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NYTV
A Better News Division, Rockefeller Money Can't Buy
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NYTV
On the afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 21, John Wallace, the president of NBC Universal’s local media division, stood in a television studio on the sixth floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza and spoke to a room full of employees about the future of local news.
The space, which decades ago served as the studio for The Tonight Show (that is, until Johnny Carson decamped for the West Coast), now serves as the broadcasting home of Sue Simmons, Chuck Scarborough, Len Berman and the rest of the WNBC News Channel 4 team.
Shortly after 2 p.m., WNBC staffers convened in the studio in part to hear management’s latest take on their future livelihood at 30 Rock. According to a staffer who attended the meeting, Mr. Wallace spoke of the challenges facing news organizations—problems compounded by the recent developments on Wall Street.
He called the situation a “perfect storm.” The way out, he suggested, was to focus on both journalism and aggregation and to do so on multiple platforms.
On the whole, said our source, “the mood was somber.”
The afternoon get-together was the latest in a series of town-hall-style meetings, organized by NBC corporate executives, to explain to WNBC staffers the radical (and, some say, depressing) transformation of their workplace, which has been unfolding over the past five months.
The upheaval began back in May, when NBC executives announced that they would be restructuring WNBC’s newsroom. As part of the transformation, NBC would be creating a new 24-hour local news channel, a revamped local news Web site and increased services for mobile news consumers.
To feed the expanding platforms, network executives said at the time, they would be morphing the WNBC newsroom into something called a “content center”—a newfangled organization for the gathering and aggregating of local news that would supposedly increase the division’s efficiencies and better cater to the shifting consumption habits of New York viewers.
On the heels of the announcement, change came fast. Crews of construction workers swiftly descended on the seventh floor of 30 Rock and began extensively renovating the WNBC newsroom, knocking down the conference room, for instance, and constructing a new TV studio.
In an interview with The Observer on Monday afternoon, Tom O’Brien, the station’s president and general manager, said that those renovations are now roughly two-thirds complete. On Monday, Oct. 27, WNBC will unveil its new Web site, www.nbcnewyork.com. Sometime in the next couple on months, once work is completed on the new studio, WNBC will kick off its 24-hour local news station (details about what the channel will ultimately look like remain scarce).
“We’re doing the final section as we speak,” said Mr. O’Brien. “Basically it’s part of a 10-plus-million-dollar commitment to transform the operation into a newsroom of the future.”
For years, thanks to its high profitability, WNBC enjoyed a large amount of autonomy at 30 Rock. Several sources, who spoke to The Observer on the condition of anonymity, said they believe that the network is now capitalizing on the generally miserable climate for news organizations to justify the reigning in of the news division and its costs, which, they admit, swelled at times in recent years.
“They’re pretending that this is a transformation to take local news into the next century,” said one former employee. “They think they can throw out a bunch of buzzwords and impress everybody. In the meantime, they’re cutting, cutting, cutting.”
According to several sources, over the summer, the majority of the off-air employees (video editors, assignment editors, producers, etc.) at WNBC got the message that their jobs might no longer exist in the future. They were told that NBC would soon be hiring a new caste of employees, known as “content producers.” They were encouraged to apply for the new positions. In order to do so, they would need to simply participate in a retraining program and, afterward, pass a related test. Next Page >
sue is the best... i hope that she'll remain as the lead female anchor. if she goes, i'll simply stop watching!
sue is the best... i hope they she'll remain as the lead female anchor on wnbc. if she goes, i'll simply stop watching.
Sue Simmons has been phining it in for years. No one in brooadcasting has ever made more gaffes and gotten away with it because......?
cuz she's the best, just like i said :-)
It sounds to me as though several things are going on at once, and NBC seems to think that the answer to everything is to cost cut sacrificing the quality of the news they broadcast. I noticed that NBC channel 4 in NYC (probably one of the largest markets in the world) has sold daytime airtime to telemarketing. This is the kind of thing I would previously seen only on very local stations. Channel 4 in NY seems to have turned into a flea market!
