415 MEDIA EXCLUSIVEKGO-TV --Disney plan "citizen journalist" hires; imminent program; union not thrilled but content; KABC also part of implementation; 900 Front Circle 7 newsroom livid
IN A MOVE certain to be embraced by others in the market, Disney-owned, KGO-TV is in the process of hiring "citizen-journalists" and using them quite prominently in virtually all their news platforms; on the air; over the web; everywhere and every time, 415 Media has learned, exclusively.
The new hires --whom will also work at LA, Disney O and O, KABC, will have to join SAG-AFTRA, but will be paid considerably under the minimum scale, roughly $25 an-hour. Minimum part-time scale is around $350 a day so these new content providers will be working on the cheap but not that cheap.
I'm told the new hires will create stories; write their own copy; produce their segments; use station-equipped cameras to photograph their stories. They will encompass vast array of time slots and not be short-changed by full and part-time news/sports/weather on-air talents but you see the handwriting on the wall-- which is where rank and file KGO staff come into the picture.As you can imagine they are livid. I'm being kind. They are angry, disillusioned, and apparently powerless as to the future business model. And that business model is Disney Incorporated, the multi-billion dollar behemoth behind the plan; the media company that doesn't even comp tickets to Disneyland for their TV employees. (They offer free parking and 20% discount on tickets that cost over $125)
 |
| Tom Cibrowski/KGO-TV President/GM |
I'm sure the producers and staffers are simply doing cartwheels.
Calling on Costco for the cheese dip.
Even the citizen-journalists will bark if Trixie is still there and not removed. Cibrowski will be seeing a revolving door unless he listens to his superiors and removes toxie Trixie from the station. Citizen journalists too will not put up with unnecessary abrasiveness.
ReplyDeleteTrixie is perfect for this mission. Ruthless. Good with the budget. Burbank will dump her after the hit list done.
DeleteThis might be a good job for you, Rich.
ReplyDeleteAnd we thought the local TV news couldn't get any more amateur.
ReplyDeleteThis is KRON's model, has been for about 12 years. Just surprised it took the Mouse this long to imitate it.
ReplyDeleteI actually watched KRON's 9pm newscast last night -- what a trainwreck. Story after story, voice after voice. If the stories were in any kind of logical order, that logic evaded me. Round about 20 or 25 minutes in they finally mentioned Trump / Washington news; prior to that it was mostly human interest-angled local stuff. On the story on self-driving cars, which went like 2 and a half minutes, they simply looped about 30 seconds of a something that looked like a toy car driving itself; it ran almost 10 iterations through the loop before the reporter was finally done. The anchors just seem to be doing traffic control, nothing more. If this is what is coming to Circle 7, I'm not looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteCircle 7 is already there! Doing exactly the same unwatchable crap. Its as if no one knows what they are doing here in the Bay Area!
DeleteThat photograph of the videocam at the top of the story is an example of how the TV news industry has changed: Those $50K Ikegamis w/the $50K lenses have been replaced by smaller/lighter Pannys/Sonys/Canons which cost around $5K-8K complete. All editing can easily be done on laptops...and completed pkg's can be fed back via WiFi instead of miccrwave/satellite links.
ReplyDeleteJ-schools across the country have been churning out graduates who, in addition to being the same good story tellers as "Old-Skool" J-school grads, can also shoot, write, edit, and download their own stories. As these new-gen kids get more experience in smaller markets, they can develop into the next generation of Wayne Friedmans, Michael Finneys, or other Old Skool reporters--only with the ability to shoot, write, and edit.
The Old-Skoolers currently employed in the Bay Area's "Big Four" stations had better learn how to shoot & edit--and work for less pay. Otherwise, they'll be soon unemployed.
This sounds like it'll be a bunch of unwatchable garbage.
ReplyDeleteLOL
Great idea because the reporters they employ are total trash bags who basically use just their cell phones anyway. How KGO became total garbage is beyond me - it's as if there is no effort to better this sinking ship at all! Used to be THE go-to...
ReplyDelete