Journalism

TV stations and their owners are at the forefront of helping raise funds for organizations aiding victims of the flooding  left in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

WAFB Baton Rouge, La., news director Robb Hays has been watching the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and remembering what happened when a big storm hit his own market a year ago. He sent along this list of list of lessons he learned.

This shrine to journalism is very much like journalism itself: It’s had a declining audience and has had to lay people off. If the Newseum goes down, it will have deserved its death. Truth be told, it never deserved birth.

The New York Times has prevailed in defense of a defamation lawsuit brought by Sarah Palin over an editorial that mistakenly linked one of her political action committee ads to a 2011 mass shooting that severely wounded then-Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed the complaint on Tuesday.

The Weather Channel has covered the story live around the clock since 5 a.m. ET on Friday and plans to continue until 1 a.m. Saturday, if it has wound down by then. “What I’ve tried to do is not cede the story to anyone else once the forecasting has been done,” said Nora Zimmett, the channel’s SVP of programming. Traditional news outlets have relied on water-logged correspondents to tell the story of Harvey and its aftermath. Network star power has been in short supply in Texas, with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt the biggest name on the scene early.

Sinclair ABC affiliate WJLA Washington (DMA 7) has hired Bill Kelly to be its next chief meteorologist, taking over the lead weather desk on Monday, Oct. 23. He will succeed Doug […]

Facebook is making a number of moves to help local news publishers do their work better and generate revenue to pay for it. Robertson Barrett, president of Hearst Newspapers Digital Media, details what he sees as the current promise of Facebook’s nascent effort to promote subscriptions for local news publishers and assesses the state of other major, yet-to-be-resolved issues for the publishers as they weigh their future on and with the giant social platform:

Fox News is no longer available in the U.K. now that 21st Century Fox has decided to drop the feed of its U.S. news channel from the Sky satellite platform. Fox said in a statement the decision was made because the channel has very little viewership and is not a money-maker for Sky.

WLS, ABC’s O&O in Chicago, is ahead in social media actions in the market over the last six months according to data from audience insight firm Shareablee. WLS has almost 25 million actions on social, 36% of the total engagement generated in the DMA (No. 3), with more than 69 million social actions. WLS was also first on Instagram with almost 950,000 actions.

Even in a fractious era, the filmmaker still believes that his documentaries can bring every viewer in. “Documentaries are traditionally advocacy,” Burns says. He sees his films as acts of “emotional archeology” that aspire to be art. When Paula Kerger, PBS’s president, recently introduced Burns in Los Angeles, she quoted a tweet that described him as “the Marvel Studios of PBS.”

Jeffrey Herbst, president and chief executive of the Newseum, stepped down suddenly on Monday as the museum’s board announced a full-blown review of its long-troubled finances. The review could result in the sale of the landmark building on Pennsylvania Avenue, according to a statement from the Freedom Forum, the creator and primary benefactor of the Newseum.

Syd Silverman, the former publisher and owner of Variety, died of a sudden illness in Boca Raton, Fla., on Sunday. He was 85. Silverman inherited the role of publisher in 1950 and held that title until 1987, when he sold the paper. During his years at Variety, he made sure the coverage reflected the many changes in the entertainment industry, including the revolutions in cable and pay-TV, independent film pre-sales, financial interest and syndication rules for TV programs, satellite TV, home video and digital media.

The Minneapolis My Network TV affiliate will be known as Fox 9+. In addition to the new evening newscast, it will also rebroadcast co-owned KMSP’s 10 p.m. news at 11.

The networks’ morning news programs flooded the airwaves with dramatic and, at times, over the top coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

Texas TV stations sitting under a stalled Tropical Storm Harvey are using Facebook, especially Facebook Live, to keep users/viewers informed during this cataclysmic flooding event. Many residents without power can’t watch TV so stations must turn to social media to put information in the palms of people’s hands. Above: KHOU, the Tegna-owned CBS affiliate in Houston, went off the air for a time on Sunday when its studios were flooded.

My in-depth and comprehensive content analysis of the mega-group’s news-producing stations suggest that it just might be. I wonder if David Smith knows about this.

Nexstar-owned NBC affiliate WDTN Dayton, Ohio (DMA 64) has added Ohio native Lauren Wood to its anchor desk. She comes from co-owned WKBN Youngstown, Ohio. Wood will join John Seibel […]

Broadcasters are making final preparation as Hurricane Harvey churns toward the Texas coastline. Government officials are urging the public to tune to local radio and TV stations for critical information. The FCC also has new EAS event codes that may get their first use in the potentially catastrophic storm.

With changing TV viewing habits, Tegna’s NBC-ABC combo in Jacksonville, Fla., is experimenting with augmented reality and 3D technologies to grab viewers’ attention and enhance the storytelling experience. During recent newscasts, anchors in the studio have dodged a school bus and shared the screen with a circling shark — both virtual, of course. News Director Meagan Harris talks about the experiments.