WXIA | In Atlanta, it's a Super Bowl ad smack-down

"The quote on the Statue of Liberty doesn't say, 'Give me your English-speaking only, Christian-believing heterosexual masses.'"

-- News anchor Brenda Wood, in an opinion segment yesterday on WXIA in Atlanta. She was responding to the controversy over the America the Beautiful Super Bowl ad by Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. that aired Sunday. In a follow-up tonight, Wood says her original segment has drawn a bigger response than any other she's done.

USAT | When the man on the street's an imposter

Time to start checking IDs: @USAToday Article On Zimmerman Verdict Quotes A “Howie Felterbush” http://t.co/hAzM46Jp3F
— mark seibel (@markseibel) July 14, 2013

That tweet is by Mark Seibel, chief of correspondents in McClatchy's Washington bureau. It's easy to imagine why he -- and thousands of other editors -- are worried about copycats after San Francisco TV station KTVU got punk'd with fake names of the men piloting the Asiana Airlines flight that crashed a week ago.

And Seibel isn't the only one on Twitter to flag USA Today and the suspiciously named protester "Howie Felterbush" outside the Zimmerman trial in Sanford, Fla., yesterday.

But peeling back the layers of stories, it looks like Felterbush actually originated in a Florida Today story that was republished by USAT, which then fed a version to other Gannett media sites.

Tracing the story's path
Deadspin, the widely read sports blog, appears to be the first site to question whether Felterbush was real. Shortly after midnight ET, it linked to a story on Atlanta's WXIA site that says:

Howie Felterbush stood on the outskirts of the demonstration crowd, watching.

"Justice was rendered," he said. "That's why we have trials instead of (verdicts based on) public opinion."

Felterbush was in Orlando earlier in the day and came to the courthouse to offer an opposing view. "That wasn't to be had," he said. "There was 95% Trayvon supporters."

The Melbourne resident believes the jury made the right decision, but he didn't say it very loudly. The 49-year old declined to be interviewed on video, saying he was uncomfortable because of the "state of things."

WXIA's story, in turn, credited USAT. However, if the Felterbush version ever appeared on USAT, it isn't there any more. The version there now doesn't include the paragraphs Deadspin highlighted -- suggesting someone, somewhere, realized what was going on.

As I post this, those paragraphs still appear in WXIA's version -- to the bemusement of the station's readers. One of them, Michael Larmon, wrote in a comment hours ago: "Howie Felterbush? Really?"

Florida Today is in Melbourne. It's worth noting that the crowd reaction story now on Florida Today's site doesn't include the Felterbush graphs.

How it happens
Every reporter who's been sent to do a breaking news man-on-the-street reaction story knows the drill: Grab as many quotes as possible in the shortest period of time. "What's your name?" Then you scribble down "Howie Felterbush." Time-pressed line editors and copy editors (if they even exist) scan your story for obvious errors, and up it goes on the Web.

Given the pressure to report and publish in real time, who would ever follow Seibel's suggestion: asking for photo IDs to prove a man in the crowd is who he says he is? Not many. And seeking confirmation elsewhere doesn't guarantee you won't be fooled. After all, San Francisco's KTVU confirmed the name "Ho Lee Fuk" and others with the National Transportation Safety Board.

The lesson today will hold for the immediate future as more copycats try to exploit holes in how we do journalism: If someone supplies an odd name, check it out -- or edit it out.

TV market consolidates further with Tribune deal

Less than three weeks after Gannett announced a $2.2 billion acquisition of Belo, the Tribune Co. this morning agreed to buy 19 stations for about $2.7 billion, making it one of the nation’s biggest owners of commercial local TV outlets amid a groundswell of consolidation in the industry.

The stations are in 16 regions, including Denver, Cleveland and St. Louis, and many of their local news broadcasts are ranked first or second in their markets, according to The New York Times. They will complement Tribune’s 23 existing stations and its WGN America cable channel. Tribune is buying the stations from Local TV Holdings, a company owned by the investment firm Oak Hill Capital Partners.

The deal ratchets up the competition with GCI, because four of the stations are in markets where GCI also owns stations: Denver; Cleveland; Greensboro, S.C., and St. Louis. In a fifth market, Des Moines, GCI owns a newspaper.

GCI's Belo deal covers 20 stations, five of which are being spun off to a new third company; GCI will provide advertising sales and other services to those five under a contract. Including all 20, GCI would nearly double its station ownership to 43. The $2.2 billion price includes assumption of $700 million in debt.

Here's Tribune's press release describing the deal. And here's a list of the stations Tribune is buying.

USAT | Is Atlanta's key hub airport closed today?

USA Today is using more video from Gannett's 23 TV stations to stand out in a crowded news market. But as this occasional Gannett Blog series shows, some of the videos aren't quite ready for primetime.

