Belo

At a special meeting in Dallas Wednesday, shareholders of Belo Corp. voted in favor of the proposal to approve and adopt a merger agreement with Gannett.

For TV broadcasters, newspapers and radio stations, a truly cross-platform CMS that can easily cross over legacy lines and integrate disparate systems and workflows is the grail. A future in which media companies become multimedia organizations may be closer than some think. “Those barriers are coming down,” says WorldNow’s Craig Smith. “The industry needs to break down those barriers.” Part three of a three-part special report. Read the full report here.

Local newspapers and broadcasters today are seeking content management systems that are faster and more complex than ever before. And while vendors are constantly developing new products to keep up with evolving demands, the industry is facing contraction. “There are just too many players, and nobody is really big enough to have any control,” says Internet Broadcasting’s Elmer Baldwin. “There are some that just aren’t going to survive.” Part two of a three-part special report. Read part one here

Overlapping stations in Phoenix and St. Louis will continue to battle it out for ratings and revenue as the “ability of local broadcasters to compete and thrive” is key to their viability, says Gannett’s head of broadcasting David Lougee. “We will operate those stations and hold them to the same standards and accountability that we do today.”

The deal, which includes $1.5 billion in cash and $715 in assumption of debt, creates a self-described “super group” with 43 stations and accelerates the print-to-electronic transformation of Gannett. The valuation pegs the cash-flow multiple at 9.4x without expected synergies of $175 million or 5.4x with the synergies.

Belo CTO Craig Harper had his career figured out at an early age.He fell in love with TV as a nine-year-old after touring KWTX in his hometown of Waco, Texas, and he started working there when he turned 16. But his dream job was at Belo’s flagship station WFAA, up the road in the big city of Dallas. At 29, Harper’s dream became a reality.

After using  Avid’s iNews for several years, Belo has decided to switch its entire group over to AP ENPS, citing advantages when it comes to mobile access of the newsroom system.

Responsive design, which ensures a consistent user experience across various devices, may be a hot topic at media companies these days, but the strategy does not necessarily mean the end of the road for apps. While some executives think that responsive design is a must, others warn that it’s not a catchall solution and apps still have a place in the media quiver. Part one of a two-part special report on local media’s mobile strategies.

The media company has created ScreenShot Digital targeted at local and regional marketers with a data-driven approach that goes beyond initial audience targeting and draws heavily on analytics.

The new iPhone and Android apps are rolled out by stations in 15 markets Including Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Seattle and Phoenix.

Michael Valentine has been named vice president/content for the 15 Belo TV stations, while Joe Weir becomes vice president/digital.

Belo GM of interactive Joe Weir and a panel of media and daily deals executives told ILM West attendees that the crowded deals space needs to improve deal quality and find different ways to reach consumers to keep them coming back.

The partnership will offer a “second screen” app in early 2012, allowing viewers to tap into related content and swap comments with friends watching the same broadcast TV show at the same time. Broadcasters hope the app with lead to increased revenue, greater engagement and better tune-in promotion. Participating station groups include those of Pearl, the joint venture formed last year to pursue the mobile DTV business. They include Belo, Cox, Scripps, Gannett, Hearst Television, Media General, Meredith, Post-Newsweek and Raycom.

One of local TV’s most accomplished investigative reporters, WFAA Dallas’ Byron Harris believes he may be part of a dying breed as broadcasters fixated on the bottom line keep cutting the people and resources needed for in-depth reporting. But for now he is happy to be with Belo, one of the few station groups committed to its investigative tradition.

Belo Corp. announced today that its board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend for the fourth quarter of 2011 of $0.05 for each outstanding share of Series A common […]

As TV stations struggle to distinguish themselves with hyperlocal strategies, one old solution is looking new again. A number of station groups — including Hearst, Belo, Cox, Gannett and Scripps — are finding that the specialized, localized reporting they get from their Washington bureaus has become a differentiator for them. As the head of Cox’s bureau says: “Our sole mission is to give stations hyper-local, unique coverage they can’t find anywhere else.”

McGraw-Hill has begun shopping its four-station group and is said to be drawing interest from the likes of Nexstar, Meredith and Belo. Based on its financials for 2010 and 2011, the group is worth between $150 million and $200 million, although bidding and the expection of big revenue gains from political advertising in 2012 could push the number higher.

Belo’s KTVK and AZFamily.com in Phoenix have launched a Facebook initiative to donate bottles of water to the Salvation Army as the summer months heat up. It’s a different twist on increasingly-popular Facebook contests designed to drum up more fans.

Belo CFO Carey Hendrickson said the station group has experienced cancellations by auto advertisers related to the trouble in Japan, but not at an unanticipated level. That has “remained within our initial expectations” for the second quarter,” he told investors.

Steve McIntosh, VP and general manager of Belo Advertising Customer Service, was gunned down last Friday in Arlington, Texas, by a college student who then killed himself. The incident happened in front of a school where McIntosh had gone to pick up his three-year-old daugther. Police are still trying to piece the incident together, but they know that the gunman, as a student at the University of Texas at Arlington, had received counseling from McIntosh’s wife. McIntosh was 42.

After helping to lead the Belo Corp. Houston station through troubled times, Dan Lyons was a key reason why it overachieved its sales goals in 2010.

Belo Corp.’s Belinda Baldwin and Fisher Communications’ Randa Minkarah told atendees of a broadcaster special interest group breakfast at BIA/Kelsey ILM East that while people are still watching TV, they are no longer bound by traditional delivery methods.

Belo’s Tech VP Craig Harper is overseeing the group’s staggered rollout of mobile DTV. He will be going to this year’s NAB Show with that on his agenda. Other action items for Harper and Belo include upgrading field acquisition and editing at eight stations and looking to improve news ingestion in multiple video formats and quickly make it available for broadcast, for the Web and any other medium.

The publicly traded station group is paying the networks for programming on its four ABC and five CBS affiliates.

The group owner says its stations gave free time to 151 congressional and gubernatorial candidates across the U.S. during the 2010 elections.

CEO Dunia Shive says the TV station group’s core revenue should be up 9% for the year in addition to the more than $55 million in political ad money. She sees growth ahead next year, but not quite as strong as in ’10.

With Yollar.com, the broadcaster is offering consumers alerts, deals and discount offers from local businesses. Belo’s stations share in the revenue collected from the sale of vouchers as part of the partnership with advertisers.

The Belo Houston CBS affiliate will offer real-time, geographically targeted weather conditions to Bayou City Media’s community websites.