Notes from the Newsroom: 1/25/12

By Frank Macek

It's time for another behind the scenes look at what's happening at the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center.

This week marks our official 5th anniversary as the most read blog originating from WKYC. We first launched "Director's Cut" back in January 2007 as an experiment and today are hovering around the one million page view mark. I personally appreciate all the support I have gotten from Channel 3 executives on allowing me to give you inside access to our television station, unlike other stations which are afraid to embrace the slogan "Report the Facts, Respect the Truth."

We are into our second week with our new anchor teams on Channel 3 News with Chris Tye and Erin Kennedy anchoring 4:30 - 7 a.m., Amanda Barren on Channel 3 News at Noon, Russ Mitchell at 6 & 11 p.m. and Robin Swoboda and Jim Donovan on the "News @7".

We are very excited with all the new changes and know our viewers realize Channel 3 is even more committed now to bringing you the best in news, weather and sports programming to northeast Ohio with top notch professionals.

When we launched Russ Mitchell on his first show on Sunday, January 15th, after the Golden Globes, we helped put him at ease with a special greeting from his former Director, Chip Colley, at CBS News in New York, who sent us a little piece of home (and humor) for Russ in the form of an audio messsage: "Good Evening Russ. This is your number one fan." As we played it in his ear, we received a big grin and knew we were good to go. Russ tells us this was his regular IFB check before his broadcasts at CBS. Not sure, we can top being his number one fan, but we are going to try.

You may also be noticing some changes to our set. We have recently replaced part of the overhang above the anchor desk that now displays "WKYC News" and "Weather Center" with a fresh look that really pops in high definition. We also listened to our viewers and ditched the "little desk" on the "News @7" in favor of the main anchor desk.

We expect an announcement is close on a co-anchor for Russ Mitchell on Channel 3 News at 6 & 11 and a weekend weather anchor who take over the 6 & 11 pm duties on Saturday and Sunday. Those will be the final pieces on the rebuild of our station's on-air team for 2012 in an important news and entertainment year on NBC.

Speaking of sports, the Olympics are coming at the end of July on Channel 3. And, we are thrilled to report Channel 3 News will be there in person. Chris Tye, Amanda Barren and Jennifer Lindgren will be crossing the pond to work on coverage for WKYC and the television stations of Gannett Broadcasting and USA Today. And, of course, we'll be bringing you our nightly pre-show warmup called "Olympic Zone" at 7:30 p.m.

At the mother ship, Gannett is acquiring the Metromix technology platform and hiring its technology staff into Gannett Digital, following an agreement to end its partnership with Tribune Company. Metromix is a digital entertainment guide Gannett had owned as a joint venture with the Tribune Company since 2007. Gannett will continue to offer Metromix in 19 newspapers and seven Broadcasting markets. By integrating Metromix into Gannett Digital, we will be able to provide improvements, changes and expansions to the Metromix-powered tools on our sites, in collaboration with our local markets. The Metromix tech team will collaborate with other Gannett units to support and improve our local entertainment sites. We also will soon provide USA TODAY’s national entertainment news and information to each of Gannett’s local Metromix sites.

And at our sister publication, the USA TODAY Sports Media Group announced that it has completed its acquisition of Fantasy Sports Ventures (FSV) and Big Lead Sports, the largest independent digital sports property in North America. With this acquisition, the USA TODAY Sports Media Group is positioned to become one of the top five sports sites on the web.

As always, please don't forget to become a friend of Channel 3 News and Channel 3 Weather. We have special on-line content just for our Facebook friends including your chance to be our "Facebook Friend of the Day," daily behind the scenes promos, previews of NBC shows and so much more.

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