MEMO TO BURTON AND WATKOWSKIHey guys, you have a newsroom full of disgruntled people; they seem to be pissed off at a lot of things you could nip in the bud; maybe not all at once but hey, it's a start.
Bill, everyone knows it's you that makes the calls; the hiring and the firing; sure, Trixie does the heavy lifting, but you have final say. You have a lot of power there (for now); I mean Disney allows you to get your wife an office at 900 Front even though she works out of KABC...now that seems unethical, (a worker there said that; not me) --on top of that, she has the second best parking spot in the garage! ...So Bill, start paying attention to the rank and file; they are all bitter. They don't like some of the new quislings and are royally pissed at the morning show newbies. Talk to staff. Call a BIG meeting. Tell them that you feel their pain and are working like hell to improve morale and direction of the company. Hell, FAKE IT, if you have to; it would show that you care and have faith in the operation --right now, I'm hearing, you hardly ever even stop by the newsroom. Hardly ever. That's not good Bill, even under normal circumstances and there's really no normal there now. Just my read and I have it on good authority. Did you read the comments? It's not all disgruntled peeps, there's some honest-to-goodness issues there.
Tracey: You seem to have quite a bit of pissed-off people under you. They can't stand the way you manage. Maybe if, God forbid, you tended to be a people-person and quit playing favorites you would at least have the respect of the newsroom. Seriously, Trixie, they hate your guts. I don't have issues with your hiring practices because I don't work there but they seem to indicate you tend to hate men and go full-gaga over women, young women and non-heterosexual men; again, I'm to each is own; but staff apparently thinks this is a problem. Furthermore, and I know this is mostly Burton's call, the mass reliance on those with social media skills (which I know is important) is beginning to bite you in the ass, Trixie; it's fine to keep up with your Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, but really, do your chosen morning puppets have to act like complete nincompoops? They look like morons, really. Get in a meeting with them, especially Zouves--she's beginning to embarrass your company and the ratings are down. That ain't good.
That's enough for now.
Let's hope they hear you Rich. I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you something: I've heard both Bill and Tracey say your name. So, they read.
I'd walk up to their houses & write the web address for this blog in poo on their garage doors. But that's me.
DeleteRich. This is emblematic of the industry in general. ABC7 used to be a place where the news director and gm treated people as part of the solution rather than the problem. Camera people had their scanners on and would call the desk when they heard a possibly newsworthy call. Now, few trucks have scanners and if they do, they're off or the occupants wouldn't know an important call if they heard it. Writers, reporters and editors would call in with stories or drop in to the news director's office with an idea for coverage. This is the station which won two Peabody awards. It was a place where you cared about the product and each other. After the quake Harry Fuller quit and went to Pix and Milt Weiss and Jim Topping arrived. That began the descent into irrelevance and ennui. Older staff will never forget the "look live" remote from Yosemite where the managing editor ordered the crew to tape a report at night and make it look like morning so it could run the next day. The ND after Milt(I forgot his name) was a know-nothing who would wait until the midday newscasts on other stations before assigning stories. He didn't want to get into trouble with the GM(Ahern) who would call and complain when he saw a story on another channel that wasn't on 7. Keeshan had the journalistic bones to render respect from the troops even if he didn't treat all of them fairly at times. And now we reach today where the station managers, indeed all station managers, are chasing a younger demographic that lives on their cellphones and doesn't have "appointment shows" to watch on any network. Pushing talent to "tweet" every non-important event in their day is just sad and illogical. It's not going bring a new audience to an old format, an old industry. The future of local stations will mirror the trajectory of land line telephones. The new morning news team isn't attracting young viewers because young people don't watch morning shows in any number. It only drives away the older viewers. It's like scheduling a hip-hop concert at Rossmoor. The young people aren't going to go there and the older folks don't want it.
ReplyDeleteThe station and it's news team have massive bad karma accumulated because of their insistance on the morally bankrupt practice of using computer parental controls, remote access, and programs such as Firesheep, to spy on ordinary, law-abiding citizens for whatever purpose (I'm assuming news gathering), much as Cumulus' 107.7 The Bone does. They will, of course, realize this much too late.
ReplyDeleteWhy would either of them change? What's in it for them?
ReplyDeleteThey're doing fine right now. People under them are not. That's how they want it.
Some people just don't get that whole management thing.
ReplyDeleteThey get it. It's working for them.
DeleteThey're not interested in a good product. They're interested in inflicting as much sadism as possible before they bail with a golden parachute. It's a mental illness. Unfortunately, in today's sick corporate world where it's believed (fostered by three decades of Republican brainwashing) that to be even a tiny bit compassionate makes you a lily-livered leftist fagot, the are the ones who rise to the top.
Congratulations, Reagaonite Coulter-kisser Limbaugh lovers! Your dream world has come true.
3:41PM I think they're interested in good product, since that's what comprises higher profits, but they're just clueless as to where the value of the product lies. In essence, they don't really understand the Entertainment Industry. They're CFOs and CPAs and not P.T. Barnums.
DeleteI stopped watching morning 7 news as soon as they put on "the millennial muppets"and dumped Sze and Thomas. thomas seems to be doing fine on his WE gig but what disrespect to both Sze and katie marzullo. and I'm sorry but daetz looks like ashley's daughter - bad pairing - and this constantly looking + nodding at each other during the newscast is ridiculous....stepping off the soap box
ReplyDelete