Don’t think of blue elephants. The next person who makes that sound in this bus will be sent to the office! Don’t even think about texting or Tweeting from this meeting. Microsoft’s “no texting” edict at its annual employee meeting is so dumb, I would like to think it was a massive reverse-psychology viral communications […]
Never far from Hitler
September 17, 2010 by
One of the most disappointing things about the Internet is that while it certainly has increased engagement amongst “normal” people it has also given a lot of cranks, eight balls and mental midgets a platform. Take the Media Monkey as an example. Anyway, there’s a saying out there that says something like no posting is […]
Profits up – finally
September 16, 2010 by
Finally, some good news for broadcasters: Revenues spiked in the second quarter lead by – wait for it- our own Fisher Broadcasting which pulled in a nice 28% revenue bump. The story is much the same in the rest of TV land according to M.C. Alcamo & Co – the firm that did the research […]
MYQ2 = “Joetv?”
September 15, 2010 by
In Houston, Tribune is ditching anchors looking for an “Imaginator” to run the newsroom. Maybe Sam Zell should go for it. Meanwhile, here in the Jet City – MyNetwork (KMYQ) is being rebranded to Joetv and changing the call letters to KZJO. Yes, you heard me right…Joetv. Only a true imaginator could have come up […]
Jean’s run for the record books
September 8, 2010 by
With the retirement of CTV’s Lloyd Robertson, KING’s Jean Enersen will now continue to run in a smaller field for the “honor” of being the longest-tenured TV news anchor in North America. I don’t keep these stats of course, but I got the idea to do a little research from a section in Wikipedia while […]
Dogbert has done it again
September 1, 2010 by
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 […]
The gifts that keep on giving
July 12, 2010 by
Part of my gig includes some brand management and communications consulting. And I have to tell you, for years I’ve thought that the field of crisis communications and situational brand management would eventually fizzle-out because a new generation of corporate leaders would come into their jobs “getting it” when it comes to public relations and […]
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 […]
Bonkers for broadband
June 19, 2010 by
A couple of developments on the broadband front: AT&T and others have shut down their bandwidth meters where customers were charged based on how much they downloaded, with penalties for overages included. I can’t think of a better way to kill demand than by putting a throttle on the Internet. Let’s face it, huge bandwidth […]
BP-Beyond PR
June 5, 2010 by
It takes years to build a reputation, and a minute to destroy one. BP is seeing how this works first hand. The company just launched an image campaign featuring a TV ad with the CEO talking about how he’ll make it right. He’s well coached and the spot touches on all the stock points – […]
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 […]
