Gannett Broadcasting

Bob Sullivan, former Scripps VP of content, returns to Gannett at the end of the month to work on “new programming ideas, local and national, across traditional and new platforms, both on our own and in partnership with others,” according to an introductory memo from Gannett Broadcasting President Dave Lougee. Sullivan will be based in Phoenix.

More than 50 debates will have been broadcast and streamed by election day. Web-exclusive election night coverage will stream across Gannett’s digital platforms.

The new agreement puts the recently expanded Gannett ABC portfolio under a common, long-term affiliation agreement.

As VP of development, former TLC executive Stephanie Eno will find and guide the development of interactive projects for producing, testing and national syndication at the new partnership.

Brad Ramsey has been promoted to VP of sales for Gannett Broadcasting. Ramsey is currently president and GM of Gannett’s ABC affiliate WVEC Norfolk, Va. He will begin his new […]

The new partnership gives Gannett Broadcasting the ability to test and perfect broad-appeal, first-run syndicated programming with a focus on interactivity across all genres from Debmar-Mercury on many of its stations beginning in 2015. In addition, Gannett will use the digital presence of its stations — including mobile — to reach viewers wherever they are.

The $215 million deal for the Texas stations breaks down to two ABC and Fox affils and one each from CBS and NBC, with an additional NBC affil on a subchannel. After closing, London COO Phil Hurley will continue to run the stations.

Patti Dennis, VP of news at KUSA and regional news executive for Gannett Broadcasting, is adding corporate recruiting responsibilities while cutting back day-to-day newsroom duties, according to an announcement from the parent company.

Following the Belo acquisition, Executive Vice President Lynn Beall tops a new executive lineup under Dave Lougee.

A select number of Gannett stations have debuted new websites that use the same look and feel as its parent company’s flagship newspaper USA Today.

As VP of business development, he will be responsible for identifying and implementing new strategic opportunities and will help evaluate, initiate and collaborate on key partnerships that support Gannett Broadcasting.

In joint comments, Free Press, Common Cause, the Institute for Public Representation, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ Inc., NABET-CWA and The Newspaper Guild-CWA say the FCC should deny the proposed sale because it violates the commission’s newspaper-broadcast crossownership rule or the television duopoly rule.

KSDK St. Louis is the latest Gannett station to streamline its on-air news presentation, unveiling its new look today. “It’s simple, it’s clean and it’s very, very easy to read. But in the same breath … it has more information,” says Gannett Broadcasting’s Rob Mennie. Gannett says it will have made the changes at all 23 of its stations by the end of the first quarter.

DirecTV could lose the right to carry Gannett’s 23 TV stations on Dec. 1 unless the two sides reach a new programming pact by then. The current retransmission consent agreement between the two companies expires at midnight on Friday. Stations affected include several in large cities including Washington, Atlanta and Denver.

And that’s on top of a just-announced record 3Q driven by political, Olympics and retrans. And Gannett Broadcasting President David Lougee said the TV division’s year-long “Olympic sales transformation process” paid off in 3Q. “We brought a lot of new local advertisers and partners into the Olympics and are already working with them on packages for the Sochi [Russia] Winter Olympics in 16 months.”

The broadcaster says the ad-zapping feature of Dish’s Hopper DVR is not a factor in the negotiations for a new retrans contract replacing the one that expires on Sunday.

The past year has seen an increase in investigative reporting by stations in Washington. “You’re not going to distinguish yourself by covering that fire — unless you can follow up on why the fire hydrants didn’t work,” says WUSA News Director Fred D’Ambrosi.

And in addition to all 22 Gannett stations, the second installment of the three-part The Cutting Edge series will also air on certain CBS and Hearst Television stations at different times throughout October.

Gannett Co. and Yahoo are expanding a local advertising partnership under which the media company’s newspapers and TV stations sell Yahoo inventory as part of their digital ad offerings. The companies will extend the year-old deal from nine to all of Gannett’s 19 TV markets nationwide. It already covers Gannett’s 81 local newspapers around the country.

The former GM of WBTW Myrtle Beach-Florence, S.C., is tapped by Gannett to succeed Larry Audas as head of its Little Rock CBS affiliate.

Stations need to learn all about early voting in their markets. Consider the impact on schedule placement and demand on inventory if campaigners realize that voting decisions are being made, earlier, by a meaningful portion of the electorate. Imagine the benefit to all involved as you help campaigners deliver their messages earlier in the cycle and better achieve their objectives at the same time. You can give them more of what they want (greater access to your audiences and better efficiencies) and they can give you more of what you want (their ongoing investment).

The Gannett NBC affiliate in Buffalo, N.Y., is bucking industry trends with its focus on in-depth reporting. And that effort isn’t going unrecognized. It’s making steady gains in the ratings and was just honored by the Radio Television Digital News Association with an Edward R. Murrow Award for overall news excellence in a small market.

The group will roll out Sony shoulder-mount EX camcorders across each of its stations, saying the move “will deliver greater production flexibility, higher image quality and a more efficient overall workflow.”