Subtle Changes for Sweeps

Subtle Changes for Summer Sweeps

Sharp-eye, savvy viewers already notice the changes at KXAN TV (NBC).

Just in time for the relatively unimportant July “sweeps”, KXAN trotted out a new look—new graphics for everything—from the weather, to the background on the set, to the front of the set, to the “supers” or identifiers on the screen, to the sports.

[“Supers” are the old-school term for the identifiers that viewers see over someone speaking during a story. The words were literally superimposed. Two pictures, one with the person talking, and another with the letters on a card, were mixed for a moment. A little TV trivia.]

Anyway, back to KXAN’s new graphics: It’s a clean, uncluttered look. It’s an attempt to repackage their news product.

And, oh, there is one other significant change in the KXAN identity. No longer do reporters say, “Live from wherever, Tina Great-Tan, for KXAN Austin News.” Now, they simply say, “…Tina Great-Tan, KXAN News.” Why is that significant? While KEYE TV (CBS) uses the phrase, “We are Austin”, KXAN wanted viewers to hear that KXAN New IS Austin news. It was the battle for the best slogans.

Personally, I always thought that it was silly saying, “In Georgetown, I’m Tina Great-Tan for KXAN AUSTIN News.” Or my all-time favorite: “In the studio, Tina Great-Tan for KXAN Austin News. It’s TV. Viewers can see where you are, especially if you were just talking to the anchors.

The theme music seems to be the same as it was before. It’s important to keep some things constant. Otherwise, viewers wonder what’s going on behind the scenes.

What’s going on behind the scenes is this: KVUE TV (ABC) remains the dominate station for news in the Austin market. KXAN had chipped into KVUE’s weekday morning ratings for a while, but KVUE won them back, even though KXAN got the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters’ award for best morning news team. Now, both stations are starting their day at 4:30 a.m., pushed back from 5 p.m.

Noteworthy too in the morning TV wars, KEYE-TV (CBS) pulled the plug on their radio-on-TV morning experiment. They’re back with a two person morning team promising to be “different from anything else” on the air in the mornings. KEYE hopes to pull itself out of last place. It’s going to be tough.

In the all-important May ratings, KVUE won almost every hour of the broadcast day.

There was one glimmer of glory, tinged with a bit of irony. KXAN News was #1 at 6 and 10 p.m. on Saturday nights. The irony is that those newscasts are anchored by David Scott. Scott was the weekday 6 and 10 anchor in the 1990s when KXAN News was “perennial number three” in the words of former Austin American-Statesman TV writer Diane Holloway.

We’ll see if the repackaging changes anything.

© Jim McNabb, 2011

You May Have Noticed ...

URL:http://austin.culturemap.com/newsdetail/07-13-11-17-01-subtle-changes-for-summer-sweeps/

NewsMcNabb is now posting to CultureMap Austin.

Too Much Crime Coverage by Austin TV?

Covering Cops

“Isn’t there more crime coverage in Austin now than before,” a friend asked me a few weeks ago. I too harbored the same suspicions. It seemed like the top of every TV newscast led with crime scene video, and mug shot, and more. The Austin American-Statesman’s page 2, B-section has a box filled with a digest of death and criminal deeds. I fear that we are desensitized by all the entertainment crime shows which come close to reality. Having covered cops, I watch few crime shows. I don’t need to watch when I’ve seen the real thing.

In this age of doing more with less, crime coverage is fast and easy, down and dirty. All of the available facts are fed to you. The video is often compelling. Fires also fit into this category. It is ironic; however, that the green reporters are given the cop shop/crime beat. “Covering crime should not be easy, rather it should be one of the most difficult stories we take on,” says Kevin Benz, News Director of News 8.

Covering cops and crime is fraught with danger. Yes, my life was threatened several times. Indeed, after an inmate in the Travis County Jail called me at home at 2 a.m. after I covered his murder arrest the previous day, I had my home address erased from the phone book. More, crime reporters need to know applicable laws and answers to numerous ethical questions.

It was this perceived increase in crime coverage that lead to my recent content analysis of Austin TV stations. Is it real or perceived? The snap-shot analysis was for the newscasts Friday, August 28th and Monday, August 31st looking only at the 6 and 10 O’clock newscasts. I cannot compare crime coverage to another bench mark. I can only draw conclusions from these two days newscasts. Of course, there isn’t major crime and/or catastrophe every day, thank goodness.

