Hearst Television

In just over two years, Hearst Television’s Very Local streaming service has built a library of dozens of titles and more than 500 original episodes. VP of Programming Laura Ling explains how the streamer makes cable-quality shows at scale and on a lean budget. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for Sinclair’s corporate engineering team; Hearst’s national consumer unit; Lockwood’s station in Augusta, Ga.; Nexstar’s Houston CW and Hearst’s CBS affil in Louisville.

Executives from Fox News, Sinclair and Hearst Television discussed efforts underway to organize and capitalize on their massive archives at last week’s NewsTECHForum, where efficient — and more potentially inexpensive — methodologies are beginning to emerge.

Top news executives from Tegna, Hearst Television, Spectrum News and The Weather Channel told a NewsTECHForum panel last week that safety, security, mental-health services and higher pay are all top prerogatives in a more dangerous and stressful newsroom environment.

Leading executives from Sinclair, Fox News, Hearst Television and Newsbridge will share the latest technologies and methodologies they’re employing to harness the full content potential of their vast archives for new shows and revenue streams in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum conference at the New York Hilton on Dec. 12. Register here.

Dish Network announced Friday it reached a new carriage agreement with Hearst Television, and Hearst’s stations have been immediately restored on Dish. “We’re pleased to have reached a long-term agreement that benefits all parties and most importantly, our customers,” said Gary Schanman, executive vice president and group president, video services, Dish Network. “Thank you to our customers for your patience and understanding as we worked through the negotiations.”

As part of broad review, the entertainment company has reignited discussions about adding some channels to its venture with Hearst. Pictured: ABC, which airs hits such as The Golden Bachelor, has been identified as one of Disney’s most valued channels.

Hearst is demanding “tens of millions of dollars” in broadcast retransmission rate increases, Dish claims.

Technology executives from Fox Corp., Hearst Television, CBC, Sony and Florical told a TVNewsCheck webinar last week that the lack of a “trigger point” and a shortage of personnel experts in managing IT infrastructures are among the factors slowing down the pace of the industry’s IP transition.

The Peabody-winner who helped develop the group’s National Investigative Unit, says it’s “an exciting time in journalism, with lots of innovation,” and after some time off, he will look for a new challenge.

The multi-year agreement extends six Hearst TV station affiliations. In addition, the network adds a new affiliate with launch of CW programming on Hearst’s KQCA Sacramento, Calif.

The veteran producer has spearheaded production for the rapidly growing streaming division of Hearst Television.

The current GM of the group’s WCVB Boston adds oversight of all Hearst stations in the region.

The purchase from Waterman Broadcasting, announced April 5, of the NBC affiliate in Fort Myers, Fla. (DMA 55) from Waterman Broadcasting was surprising to many. The previoius highest price paid for a single station not sold as part of a group transaction was $145 million, plus working capital, in a 2015 deal.

New platforms from Matrix, Operative and WideOrbit aim to make local broadcast competitive with digital. Note: This story, originally published for TVNewsCheck Premium members only, is now available to everyone thanks to a sponsorship by Revenue Analytics.

Hearst moves him from its WJCL Savannah, Ga., to succeed Akili Franklin in leading journalism operations at the South Carolina NBC affiliate.

Content producers and executives from Entertainment Tonight, Fox First Run, Hearst Television and NBCUniversal Local will discuss how they’re bringing fresh approaches to talk, game, travel and magazine shows, both nationally and locally, at TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere conference at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on April 16. Register here.

Solutions journalism, which presents news consumers with constructive responses to problems, has been gaining traction among station groups including Graham, Gray, Nexstar, Hearst, ABC and CBS. Viewers once put off by relentlessly negative reporting are tuning back in for it.

The company promotes from within to fill the newly created position to identify news professionals for positions across the company’s news division. She will also oversee the Fred Young Hearst Television Producing Fellowship program.

In this new role, she oversees the strategy and team responsible for new, locally focused original programming for Very Local, which Hearst Television launched in 2021 to provide original non-scripted programming across genres with a focus on production in Hearst Television’s more than two dozen local media markets.

Hearst Television has picked up weekly political series Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien, which is produced by its sister company Hearst Media Production Group, for two more seasons. Hearst also has reupped Sony Pictures Television to distribute the show for two more seasons.

He will supervise a team developing products and overseeing engineering, data, and operational responsibilities for the company’s station-branded local news sites and mobile apps, as well as its Very Local streaming apps and related FAST channels.

Joe Addalia, director of technology projects for Hearst Television, has been promoted to vice president, broadcast technology. In his new role, he will have expanded responsibilities focused on the discovery, sourcing, […]

The company promotes him from engineering director of its WMUR Manchester, N.H. He will share direct engineering oversight across the station group with fellow regional director of engineering Greg Turner.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a director general of the largest broadcasting organization in Canada, United States and Mexico, a corporate opening for a director of news management recruitment and station openings in engineering, IT, meteorology, digital and news.

Allen Media Group and Hearst Television said they reached an agreement under which Allen’s Local Now free streaming service will carry 27 of Hearst’s Very Local news channels. The ad-supported streaming channels, serving 26 U.S. media markets in 39 states, provide news and local content produced by Hearst’s TV stations.

Hearst Television’s senior vice president of technology and information services,Alvin R. Lustgarten will retire next summer. Lustgarten has served in his current role since 2020. He’s worked more than three decades with Hearst Television — and more than four decades in various roles within Hearst Corp.

The longtime executive, a key player in the local broadcast TV industry’s efforts to modernize business systems, will cap a four-decade career when he steps down in summer 2023.

Hearst Television’s syndicated Matter of Fact is available in 181 markets covering 95% of the U.S. Like many news organizations, Matter of Fact and the 33-owned Hearst stations underwent some soul-searching following the George Floyd murder two years ago. They wanted to elevate the concerns of communities that often lacked media attention. Executive Producer Rita Aleman says: “The mission of the show was always to share voices as diverse as America, slices of life that people should see in order to understand how issues play out across the country.”

Tech executives from Warner Bros. Discovery, Sinclair, Hearst, Vizrt and Vice Media Group told a TVNewsCheck webinar last week the public cloud’s appeal is growing for content sharing and archiving workflows but cautioned the entire metadata process needs more care and attention to maximize cloud storage’s advantages.

The new fellowship in partnership with Hearst Television will help students beginning career in TV programming or production.

Station groups lag behind larger networks in investing in new IP routing systems despite interoperability hurdles being overcome and IP gear prices falling. But the new infrastructure may end up being more horsepower than they need. Above, a control room at NBCUniversal’s Boston Media Center in Needham, Mass. The facility handles four businesses in the market — WBTS (NBC), WNEU (Telemundo), New England Cable News and NBC Sports Boston — on one common IP-based technology platform.

All of Hearst Television’s stations will begin airing a special on April 21 that examines the changing weather patterns across the stations’ footprints.