New AM Anchor at KING

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

What's unclear to me is why TEGNA is taking the station in the direction they're going.

KING5 was the market leader in all, or nearly all newscasts, for decades. They have a strong following doing what they're doing. If you're a follower, you try to differentiate yourself from your competitors to gain marketshare. If you're the leader, you should keep doing what you're doing as long as the numbers are good.

I haven't seen newscast ratings in a long time. Is KING's position falling? As the broader market for broadcast news tanks, is KING losing more or less than expected? Do they believe that the switch to softer in the morning will help either shore up their losses or grow the market?

Or is TEGNA simply rolling out the same format across all stations across the country, assuming that every market will respond the same? Doing that, I suspect, is something that is fraught with peril but may not seem that way when you're looking at the 36,000ft level from HQ.

EDIT: Also - Remember when KING launched the 7-9 newscast on KONG? They went soft... really soft with that product. They built a new set (also used for the 10PM news on KONG). They hired a dedicated features reporter (Jane McCarthy's husband, whatever his name is), etc.

It didn't last long. Slowly the 7-9 morphed to match the earlier AM product, and they've been most indistinguishable from each other since.

http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/keisha-burns-leaves-king-in-seattle/185142

And now Keisha Burns is gone from KING-TV

 

[seatownmedia]

News is possible big shakeups at KING-TV. I don't have details, but I do have it on good word that there will be many new faces both in management and on-air (though that has already begun). Sources: (can't reveal, but they are strong). Could be in an interesting '17 for Tegna in Seattle. (Disclaimer: This post is IMO, and only represents my understanding from the outside).

 

[formeraa]

News is possible big shakeups at KING-TV. I don't have details, but I do have it on good word that there will be many new faces both in management and on-air (though that has already begun). Sources: (can't reveal, but they are strong). Could be in an interesting '17 for Tegna in Seattle. (Disclaimer: This post is IMO, and only represents my understanding from the outside).

But wouldn't this just be a continuation of what has already been happening? Most of the highest paid talent have "retired" or have been let go both on-air and behind the scenes. Looking at on-air talent, I suppose Joyce, Lori, and Rich could be pushed out in the next year. But again it is an on-going process...

 

[seatownmedia]

But wouldn't this just be a continuation of what has already been happening? Most of the highest paid talent have "retired" or have been let go both on-air and behind the scenes. Looking at on-air talent, I suppose Joyce, Lori, and Rich could be pushed out in the next year. But again it is an on-going process...

Indeed, formeraa. My only point is there is more to come. From what I understand, Tegna is not happy with their Seattle property. However, not sure they are willing to spend what it takes to bring it back to its glory, especially with a general anti-union mentality. Again, IMO. Kind of a conundrum.

 

[Kelly A]

However, not sure they are willing to spend what it takes to bring it back to its glory, especially with a general anti-union mentality.

The expectation of what amounts to market TV station' success is now broken up into several categories: "Digital" (most group owners have a high expectation for this with the station local news product and revenue tied into social media, apps, etc.), "News" (which includes traditional TV news/weather/sports) Some form of NTR (Non Traditional Revenue/block programming, which may include tied-into locally produced programming like a XXXXX Team-Coaches Show, weather special, Auto Show special, sponsored gardening show, etc.), "Dot Channels" (Revenue from unique programming on the dot-2 or dot-3, digital sub channels), And everyone's favorite: Retransmission Consent fees (Cable companies pay the station a percentage for each subscriber on their cable system.)

All these and more add up to how well a station performs in the eyes of their parent company. It's no longer about being thrilled because we're the leader at 5:00PM, news, as it was in the old days. The expectation now with any station, is to lead in several of the aforementioned categories.

Your comment about being anti-union is an incorrect assumption. Station groups the size of TEGNA, are used to having a certain level of union representation at their stations, which could include talent or technical/production. Most of the unions that represent these folks in the radio or TV biz are relatively non-aggressive, if compared with United Auto Workers, or Steel Workers unions. Would TV group owners prefer no union representation? Probably, but it isn't a deal-breaker by any means.

 

[KMan]

Just as a side note ... keep in mind that Dave Lougee, one time news director at KING5, is the President of TEGNA Media.