Crime or mayhem, such as an apartment fire led the newscasts seven times out of 17 newscasts viewed. Another story of that type was often the second story.

By far, the station with the most crime coverage was KXAN TV (NBC) with 23 stories, often with live shots or full stories with a reporter’s voice track along with sound and video, commonly called packages. Coming in second for crime coverage these days was KEYE (CBS) with 12. KVUE TV (ABC) had ten, and News 8 (Time-Warner) had only one. It is noteworthy that in Friday’s 6 O’clock KXAN’s David Scott covered a community meeting where residents were working to reduce crime. That did not count as a “crime” story per se.

So, if it seems to you that there is more crime coverage nowadays, you may be watching KXAN. They definitely had the most these two days. In the Friday, August 28th 10 O’clock, their first seven stories were about crime or fire—almost all of the first segment. There were only two short stories before the first break at 10:10 p.m. The first five stories were also about crime or catastrophe on KEYE. One KVUE the first three were about the three-alarm fire that evening or crime. All, of course, led with the three-alarmer. “Flamage” is always compelling video. Who will turn away from a raging fire?

Now, a little history:

When I came back to TV news in 1983, I wanted to cover politics, but Carole Kneeland was covering the Capitol for both WFAA and KVUE. So, I picked the copy shop, knowing one could always find a story there. In the mid-80s Austin had a record year for traffic fatalities and homicides. We decided not to air video of all of them, not wanting to have bodies on the air almost every night.

By 1989, I was at KXAN and Ms. Kneeland was now news director at KVUE and later vice president for news. She enacted a five-point policy on crime coverage that received national attention. KVUE news managers must measure coverage by the answers to five questions: Is the crime a threat to public safety? Is the crime a threat to children? Does the viewer need to take action? Will it have significant community impact? Does the story lend itself to a crime-fighting or prevention effort? Critics said that such a policy would filter the news. Kneeland, on the other hand, sought to move away from what she saw as gratuitous or sensational coverage that glorified the crooks instead of providing useful information to viewers.

Kneeland lost her battle with breast cancer at 50 in 1998. After Kneeland’s death, friends and husband Dave McNeely, created the Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Journalism to train news managers in ethics and leadership. News 8’s Kevin Benz is a trainer for the Carole Kneeland Project.

Benz broadened Kneeland’s crime questions to more than four pages of guidelines given to his staff. There is little wonder that News 8 had the least crime coverage in the content analysis. “Too often when it comes to crime coverage, newsrooms work on gut reaction. We tend to report first and discuss second,” Benz says. His guidelines require reporters to “dig deeper, ask more questions, and reflect on what we are saying to our viewers.

Current KVUE News Director Frank Volpicella also has a passion for the correct way to cover crime. “The Crime Project was a very noble initiative. It came about after careful consideration and concern that crime coverage was taking up too much of KVUE’s air time. I didn’t agree with the entire policy when I arrived at KVUE nine years ago. I still don’t,” Volpicella says. “While noble in creation, it also created a culture of laziness. If the story didn’t meet the guidelines, it likely was automatically dismissed. No one made a call. No one asked the tough questions. “

“The KVUE staff discusses crime coverage on a daily basis, like it does economic or education stories,” Volpicella continues. “If the crime is stranger-upon-stranger, or if it exposes a deep social ill, like domestic violence, then it will likely will get air time and reporter treatment. If it lacks those elements, it may be ignored completely, or reduced to a short word or video story of :15 seconds.

“KVUE is very sensitive to airing graphic images. We do not air video of covered or uncovered bodies. We don’t air body bags. We don’t show blood or gruesome images. While I don’t want to sanitize the news, I also don’t want to offend our viewers, or the victims of crime, either. Certainly there are exceptions to this rule. If the images are relevant to the story, we’ll take that into consideration. 9/11 for example.

Benz also has a list of disturbing things that will not be on News 8, but “if you feel a graphic image is critical to your story, it must be approved by a news manager.” News 8 was the only Austin TV news department that didn’t show the full, graphic police dash-cam video of the shooting of Nathaniel Sanders II. Benz says they decided to use it up to the second of the shooting and then they edited still frames to tell the story. He says he might have chosen different had the story been only for the late news, by News 8 airs in 24-hour cycles.

