Here’s the Roundup for the Week Ending November 22

Happy Friday to all who celebrate! In this week’s edition of stories we didn’t get to for one reason or another, we get a little more info on the Tegna layoffs and how our friend AI may start to impact our professional lives. We also see a few heavyweights hang up their lav mics in favor of retirement.

Let’s make the dough:

The Changing Industry:

• Tegna lays off local station marketers in favor of centralized marketing: Anne Bentley, Tegna’s chief communications officer: “The [marketing] team will oversee key areas including the growth of our stations and audience, digital marketing, consumer insights, community engagement, commercial production and strategic initiatives like sponsorships and sports.” Click here for more.

• Our good friend over at FTVLive had this to add: Like the rest of the Tegna stations, the entire marketing team was cut at KXTV in Sacramento. But the cuts did not end there at the NorCal station. Also whacked were a Meteorologist, special projects Photographer and all the Directors at the station.

• And over on Reddit, one local station employee talked about what’s happening. We asked them about it, but haven’t heard any details:

For context I work production in local news. Recently there’s been developments in AI driven systems that can do 100% of the production side of things which is, direct, audio operate, and graphic operate -all of those jobs are all now gone in one swoop. This has apparently been developed by the company Q ai.

For the last decade I’ve worked in local news and have garnered skills I thought I would be able to take with me until my retirement, now at almost 30 years old, all of those job opportunities for me are gone in an instant. The only person that’s keeping their job is my manager, who will overlook the system and do maintenance if needed. That’s 20 jobs lost and 0 gained for our station.

We were informed we are going to be the first station to implement this under our company. This means that as of now our entire production staff in our news station is being let go. Once the system is implemented and running smoothly then this system is going to be implemented nationwide (effectively eliminating tens of thousands of jobs.) There are going to be 0 new jobs built off of this AI platform.

There are people I work with in their 50’s, single, no college education, no family, and no other place to land a job once this kicks in. I have no idea what’s going to happen to them. This is it guys. This is what our future with AI looks like. This isn’t creating any new jobs this is knocking out entire industry level jobs without replacing them.

Click here to see the post

• Tegna’s WKYC in Cleveland, Ohio, is canceling its sponsored lifestyle talk show “Good Company” as part of a larger restructuring of the marketing teams within the group. The station announced the show will end in mid-January 2025, ending a nearly 20-year run that started in 2005. Here’s that story.
• Anchors for Gray Television owned KTVF Channel 11 and KXDF Channel 13 (pictured) signed off the Fairbanks airwaves for the last time on Saturday after the stations’ parent company pulled the plug on the local news broadcast. Click here for more.

• From Newscast Studio: The appointment of Brendan Carr as incoming FCC chairman signals a potential seismic shift in the broadcast television landscape. With his track record of advocating for deregulation and his stated intention to revisit ownership limits, the industry appears poised for consolidation. Click here for more.

The Revolving Door:

• After more than a decade, a beloved KENS 5 TV anchor is making moves. Morning show anchor Sarah Forgany is leaving her early shift and is heading to a more “normal” shift. Click here for more.

• Meet Erika Gonzalez, CBS News Miami’s new morning show co-anchor. Click here for the video.

• Eric Kelly left his FOX 44 KWKT Waco-Temple-Killeen sports director role and apparently TV in September 2024. Click here for more from Mike McGuff.
• KCRA 3’s new weekend evening anchor Cecil Hannibal made his on-air debut at the station on Wednesday. Hannibal comes to KCRA 3 from our Hearst Television station in Jackson, Mississippi, where he was the morning anchor at WAPT. He is an Emmy Award-winning anchor and reporter. Here’s the story.

The End of An Era:

• After 30 years as KDKA-TV’s political analyst and 23 years as the station’s full-time money and politics editor, Jon Delano will retire from the station Dec. 1, with his last day on-air next Monday. Click here for the story.

• Steve Horstmeyer, Cincinnati’s longest-tenured meteorologist, says he will retire in March after 48 years in television. “It’s time. You know when it’s time,” says Horstmeyer, 71. Click here to see the story.

True Crime:

• TV anchor Jodi Huisentruit vanished nearly 30 years ago. A fresh search reignited hope – but only briefly. Click here for more.

Some Good News:

• Three years since he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, KARE 11’s Boyd Huppert says he is cancer-free. Here’s more.