Journalism

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a news director, creative services director and systems engineer at stations owned by NBC, Meredith and Lockwood in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Virginia.

David Zurawik: “Baltimore TV news needs to get better if this city is ever going to improve. And in all the years I have been writing about media at The Sun, I have seen very little evidence that any of the major stations here are committed to making that happen. That’s one of the most disheartening things I know about Baltimore media. And it was reinforced this month by an outside review of local TV news.”

Margaret Sullivan: “Given the tumult in the realm of government and politics, the dire state of the local newspaper industry may seem minor. But it’s of crucial importance to the future of the nation. Local watchdog journalism matters. More than 2,000 local newspapers — mostly weeklies — have gone out of business in the past 15 years … and the pace of that loss has quickened.”

An estimated 870,000 households nationwide receive at least one distant network affiliate’s feed from their satellite TV service providers because they don’t live close enough to get conventional over-the-air signals. With no local TV news stations and a dwindling number of newspapers, many rural Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to track local elections or government decisions that affect their lives.

Researchers are creating tools to find AI-generated fake videos before they become impossible to detect. Some experts fear it is a losing battle. Above, actors were filmed in a variety of scenes. The top picture is their actual image, with a deepfake altered image below it.

Editors say their print and digital editions are completely different products. The online edition is built with business, not necessarily news, top of mind.

YouTube is not a new platform, but young reporters like WKRC Cincinnati’s Clancy Burke are part of a growing phenomenon that reflects its popularity. Millennial and Gen-Z hires in local TV newsrooms are increasingly likely to have established YouTube “brands” of their own — creating both a challenge and an opportunity for their bosses.

The president spent nearly an hour riffing on topics from Nancy Pelosi to Hong Kong in what one of the network’s hosts called a “stress release.”

It looks like NBC Boston’s (WBTS) emphasis on investigative journalism has paid dividends in Washington. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has reached out to Tesla with concerns about safety flaws in Tesla’s autopilot system, citing the station’s investigation.

The station group moves him up from digital director and editorial director at WTMJ, Scripps’ NBC affiliate in Milwaukee, to work with newsroom leaders in nine of Scripps’ local TV markets to implement, evaluate, measure and refine the company’s local content strategy.

Scott Brady, the creative services director for Block’s WDRB Louisville, Ky., faced a difficult marketing dilemma in September. He had to promote the station’s new 5 p.m. newscast without mentioning the name or showing the face of one of the newscast’s two anchors.

Technology executives from CBS Owned Stations, Disney ABC TV Group, Meredith and Masstech look at 2020’s horizon line and the looming challenges of IP, the cloud, multiplatform workflow and more at the seventh annual NewsTECHForum next month.

Kathleen Parker: “As the second week of the impeachment hearings began, Republicans reintroduced an old theme for the usual purposes: Everything is the media’s fault, and America wouldn’t be in this jam but for journalists being puppets of the Democratic Party.”

Despite all of the technological disruption, television remains the primary pathway for news consumption for many Americans. Yet there is no denying that viewership has steadily declined; if trends hold, broadcast could see a newspaper industry-like crisis. Given that, newsrooms are having to decide whether doing more of the same will suffice for now, or whether they must pivot toward new strategies to both hold their existing —  but increasingly content-saturated — audience and to attract new, younger viewers.

Wednesday’s Democratic debate drops 31% in the key demo from CNN’s last month, attracting 6.5 million viewers.

News organizations are increasingly using breakthroughs in technology to allow journalists to remotely, yet quickly, deliver more content over multiple platforms. The advances range from improved cellular networks that speed transmission of content from the field to the newsroom and cameras capable of streaming and providing remote video, to a host of tools available for journalists to remotely edit and produce content while collaborating with their newsrooms. Above, Grass Valley’s new GV Alyve, released at this year’s IBC Show, gives reporters a “virtual control room in the cloud” for production and distribution of video and livestream content. (Source: Grass Valley)

The loss of local news coverage in much of the United States has frayed communities and left many Americans woefully uninformed, according to a new report.

With CPB’s backing, a push to transition NPR station sites to a new content management system has expanded to include TV stations and joint licensees.

With income inequality a focus of the current presidential candidates, workers in journalism, advertising and book publishing have anonymously posted salary information on crowdsourced spreadsheets, many of them hoping their efforts will lead to higher pay.

The site’s former special projects editor takes over as Harry Jessell moves into semi-retirement, continuing to write and advise the editorial team.