One time I covered the death of a toddler who drowned in a mop bucket while his mother was smoking crack on the front porch. As a part of my 10 O’clock package I used (with permission) a :19-second uncut clip of the medical examiner carrying something in a very small blanket to the truck. An appalled viewer called immediately after the story aired. “That was outrageous,” she screamed! “Yes, yes it was. That is precisely why I chose to use the video,” I answered. She understood.

This post cannot capture all of the elements of crime coverage. Books have been written on the subject. Further, I cannot include the comments from all news directors in town. I chose to talk with Volpicella and Benz because of their connections to Carole Kneeland and/or KVUE. Viewers can judge for themselves. Viewers have agency. They make decisions every day on whether they or their children should watch certain content.

© Jim McNabb, 2009

Unreported Stories

Reporters


Needed




One of the better reporters in Austin asked me, what are some of the under reported stories in Austin? Under reported in Austin? I'm shaking my head. Staffs have been cut, and the "beat" system may be dying in all media. KXAN TV (NBC), News 8, and KVUE TV (ABC) seem to have a beat system still. It takes a budget commitment. I'm a great believer in the beat system. Yeah, it's "old school", but it still works. It works if the report is on the right beat. Sometimes, management will think it is filling that slot only to find out that the reporter really wanted to do features.


Jim Swift (KXAN) is one of the last feature reporters standing. It's a dying breed nationwide. Make no mistake; however, Jim can cover hard news.


There is only one (1) health reporter in traditional media to my knowledge. She's at the Austin American-Statesman newspaper. What is, perhaps, the most reported issue at the national level right now? Health Care. Further, I'm aware of several health developments in Austin, but it is reporting via news release. That's not even a niche beat. Health used to be far more important. Perhaps it doesn't research well right now, but Austin never conforms to research elsewhere.


There are few, true education reporters. If a medium wants to grow an audience, produce compelling content about schools, not just the obvious ones like the closure of Pearce Middle School. There are few better pictures on TV than those of little kids. People always ask, why don't you show us some good news? There are many of these "good news" stories.


This leads me to say again and again that it IS legal to take pictures of students in the course of telling a story related to education. It's state law. SB 521 took effect more than a decade ago with the 1997-98 school year. It was signed into law by then governor George Bush. According to the bill, school districts are not required to get written parental consent before recording video or pictures, including a student's voice, if the recording is to be used only for media coverage of the school. If there are children in custody battles, etc., they can be identified easily, and removed from the setting.


The law allows wiggle-room for individual districts and campuses. Some, such as Eanes ISD, deny access to students. That means that Eanes does not the coverage that it once did. One thing I do find interesting--Eanes student athletes seem to get on TV a lot. Do we have our priorities right.


Another sadly under reported area is as they used to say “Under the Dome”. There are fewer and fewer members of the Capitol Press Corps. This is another area where, for many, is journalism by news release. Again, KXAN and KVUE have capitol reporters. This deserves more than a paragraph in a future post.


I'm a former crime reporter, and I think there is FAR too much crime coverage. We get enough violence in prime time. At one time KXAN did VO/Bites (voice-over/sound bites) on the crime and PKGs on some more meaty, related issue.

Under reported? Why does TV news leave it to the printed media to cover the music and entertainment industry in Austin. The moniker "Live Music Capital of the World" is wearing a little thin. City Hall reporters have done stories on the noise ordinance enforcement, most recently at the Unplugged at Shady Grove series. There have been other stories about a city Music Office. There are other under reported stories. Right now during the national debate about health care, maybe it's time for another story about health care for musicians? The minimum wage rose this past week as Austin musicians and singer/songwriters try to scratch out an existence. There isn't a reporter on that beat, and management apparently doesn't see it as an ongoing source of stories. It is, but, of course, I'm prejudiced.

Whenever someone moves on in a newsroom, that reporter's knowledge, contacts, and goodwill go too. Ideally, those beat positions should be filled with some overlapping allowing the new reporter a chance for some introductions.


Sure, there may be under reported niches. I think the media is straining to cover the basics right now.