It is well known in management circles that once you lose (or force out) your experienced people, you lose what is called "corporate memory". The long term operation of a workplace is as important as the day to day. This means that I might train a new person to operate a piece of machinery so they can perform a specific function, but that is very limited. It is only with experience that the employee can connect their function to all the others so that you end up with a seamless professional product (or production). Failing to do so cheapens the product and robs us all of a valuable news outlet. I guess we will all be relying more and more on alternate news sources as the ship continues to sink.
I think NYO got ripped off again by postin spam & ads as comments.
Managing a staff of people who refuse to see that the TV medium is eroding is one of the greatest challenges media managers face. Of course there will be cutbacks, of course people who do not understand the new media environment will lose their jobs. There is a general depression and anxiety that has existed within 30 Rock ever since TV 2.0 was announced two years ago. As the article states, WNBC was largely immune from the company-wide cuts that were enacted during the TV 2.0 era. Now, they are being made and it's a difficult and painful process.
What this really means is cutting experienced workers for low paid kids, with little or no background in news, zero instituional memory for the station (or the history of the city for that matter). I've seen it in action. Kids who can't tell the difference between Jerrold Nadler and Ralph Nader, who confuse Caroline Kennedy with Jackie (yes!), who think the Clinton years were "the Old Days", who literally do not know who David Dinkins is. Content producers, indeed. No content, but for much less. Good Luck, WNBC. The Idiocracy just spreads on and out.
Please rid yourself of Mr. Gutless - Len Berman.
Thank you.
Journalism and NBC News (or any other broadcast station, for that matter) can no longer be said in the same breath. These broadcast people have been mediocre for at least a decade. Their audience has disappeared. And yet they continue their chatter as if anyone really cared, much less watched. Good riddance.
Sue Simmons is now, as she always has been, the premier female local news anchor in the United States. Her long time presence on television for over 35 years is due to her competence as a news anchor as well as the enormous "likeability factor" that she has maintained during her entire career. From her early days as a reporter in Connecticut and Baltimore, to her trail blazing career as the first black female anchor at WRC, the NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C., Sue Simmons opened the door of opportunity for every female news anchor who has followed in her enormous shadow. In 1980, NBC relocated Sue Simmons from Washington, D.C. to the largest television market in the United States - New York City. Who can possbility forget her incredible performance for many years as the lead anchor on "Live at 5", one of the first major early local news broadcasts in the United States?
Not only has Sue Simmons been a pioneer in local news broadcasting, but she has become the most beloved news icon in every market that she has worked. Sue Simmons is respected and loved by millions of New Yorkers for her wit, charm and light hearted personality. Her longevity on television is a tribute to the enormous affection that she has garnered by viewers in every television market that she served. In the New York City market, where she has anchored for almost 30 years, she, along with Chuck Scarborough, are regarded as the most talented and beloved news team in the history of New York television.
Last, but not least, let us not forget that at the age of 65, Sue Simmons remains today, as she always has been, one of the most beautiful anchors in television news.
To say that Sue Simmons represents the very best in local news is an understatement ... Simply put, Sue Simmons is the single most beloved local television news icon in New York City and has paid her dues to the broadcasting industry many years ago. When Sue Simmons feels that it is time to pass the baton on to her successor, New Yorkers will shed many a tear and will bid a fond farewell to a woman who has been a welcomed guest in their homes for almost 30 years.
Until that day arrives, I am confident that NBC will respect the remarkable career of women who has worked diligently for over 35 years in an industry where she has gained the respect, admiration and love of tens of millions of viewers.
NGS
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NGS: that was so eloquently said. thank you. sue simmons, will eventually step down, i just really hope it's not for a few more years! that was truly a touching post that you left, NGS, and i hope that sue reads it.
The upheaval began back in May, when NBC executives announced that they would be restructuring WNBC’s newsroom. As part of the transformation, NBC would be creating a new 24-hour local news channel, a revamped local news Web site and increased services for mobile news consumers.
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