WTLV/WJXX | Eric Land named new station GM

Most recently, Land was CEO of Walkabout Air Aviation, a private air charter service in Tampa, Fla. But he had an earlier stint as GM of Gannett's WGRZ in Buffalo, N.Y., according to Corporate's announcement today.

Singleton: Cross-ownership 'is yesterday's news'

From a Nieman Lab blog interview with MediaNews Group Chairman William Dean Singleton, where he discusses further newspaper consolidation, plus Federal Communications Commission limits on common ownership of papers and TV stations in a single market:

Singleton

The importance of cross-ownership is yesterday’s news. We don’t need a TV station to do video anymore. We don’t need a TV station to broadcast video anymore. You can do video in our digital offerings today, online, in mobile. I think the day will come when people don’t sit down in front of their TV and spend three hours watching TV or 30 minutes watching the news. They’re going to get it on their tablets, and computers. I think the need that newspapers thought they had to own TV stations is probably over. 

MediaNews and Gannett
They're partners in ventures publishing newspapers in Detroit, California, Texas and Pennsylvania.

GCI owns 23 TV stations, including two in each of two markets: Atlanta (WATL, WXIA) and Jacksonville, Fla. (WTLV and WJXX) Also, in Phoenix, it owns The Arizona Republic and KPNX.

Broadcasting in new deal to revamp 10 websites

Corporate has just announced a deal with DataSphere Technologies to launch "community-focused" websites that will be integrated within existing sites now run by Gannett TV stations in 10 U.S. markets, including Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

The new sites will feature "hyperlocal news content and include user-generated content about area happenings and events,'' according to Corporate's statement. "Local businesses will benefit from the opportunity to target their potential customers. In addition to powering the community websites, DataSphere will provide existing Gannett broadcasting websites with enhanced functionality, including market-leading site search, coupons, business directory and ad targeting."

Corporate's statement doe not detail the type of editorial and non-editorial content to be added, however, and it doesn't give a timetable for the changes. The statement also raises other questions: Will the new template for the U.S. newspaper sites -- code-named Project Odyssey, and expected to be launched soon -- also be applied to the broadcasting division's sites? If so, how does the DataSphere deal impact that new template?

In addition to Atlanta and D.C., the other markets are Tampa, Fla.,; Sacramento, Calif.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Little Rock, Ark.; Portland, Maine, and Macon, Ga.

TV | News Corp. said suitor for Conan O'Brien

Amid reports he may be shunted aside so Jay Leno can return to his late-night berth, Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien (left) is mulling options that could include accepting a purported offer from News Corp., The Wall Street Journal is now reporting.

Leno's future on the NBC network is of more than passing interest to Gannett stockholders; 11 of the media giant's 23 television stations are affiliated with NBC. Like many affiliates, GCI's stations have struggled with falling prime-time ratings since Leno was moved to an earlier time slot last summer.

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

TV | How Jay Leno's future drives your fortunes

The unfolding drama over whether Jay Leno (left) is shifted back to his old late-night time slot is more than an issue for the NBC network and the broader television industry. The outcome is important to Gannett employees and stockholders. That's because nearly half of GCI's 23 television stations are NBC affiliates, more than any other single affiliation. They include giants KUSA in Denver and WXIA in Atlanta.

Gannett has been watching the impact of NBC's weak prime-time ratings on its 11 affiliates for some time. Adding to that is the uncertainty over the recent sale of a controlling interest of NBC to cable giant Comcast. Only last month, broadcasting division President Dave Lougee told Wall Street analysts: "While we are concerned about the network’s prime rating performance, that is not new. We have been concerned for some time."

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Layoffs hit the TV division, too; details, please!

[Cutting staff? Screenshot of WBIR-TV's website in Knoxville, Tenn.]

Gannett's 23 TV stations are eliminating jobs in a new wave of layoffs that apparently mirrors the cuts just enacted at the company's newspaper division, Gannett Blog readers tell me. I'm now looking for more details about the scale of this reduction, including the targeted number of jobs to be eliminated, and the date when this campaign began. (See my questions, below.)

Here's one of the latest notes I've received: "Gannett broadcasting is 'restructuring' its broadcast operations. I know this for a fact; I was re-organized right out of a job at the Knoxville, Tenn., station. Master control at all the TV stations is being centralized in either Jacksonville, Fla. (NBC and ABC), or Greensboro, N.C. (CBS). Graphics is being centralized in Denver -- and graphic artists have been laid off at all the stations, with the 10 largest stations retaining one artist. All the news graphics will done by the news producers and reporters via an automated graphics system (can anyone say, lots of typos?)

"At my former station, at least 13 people (out of 130) have been laid off, including my boss. He was in charge of programming, new media and commercial production. All of us in commercial production were laid off: Two were turned into 'backpack' client-services producers and moved into sales. They are being managed by a GSM who doesn't think quality is important. ('Everyone just watches it on YouTube or their phone, so quality isn't important.' She actually said that to me! Gee, then why is everyone buying those HD, plasma-screen monitors? Don't you think they want to see pretty pictures?)

"So, my friend, newspapers aren't the only ones feeling the pain. The TV guys are taking it on the chin, as well."

Did broadcasting division President Dave Lougee (left) notify employees in a memo? (If so, can you shoot it my way?) Or did he follow newspaper division chief Bob Dickey's example, and leave the dirty work to individual station managers? Please post replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

Earlier: Layoffs at WLBZ-TV. Plus: Graphics group a 'clusterfuck'