© Jim McNabb, 2009

Mornings Will Be Different

MORE

CHANGE

If your morning usually starts with Melissa Gale and Jason Hill on KVUE TV (ABC), it will be different Monday, March 23 and even more different later in the week.

Morning anchor Jason Hill was laid-off Friday as a part of another round of cost-cutting measures announced by Patti Smith, KVUE TV general manager. Also laid-off were a producer and two engineers, according to sources. (This is a rare time that I am not using direct attribution, and being a spring break weekend, on-the-record sources are not available.)

KVUE TV’s morning ratings had slipped in the past year after being a dominate #1. It is unknown whether the ratings erosion is what led to Hill’s departure. By Friday night, his picture and all references to him had been scrubbed from the KVUE web site.

Perhaps a more startling change will be coming later in the week when Gale is joined by her new co-anchor Olga Campos. Campos has been the 5 p.m. co-anchor for more than a decade, most recently teamed with 6 and 10 anchor Tyler Sieswerda. Now, new evening anchor Terri Gruca will co-anchor the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts with Sieswerda. Campos, reportedly, will not start her new morning gig until Wednesday.

Belo Corporation, KVUE TV’s parent company announced coming cuts in a March 10th news release:

The cost-saving measures include the suspension of Belo Corp.'s 401(k) matching contribution for all employees, a 5 percent salary reduction for employees who are part of the Company's management compensation programs, and a Company-wide staff reduction of approximately 150 positions. These additional cost-saving measures will become effective mid-April.

KVUE had already seen an earlier round of cost-saving measures.

Another change is coming to the morning line-up at a cross-town rival. Morning Traffic reporter Ellen McNamara is moving to Tampa, Florida to co-anchor a new weekend morning newscast on WFTS TV (ABC).

© Jim McNabb, 2009

Belo Cuts

In Desperate Times …

It is never a good thing when the general manager calls a station-wide meeting in the middle of TV sweeps, especially these days. Belo Corporation-owned KVUE TV had such a meeting Tuesday (March 10th) morning. KVUE staffers were apprehensive, and the news from corporate headquarters in Dallas was not good:

“DALLAS - Belo Corp. (NYSE: BLC), one of the nation's largest pure-play, publicly-traded television companies, announced today several cost-saving measures that will help reduce the Company's expense base amid the current economic slowdown.

“The cost-saving measures include the suspension of Belo Corp.'s 401(k) matching contribution for all employees, a 5 percent salary reduction for employees who are part of the Company's management compensation programs, and a Company-wide staff reduction of approximately 150 positions. These additional cost-saving measures will become effective mid-April.”

It is not unusual that employers do not match contributions to 401(k) plans. It is, however, an appreciated benefit and incentive, one that employees come to expect over time. Belo is saying that this benefit is being “suspended” not ended. That is good. It is unusual that managers are now facing a 5-percent pay cut. Also, there have already been some layoffs at KVUE. It is not known whether the further reduction of 150 positions will be here in Austin. Viewers would not have noticed the layoffs to this point as they were people behind the scenes, off-the-air.

These cost-cutting measures come on the heels of another Belo corporate announcement a week ago. In the same breath that Belo declared a second quarter dividend to its stock holders, it announced it is suspending future dividends indefinitely. “In light of current economic conditions, suspending the dividend will allow Belo's management team to continue to focus on paying down debt and preserving cash while enhancing the Company's financial flexibility," said Dunia A. Shive, Belo's president and Chief Executive Officer.

Belo owns and operates 20 television stations (nine in the top 25 markets) and their associated Web sites. KVUE TV (ABC) continues to be Austin’s #1 TV station. Its flagship station is WFAA TV in downtown Dallas next to the Dallas Morning News.

Meanwhile there is related turmoil among north Texas media. “Time” magazine is naming the Fort Worth Star-Telegram one of the “The Most Endangered Newspapers in America”:

“The Fort Worth Star-Telegram is another big daily that competes with a larger paper in a neighboring market — in this case, Dallas. The parent of the Dallas Morning News, Belo, is probably a stronger company than the Star-Telegram's parent, McClatchy. The Morning News has a circulation of about 350,000, while the Star-Telegram has just over 200,000. The Star-Telegram will have to shut down or become an edition of its rival. Putting them together would save tens of millions of dollars a year.”

