Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

The WKYC Information Center is working to revive an online version of the Akron Canton News which will be reported daily by WKYC Akron Newsroom Chief Eric Mansfield. As you know, Akron lost its only local newscast back in May thanks to a terrible economy that kept many advertisers away. Plus, this was coupled with our limited coverage area on Time Warner Cable. Now thanks to new technologies, we are working to create a daily on-line edition of the latest headlines. Soon, we'll be adding Akron weather and hopefully more features. We'll start small and grow it large. For now, the webcast will be available on WKYC.com and on Eric Mansfield's blog "Have I Got News For You" located at: ericmansfield.blogspot.com If you would like to submit video, news from your neighborhood or more, please contact Eric at: ericmansfield@wkyc.com

WKYC General Manager Brooke Spectorsky today announced that the Akron-Canton News which was developed as a partnership between WKYC and Time-Warner cable, will be discontinued on May 30th, due to weak economic conditions. He also announced, however, that the Akron Canton News bureau will remain open, and WKYC Channel 3 News will increase its coverage of the Akron-Canton area. My colleague, Eric Mansfield, reflects on today's announcement. To read his thoughts from his blog: CLICK HERE

From: Dustin in Akron Q: Seems that the re-branding to "Channel 3's Akron Canton Newscast" was short lived. Other than the open to the newscast the graphics were all back to the blue "Akron Canton News" graphics...Just curious if you knew anything about it? A: Well, it seems our rebranding may have been a little premature. Time Warner asked us to continue with the name of "Akron Canton News" with its own look, so they can present the show as a unique product for various reason$. However, we do plan further graphic changes to the broadcast including the set's background. We've just had to go back to the drawing board. It's not exactly how we hoped to make the transition - but it is what it is.

If you watch both "Channel 3 News" at 6, 7 & 11 PM and the "Akron Canton News" at 6:30 & 10 PM this week, you'll notice Eric Mansfield anchoring both. Eric is filling in for Tim White. I have gotten a number of emails about how Eric can be in Cleveland, then back in Akron so quickly between shows. No, we don't own a Star Trek transporter (though I suspect our engineers are secretly working on that). Eric added that I should share that he and Mark Nolan carpool. (Mark is always located in Cleveland and does weather for both newscasts.) Truth be known, we are cheating this week...Eric is really here in the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center. You see him anchor on Channel 3 at 6 PM, then walk over the chromakey to anchor the Akron Canton show at 6:30. Remember, the newsroom is in Akron which is where Eric normal anchors from. But the control room operations are always handled here in Cleveland. Then at the end of the 6:30 show, Eric walks back over to the Ch...

For those of you who regularly watch the Akron Canton News at 10 PM on Time Warner Cable, Friday Night was an especially interesting newscast. You probably didn't notice it at home, but the newscast almost wasn't. Here's why. Executive Producer Chris Hyser phones me about 5 minutes before the show to tell me that their newsroom has gone down. It has been totally disconnected from our newsroom in Cleveland. In other words, we are dead in the water - since the show is edited in and anchored from the Akron Canton Newsroom at the corner of S. Main and Market Street in downtown Akron. The only part that is done from Cleveland is the control room operations and tape playback. Without a camera (which is also disabled), we can't have Eric anchor. So, what do you do? Thankfully Vic Gideon had just returned from gathering video and information for his 11 PM package on Channel 3. He was at his desk in the WKYC newsroom, when he gets a visit from a calm, but sweating Director (me)....