local news

Late last month, a North Carolina news outlet unveiled a new feature on its website: Hover over the name of a sitting state lawmaker mentioned in any story, and you’ll see the top five donors to the legislator’s most recent campaign. The tech tool, called Donor Reveal, not necessarily earth-shattering, but it’s a nice example of the way political journalists can weave transparency and campaign-finance themes into their work in the digital age. But here’s what’s most interesting: Donor Reveal was developed not by some online startup or good-government nonprofit, but by WRAL, Capitol Broadcasting’s CBS affil in Raleigh.

Kalee Scolatt, the 34-year-old news director of Cowles Publishing-owned ABC affiliate KTMF Missoula, Mont., was one of two people murdered Wednesday by a man who then killed himself.

ABC moves the former news director of its WTVD Raleigh, N.C., to succeed Cheryl Fair as news chief in Los Angeles.

The acting news director of Weigel’s Milwaukee CBS affiliate gets the job permanently.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal’s pride in  his office’s ability to bypass traditional media to get his message out via social media is just one point of contention putting Deal and the local media at odds. “There’s no group of editors or news directors who can prevent me from communicating directly with a mass audience,” Deal reportedly said at a recent gala.

How do you show highlights from the “fight of the century” when it’s still going on and footage from the fight is embargoed? Dig up your old Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots, of course. That’s what KIFI Idaho Falls, Idaho, did when its sportscast needed to cover the event but couldn’t use actual footage from the fight due to pay-per-view provider restrictions.

Ken Curtis has stepped down as the news director at Nexstar’s Dothan, Ala., ABC affiliate after nearly three decades in the business.

Anchor Sally Wiggin of Hearst-owned ABC affiliate WTAE Pittsburgh (DMA 22) has been inducted into the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in honor of her positive impact on audiences […]

The latest survey from RTDNA and researcher Bob Papper finds that TV and radio newsrooms are making greater use of Twitter, Facebook and other social media. Nearly three-quarter of TV news directors reported doing something new with social media in 2014. Overall, newsrooms with Twitter accounts didn’t increase over the prior year, but the percentage saying they use it “constantly” increased by 12 points

ABC-owned WPVI Philadelphia (DMA 4) is off to the races. The 77th annual Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta, presented by Aberdeen Asset Management, Coca-Cola and Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas […]

The Fraternal Order of Police’s conflict-of-interest charges Friday against the media in the Freddie Gray case are “reckless, strike at the heart of press credibility … and surely must confuse some of the many readers and viewers looking for the truth,” says Baltimore Sun columnist David Zurawik.That said, he adds, WBAL should have divulged the relationship between reporter Jayne Miller and lead prosecutor Janice Bledsoe.

At the end of May, the legendary Jim Vance will step down from the 11 p.m. news on WRC Washington, 43 years after he started. His latenight replacement, Jim Handly, will team with Doreen Gentzler, Vance’s longtime co-pilot. Anchor changes are usually ho-hum affairs, but the Gentzler-Handly pairing is significant because it runs counter to an unspoken, if more or less rigidly observed, commandment in the TV news business, to wit: In a racially mixed region such as Washington, thou shalt have a mixed anchor “team.”

The 2015 Philadelphia mayoral race is underway, and ABC-owned WPVI will host a live debate between all six Democratic candidates in the primary race. The one-hour debate will air commercial-free […]

Media General-owned CW affiliate WISH Indianapolis (DMA 27) has named Amber Hankins as the new co-host for Indy Style, its daily lifestyle talk show. Hankins began her broadcasting career as […]

Stacia L. Brown: “I never think about which TV networks or anchors I trust to break news to me in times of crisis, until I’ve been parked in front of the television for hours, scared to move or to break eye contact with the screen. I don’t realize it’s the anchor’s soothing voice or the on-the-ground reporter’s empathetic interviewing style that’s tethering me to their coverage, until I feel my heart rate steadying. So it didn’t immediately occur to me that I was favoring local news [stations], rather than cable ones, in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death and Baltimore’s ongoing response to it.”