Certainly he knows all about what KING was and what KING can be. Even at the 40,000ft level that c-suite execs take of the overall company, they generally always take a closer look at the departments that they passed through on the way to the top because they know all the background about that department.

 

[seatownmedia]

This article from a Seattle weekly newspaper is a year and half old, but still relevant...

posted Friday, September 25, 2015 - Volume 43 Issue 39

The end of local TV?
Corporate media giant wants to gut KING 5
by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

Tegna - the broadcasting arm of the monster newspaper publisher Gannett Company - wants to make changes at KING 5 TV that could mean the end of local news coverage, KING 5 employees say.

KING 5 workers and the three unions that represent them - SAG-AFTRA for on-air reporters, IATSE for photographers and editors, and IBEW for engineers and tech people - explained their precarious situation at a September 23 forum at UW's Meany Hall.

Gannett, which owns USA Today and 11 other newspapers, bought Belo Broadcasting and its 23 TV stations, including KING 5 and KGW in Portland, in 2013. This year, Gannett created Tegna Inc. to manage its broadcasting assets, which are now much more profitable than its newspapers.

Acquisition by Gannett brought immediate changes to KING 5, none of them positive, employees said.

First, Gannett cancelled the station's contract with CNN, depriving KING 5 viewers of a leading international video news source.

Second, and more ominously for employees, Gannett cut employee health care benefits, raising the deductible to $5,000 and also raising the premiums employees had to pay. In other words, KING 5 employees now pay more for less, and have to pay $5,000 out of pocket before their health insurance kicks in.

Even worse from the employees' point of view is that management is proposing a 'non-exclusive jurisdictional contract.' That's fancy language for taking away union protections from KING 5 employees and allowing Gannett/Tegna to hire non-union folks to do work that previously was done by union professionals.

'These changes will make [KING 5] a Walmart TV station,' IATSE spokesperson Dave Twedell said. 'They are leading many of our number to look for work elsewhere.'

Seattle City Council members Kshama Sawant and Nick Licata also spoke, promising to support a resolution the unions want the Council to pass.

'Your struggle is in no way isolated,' Sawant told the gathering. 'It's happening in society everywhere. There's a concerted effort to break the back of unions in a number of professions.'

Spectrum speculators
Twedell charged that Gannett 'has no real interest in KING 5 and KGW as local TV stations.' Instead, he said, the media giant wants to sell off some or all of its federally licensed broadcast frequency to the highest bidder.

Next spring the FCC, the federal agency charged with regulating the broadcast industry, will conduct what is called a 'broadcast spectrum auction,' in which every broadcast station may sell off its frequencies.

The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that the current value of broadcast spectrum is some $62 million, but that value could jump to $1 trillion dollars if the frequencies were converted to wireless media.

'This means that the frequency allocated to broadcast TV is an order of magnitude more valuable to broadband providers than it is to TV station owners,' Twedell said, and therefore Gannett has every incentive to get out of the TV business altogether and sell its assets to a broadband provider.

'If the TV frequency is going to go to something else, what will take the place of local TV?' Twedell asked, and where will TV employees go to find equivalent middle class jobs?

Not our $1 trillion
'It's horrifying to hear that there's $1 trillion in this, but somehow it's not our $1 trillion,' Martin Luther King County Labor Council Executive Secretary Nicole Grant told the forum. '[Gannett's] goal is to take every last cent out of the situation and hoard it at the top.'

The airwaves are public property, Grant noted - 'our property!' - and not merely licensed to broadcasters. She compared privatization of the broadcast spectrum to the 2012 privatization of Washington state liquor stores.

'Sure, we get sales taxes from the private stores,' she said, 'but before we got the taxes and the profits from the sales.'

Grant promised that the labor movement in King County, which she heads, would support the three unions at KING 5 and fight for 'professionalism in the industry.'

 

[Kelly A]

So some nervous KING employee concerned about having to evolve talks to a small local newspaper two years ago (who happens to be struggling itself). What does that prove, other than it tried to make your point that KING is now crap?

Look, anyone who thinks TEGNA is intentionally trying to tank one of it's top 20 market stations just because there is a union involved, shows how little they know the modern business side of broadcasting.

