Friday, September 25, 2009

Notes from the Newsroom: 9/25/09

By Frank Macek

Time for another edition of "Notes from the Newsroom" as your blogger shares some of thoughts on our little corner of local television.

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No news is good news, so they say in this business.

Fall continues where summer left off at the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center - not much new - which is why we've been a little scarce in doing a regular edition of "Notes from the Newsroom".

The biggest thing going on right now is Fall Premiere Week(s). So far, we've seen mixed results for NBC with their schedule.

The Jay Leno Show has fallen from its huge premiere on Monday, September 14th, but is still helping NBC and WKYC in the 10 pm hour. The always important final quarter hour of Jay's show (10:45 - 10:59 PM) has been a good lead-in for Channel 3 News at 11 PM in the demographics we need for our advertisers. It's funny how the tabloid news programs have been calling for the show to be cancelled. While I personally don't believe we've seen the best show yet, Jay continues to tweak as the months roll along.

Meanwhile, WKYC continues to make gains in the morning against WJW and all our evening newscasts continue to lead in the important adult demos.

Hopefully you've seen our news weather promos airing on Channel 3. The first features Hollie Strano and Betsy Kling. If you haven't seen them, we posted them in an earlier post (CLICK HERE). The other new one promotes the fact we have been highly successful in our efforts with Twitter, Facebook and wkyc.com as additional platforms you can find our weather information. As many of you know, your blogger is very active in the daily flow of weather information out of the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center. Did we mention we should have been a meteorologist? It's a personal love that started during elementary school WAY back when in Garrettsville, my hometown.

Our parent company, Gannett, has launched the new "Content One" idea where all our newspaper and broadcast stations can now share stories and ideas in an effort to be more efficient. As I mentioned earlier this week, we'll be featuring more stories from my Gannett colleagues on the blog from Content One about television.

Friday Night Fever is always a fun time around the Channel 3 Newsroom. Assignment Editor Dani Fink is at the helm as "official party planner" each Friday night between the 7 pm and 11 pm telecasts. We always have a plenty supply of pizza, editor Pat makes the best cookies, and there are plenty of chips, pretzels and other food brought in by our folks to add the pounds quickly. I've even seen Romona sampling from time to time (though I doubt she'll admit having two cookies). So, it's time to go have some pizza.

Thanks for being a reader of the Director's Cut Blog as we close in on the 1/2 million page views mark. Your blogger appreciates all the comments you post and send me directly. I found them interesting and at times, quite entertaining.