice president would not give a reason for Comings dismissal, but did say that the News Director would be replaced.
If you're replacing the position, then it is not a layoff.
Comings has been at the Sin City station since 2006. Look for him to be replaced by a person that will be making much less money than he did.
Sources tell FTVLive that more layoffs could be coming to the station in the next few months.
Nearly 4 million people tuned into CBS's Face the Nation to watch Bob Schieffer say goodbye.
Nielsen estimates that the first half-hour of the public affairs program averaged 3.95 million viewers, or roughly 50% more than the comparable week a year ago. It also was up about 40% in the key news demo of adults 25-54 (to about 600,000 viewers).
For the 2014-15 television season, the Schieffer-hosted "Face the Nation" celebrated its largest audience since the 1987 advent of Nielsen's people meters (3.42 million), up 5% from last year. By comparison, ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" averaged 2.85 million viewers, and NBC's "Meet the Press" averaged 2.83 million. ("Face the Nation" benefits in comparisons to the other networks' shows because only its first half-hour is included in averages; its two half-hours air back-to-back in just about 76% of the country.)
In the key news demo of adults 25-54, "Face the Nation" (0.8 rating for its first half-hour) finished ahead of "This Week" and "Meet the Press" (both at 0.7 for their hours).
John Dickerson, the current political director for CBS News, will be taking over moderator duties at "Face the Nation" in June.
H/T Boston Herald
Time for a Friday funny...
Here are some of the best TV news interviews off all time:
Here's some free T-shirt advice from WABC Reporter NJ Burkett Photographer Marvin Hoffman.
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