USAT's bread-and-butter has long been news for business travelers. So, with a fire raging near Atlanta's Hartsfield international today, readers would understandably ask the question I posed in the headline above.

The answer? In the latest odd (and silent!) video published on the paper's homepage, we have no idea. (Stranger still, the video is from WSB-TV, a competitor of Gannett's Atlanta stations WATL and WXIA, home base for GCI's new national video production hub.)

Earlier: from coast-to-coast, the latest cat news.

3 stations are tops in Olympics in key adult demo

They are KUSA in Denver, KARE in Minneapolis and WXIA in Atlanta -- the top-rated NBC affiliates for the Olympics now underway among the key advertising demographic of adults 25-54 during prime time, according to a just-issued Corporate statement. What's more, KUSA is the No. 1 rated NBC station and is averaging a 51 share in prime time.

Report: Why Web videos are such a hot topic

Gannett filed its annual 10-K report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late last month. This post is one in a series highlighting passages from the document. 

Video remains a key growth opportunity for Gannett. In December 2011, Gannett’s total on-demand video plays, including BNQT Media Group, totaled 122 million, up over 380% year over year. The strong growth can be attributed to creating and licensing more video content, optimizing video players for mobile sites and search engines, and better promoting video via site redesigns. In 2012, Gannett will be opening a Video Production Center in Atlanta, housed with WXIA-TV, to curate, publish and distribute on-demand and live video content across Gannett and to/from third-parties. Other key areas of focus in 2012 will be increasing video content in the local markets through investment in technology and training, developing analytic capabilities and continuing to drive increased monetization.

Earlier: Corporate wants newspaper reporters producing more videos.

[Photo: A Contour helmet video camera like Michelle Pemberton used at The Indianapolis Star to produce a clever bulldog's eye view; $199 at Amazon]

Refocusing digital efforts, GCI wants all newspaper reporters producing web videos again; 'traditional journalists have to change' thinking, exec says

Gannett will push reporters to resume shooting video at all its more than 80 U.S. newspapers, an idea first tried four years ago that largely fizzled amid steep cutbacks in staffing.

Walters

The new push was outlined by Kate Walters, a senior director at Gannett Digital, in a recent interview with Beet.tv. She said the plan is part of a broader campaign to generate or buy more local news video for the company's digital network, as Chief Digital Officer David Payne, hired last spring, steps up his reorganization of digital efforts.

Walters did not give a timetable in her Beet.tv interview, and she didn't disclose any advertising elements with the plan. However, video "pre-rolls" command higher ad rates, so it's likely more revenue-generation is one of the goals.

'A huge opportunity'
The drive for more video from reporters doesn't come without risks. It could further strain newsroom resources because of the labor-intensive nature of video production. Currently, only 5-10 newspapers are producing video, according to Walters. The company wants to extend that to all 80 or so.

"That's a huge opportunity,'' Walters told Beet.tv. "That's our biggest opportunity to really increase the amount of content across our newspaper properties."

The company plans to equip and train reporters. The idea was tested at one paper -- the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota -- where video viewership rose 461% from a year ago after the test, Walters said.

"We need to give them the ability to shoot video, so we don't have to just rely on photographers and videographers, which are few and far between," Walters said. "So we really almost need a culture shift across all our reporters. Traditional journalists have to change their thinking about the way they're creating stories by adding video."

Wanted: breaking local news
The new video strategy mirrors one rolled out in 2007, when Corporate's News Department provided training and cameras to newsrooms, as the company made websites a centerpiece of news delivery. Since then, however, GCI has cut newsroom staffing in a wave of layoffs that reduced overall GCI employment by more than 20%.

Walters said GCI is focusing especially on breaking local news because that "performs well across all our sites,'' and can be shared using new video players on homepages. She did not explain, however, why readers in, say, Des Moines, would be interested in watching local news videos from Cherry Hill, N.J.

To process and share the growing video inventory, GCI is building a central production center in Atlanta, at WXIA-TV. That center was first made public in early August, when then-CEO Craig Dubow disclosed plans for a "relaunch" of GCI's core websites.

In addition to producing more video in-house, Gannett Digital will buy video to cover subjects -- such as business news -- or markets where GCI doesn't have a strong presence, Walters said. And the company will be looking for more reader-generated videos, too.

Related: Why newspapers should jettison most web video efforts.

[Photo: Beet.tv]

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.

Dubow memo discloses 'relaunch' of core websites; board-approved plans include USAT sports network

CEO Craig Dubow sent the following message to employees today:

Craig A. Dubow
Chairman
Chief Executive Officer

I want to take this opportunity to give you an update on the strategic plans we are undertaking to position Gannett for long-term success.

As a 100-plus year-old news and information company, our footprint in our communities is solid and deep. That footprint widens as we build our news gathering businesses digitally and give our sales teams more tools to help solve marketers’ needs. Our goal is to ensure that we become even more vital to our communities, consumers and customers.

