The revolving door of local news talent

I can’t imagine there is much prestige left in these news station jobs. The local news in my area is laughable anymore. Nothing but corporate PR, fluff pieces, and fear mongering about random crime.

The pay is abysmal and the hours are variable to the detriment of a social life or often sleep.

There’s two local stations owned by the execrable Sinclair media.

All of a sudden one poor sap, who’d been an anchor at one station or another for years suddenly decided to “retire”. They definitely got rid of him.

One of the Sinclair stations also got rid of their daily 10 pm news broadcast and instead have some community show talking about things that are of no interest to anyone.

The only two somewhat dependable, reliable local news broadcasts have anchors that have been there for many years.

I don’t watch any local news so it doesn’t much matter, actually. But, yeah, I’ve seen my share of new people on the local news, lately.

Fuck you

TV news reporting used to be a professional position. Now, unless it's with a major market, it's more of an entry level job. With the exception of a couple of old timers, my local TEGNA owned ABC affiliate looks like a college TV station. The news departments at the smaller market stations have been stripped to the bare bones. The reporters basically react to the police blotter, press releases, and narrate pre-packaged infotainment pieces from their corporate owners. All the cameras are robots and the anchors have to run their own teleprompters with a hand held remote.

I used to do a lot of temp and contract work, so I've spent time in almost every major corporate office in my city, plus a few of the TV stations. Almost every office I went to had their communications or marketing offices filled with people who used to work in local TV news. Once they figure out they're not going to be the next Gayle King, they use their connections to score an easier job that's more secure and pays much better. It always tickles me to see one of the local utility spokespeople interviewed on a newscast that used to employ them, and all parties act like they barely know each other.

They are paid 20 dollars an hour, the same as a Target sales associate

R6 The difference is Target is a job while news reporting / journalism was once considered a career.

We had a cute girlina here in town that was a reporter (there was a thread about him a few years back).

He left because the pay was so pitiful and is now the communications director and spokesperson for the local airport.

Would anyone care to post their favorite anchors for times gone by? It used to be a prestigious position. My mom and grandmama used to point them out in public, but always insist not to invade their privacy.

I was taller than the local weather man in middle school.

*from times gone by

Make it regional!!!

Those jobs are really just for spring loading off into better corporate markets. Most of them don’t make it at all.

theyre paid 50 grand a year. the gig is used to elevate their profile as escorts

Also, in general the career path starting out is extremely transitory. One starts in a small market and eventually seeks a larger market.

I split my time between Connecticut and Maine - the market makes a huge difference. In both states the core anchor teams have been in place for years. The difference comes with the reporters. In Connecticut, new reporters typically come with some experience down market. In Maine, they are fresh out of school and are fascinating to watch being so green. I estimate about a third become decent reporters and move up market. Another third does OK and stick around. The last third just disappear. Of those that attempt the move up market, a fairly high percentage seem to not make it wind up back in Maine a couple of years later.

I think a lot of these local stations now are training repositories for young hopefuls. The one in my hometown has a lot of very young reporters who either overdo the news speak inflection, trip over words, or speak in deadly dull monotones.

It’s a far cry from the days of Gayle King.

For R9--

Sue Simmons - an old pro!

What the F did I do?

We used to have anchors and now we have newsreaders and weather girls/guys.