Back here in Austin, representatives of local TV newsrooms were to meet again today (March 11th) concerning a plan to pool video of what would be considered “routine” news conferences and events.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. You may take some comfort in the fact that the roots of that sentence may date back to the early 17th century.

© Jim McNabb, 2009

The Same News Stories Everywhere?

Most If Not All Austin, Texas Stations Will Share Video

Austin, Texas stations KVUE TV (ABC), KTBC (Fox 7), KEYE (CBS), and KXAN (NBC) are now planning to share news video. Most, if not all of the stations in the nation’s 49th market, would send only one photographer to what might be considered “routine” stories—news conferences, photo ops and the like—and then, they will share the video.

“Yes it is true. This will enable our stations to achieve broader coverage while not wasting time and energy duplicating efforts when covering news conferences and similar events,” says Eric Lassberg, president and general manager of LIN Television, Austin. Lassberg was responding to whether KXAN TV’s news department and KTBC News were planning to share news video.

Representatives from five Austin Television stations met Wednesday, February 25, 2009. The details of the arrangement are yet to be worked out. Not all of the stations’ personnel have been informed, but apparently it is a done deal. Amy Villareal, KEYE TV general manager confirmed, “KEYE is participating.”

“Yes, KVUE will be a part of this video sharing agreement,” said Frank Volpicella, news director at KVUE TV. “All five stations have agreed in principal. We are hashing out the details.” Certainly, the deal will not deter stations from sending full crews if they deem the story of greater importance. Frankly, I hope that happens more often than not.

KTBC TV News Director Pam Vaught deferred comment to Mark Rodman, KTBC general manager. He has not responded yet.

It is said that Univision will also be invited to join in the loose consortium.

If any of the stations in the Austin market were to share video, it makes the most sense for KXAN and KTBC to be partners. Austin TV viewers/news consumers/news users are very fickle; they sample other stations a lot. But, research indicates that KTBC and KXAN share relatively few viewers. So, it is less likely that a viewer of KTBC’s 9 p.m. news will say, “I’ve seen that before” if they were to watch KXAN at 10 p.m. KXAN and KVUE share many viewers, however. Depending on the details, this arrangement, while economically doable, could be damaging to viewers.

It is unclear whether different reporters will also attend the news conferences and, therefore, present a different angle on a story. Also, the stations may choose totally different sound bites.

Critics might call it a homogenizing of news content. That’s a danger. Conspiracy theorists always maintain that the news is all the same dictated by some sinister force—the TV stations, the network, and even the government are all in cahoots. This could be fodder that fuels those flames. But on the day with The Rocky Mountain News announced that tomorrow (Friday, February, 2009) will be the final edition, it says a lot about the economy.

This is the first such partnership with competing stations in the Austin market, but it is not uncommon elsewhere. For instance in the Phoenix market, three stations are sharing one helicopter. "This was done as a response to this economy and for financial reasons," John Misner, president and general manager of 12 News told the Arizona Republic.

This Austin pool coverage agreement is happening at the same time that the only mass-production local newspaper is up for sale. Experienced reporters at the Austin American-Statesman are being offered buy-outs. As a journalist, it’s a scary, sullen time.

In kindergarten they taught us to share. It was a good thing. It was something we were supposed to do all of our lives, in fact. Nowadays, in TV news, it’s becoming a way of doing business. One could put it into the same pigeon-hole called “Doing More with Less”. Or, one might more rightly say, given these economic times as media stocks become penny stocks, it is a smart way of doing business.

Still, there is a danger to local democracy. If all the local media are reporting from the same stuff (“Stuff” is used intentionally.), I believe that the consumer/user/viewer of broadcast journalism may be losing something of great value. Personally, I’d seldom use content from a news conference, considering it “canned”. Instead, I’d pull the sources aside and ask questions others weren’t asking.

As noted above, the details of this apparent agreement are still being worked out. I do have faith in some of the “Big J” journalists in this market who will ensure that the important work of information to the audience is being done. Some, however, may be lazy. Some stations may simply take the rote sound bites of the day to fill the news hole. Geez, I hope not.

There are many philosophical, thorny issues inside of this issue. This could be a field day for politicians and publicists. I hope to explore these with the local news directors and news editors soon.

© Jim McNabb, 2009