 

[formeraa]

So some nervous KING employee concerned about having to evolve talks to a small local newspaper two years ago (who happens to be struggling itself). What does that prove, other than it tried to make your point that KING is now crap?

Look, anyone who thinks TEGNA is intentionally trying to tank one of it's top 20 market stations just because there is a union involved, shows how little they know the modern business side of broadcasting.

Kelly A, thank you for your analysis above! Your point is well-taken that simply having the number #1 rated newscast does not necessarily maximize revenue or profit. In fact, the large media companies realize that you can be #2 and still be more profitable than the number 1 station.

In Phoenix, TEGNA-owned KPNX has basically eliminated most of its senior talent over the past 10 years. Initially, there was a decrease in the ratings for several years. Now, they are once again number 1 in the demo for the late newscast (although the late newscast looks like Extra or even TMZ at times, it appeals to a much younger audience than before). Meanwhile, I'm sure their costs are much lower than they were when they had a bunch of longtime anchors and reporters.

In Seattle, TEGNA and Sinclair will continue to cut senior level talent. Newscasts will skew to what younger people want to watch, which could be very different that what news has traditionally looked like.

 

[seatownmedia]

Kelly A, thank you for your analysis above! Your point is well-taken that simply having the number #1 rated newscast does not necessarily maximize revenue or profit. In fact, the large media companies realize that you can be #2 and still be more profitable than the number 1 station.

In Phoenix, TEGNA-owned KPNX has basically eliminated most of its senior talent over the past 10 years. Initially, there was a decrease in the ratings for several years. Now, they are once again number 1 in the demo for the late newscast (although the late newscast looks like Extra or even TMZ at times, it appeals to a much younger audience than before). Meanwhile, I'm sure their costs are much lower than they were when they had a bunch of longtime anchors and reporters.

In Seattle, TEGNA and Sinclair will continue to cut senior level talent. Newscasts will skew to what younger people want to watch, which could be very different that what news has traditionally looked like.

I can accept all the above arguments. However, this ultimately comes down to pro-union vs. anti-union. I never took a position on this thread about that, just offered an alternative voice. Seattle has always been a strong union town. That is beyond denial. While things may be changing, the core of the city remains strong pro-union.

 

[Kelly A]

Seattle has always been a strong union town. That is beyond denial. While things may be changing, the core of the city remains strong pro-union.

Seattle is a union town? Hardly. Chicago, NYC, Washington D.C., Boston (all lager markets) are union towns. Seattle has some of the weakest union representation in the country when it comes to broadcasting.

 

[Kelly A]

Newscasts will skew to what younger people want to watch, which could be very different that what news has traditionally looked like.

True statement.

 

[seatownmedia]

Apparently you like to argue. I never mentioned broadcasting unions in my last post. However, you should educate yourself on not only the current union membership in Washington State, and the strong history of unions in Washington State. Perhaps you don't have an understanding of the history here.

http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/encyclopedia/

http://www.wslc.org/local-unions/

 

[xmtrland]

Here comes the big test for all the news rooms SNOWMAGEDDON!!!! Who will survive! The Snow is falling and everyone gets a free generator test, already had two myself.

 

[Kelly A]

Apparently you like to argue. I never mentioned broadcasting unions in my last post. However, you should educate yourself on not only the current union membership in Washington State, and the strong history of unions in Washington State. Perhaps you don't have an understanding of the history here.

I refute incorrect assumptions. If you interpret that as arguing, then that's your issue. You certainly are entitled to an opinion that you personally don't like the changes at KING, but if you associate your personal taste with what's going on in the biz today, expect to be challenged.

To be clear; you were the one connecting what you feel as the downfall of KING TV with TEGNA being anti-union as a reason. Isn't KING a broadcast station and TEGNA a broadcasting company? Answer: Yes.

Regarding history knowledge of Washington State, I've been a resident and worked in the broadcast industry in Washington State for well over thirty years, six of them with King Broadcasting alone. And yes, I was in AFTRA back then too, and even back then, the union representation was completely toothless and useless.

I'm also currently part owner of radio stations in Eastern Washington, so I have a pretty good knowledge of the history and economy of the east side of the state as well.