On July 19th, we shared with the Board of Directors the strategic initiatives that many of your colleagues have been working on since February. And I’m excited to tell you that the Board members enthusiastically supported the overall direction we are pursuing.

Before I give you a sense of where we are headed, I want to highlight the ongoing rollout of DealChicken, which is now live in 10 of our markets. We have feet on the street in these markets and communities; we are adding daily deals to the suite of marketing solutions we offer; and we know the local businesses’ needs, giving us the ability to effectively serve both merchants and consumers better than the competition. We plan to have DealChicken launched in 50 markets by year’s end.

The reason I focus on DealChicken is because it’s a good example of how we are evolving not only our business, but also our culture to do things differently and work together as one company. DealChicken is a business born of a local market innovation in Phoenix that leverages Clipper’s existing deal platform Double Take Deals, and is now rolling out nationally. It was approved outside our regular budget cycle. And the speed with which it went to market – about 30 days to develop a business plan and about 90 days thereafter to launch – exemplifies our commitment to becoming more nimble, collaborative and bold.

But let me get back to telling you about where we are headed. At this past Board meeting, several opportunities identified by your colleagues as part of our ongoing growth initiatives were discussed. Four got the green light and are moving forward: the USA Today Sports Network; the re-launch of our core digital properties starting with USATODAY.com; a digital video production center at WXIA (Atlanta); and the development of new local products and services for the advertisers we serve in USCP, Broadcast and Clipper.

Our plan is to spend the next 90 days further developing the business cases on other promising initiatives that resulted from these efforts, while simultaneously identifying the competencies and additional resources needed to build and execute on these plans. This next phase of work will be presented to the Board at our October meeting.

My commitment to you is to keep our lines of communication open so that you are kept abreast of where we are headed. Thank you for being at the forefront of delivering news and information as we continue serving all our communities.

Broadcast's WXIA, KARE, WGRZ win Murrow Awards

The three Gannett stations won a combined four 2010 Edward R. Murrow Awards in a national competition sponsored by the Radio Television Digital News Association, the trade group announced today. The prestigious awards honor outstanding achievements in electronic journalism, Corporate noted in a statement today. They're named for the famed U.S. journalist, who first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II.

The winners:

• WXIA at Atlanta; large market/best continuing coverage (11Alive Staff), for "State of the Stimulus"
• KARE at Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.; large market/newscast (KARE 11 News at 10 p.m./KARE 11 News Team), for ""Blizzard Coverage" (12/23/09), and large market/video feature reporting (Boyd Huppert, Jonathan Malat), for "The Tyler Project"
• WGRZ at Buffalo, N.Y.; small market/video sports reporting (Bob Mancuso, Aaron Saykin), for "Baseball Hero"

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.

Urgent: GCI reaches outside for new WXIA-TV GM

Corporate just announced that it has appointed a former Granite Broadcasting executive, John Deushane, as president and general manager of WXIA and WATL of Atlanta. He replaces Bob Walker, who left the NBC affiliate in March for the Weather Channel Cos.

WXIA is one of the broadcasting division's biggest TV stations. Gannett CEO Craig Dubow was its general manager prior to his being named head of the broadcasting division.

Deushane formerly was chief operating officer for Granite Broadcasting from 2002-2009. Corporate's statement does not explain the gap in Deushane's work history, from 2009 to present.

Previously, Deushane was senior vice president of Granite Broadcasting from 1998-2002; president and general manager at KSEE-TV in Fresno, Calif., from 1997-1998; and president and general manager, director of sales, at WEEK-TV in Peoria, Ill., from 1991-1998, the statement says. Earlier, he worked for Price Communications in various positions, including president and general manager at KRCG-TV in Jefferson City, Missouri.

WXIA | Walker resigns for Weather Channel post

Bob Walker (left), president and general manager of Gannett's Atlanta TV stations WXIA and WATL, has been named executive vice president of marketing and cross platform development for the Weather Channel Cos., according to this press release.

In a comment, Anonymous@9:16 a.m. writes that Gannett Broadcasting President Dave Lougee "showed up here along with Rob Mennie, Anthony Diaz and a couple of other suits for a surprise meeting yesterday morning -- where Bob Walker announced his resignation."

As I post, Corporate's website doesn't have anything on this move in its press release section.

WXIA is one of the biggest of Gannett's 23 stations. Walker had been chief of WXIA since 1996 and assumed responsibility for WATL in 2006 after Gannett acquired the station. Prior to that role, Walker was vice president of broadcast and held various sales, marketing and research roles across nearly 22 years with Gannett.

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.

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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."

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Hot Off the Tube: WXIA-TV

A screenshot from WXIA's website. The Atlanta station at a glance:

• President and General Manager: Robert J. Walker
• Founded: 1951
• Joined Gannett: 1979
• Employees: 221
• Weekly audience: 1,639,000 TV households
  

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