Channel 39 will end its traditional newscasts by this fall to launch a new format called NewsFix, which discards on-camera anchors and reporters and focuses on natural sound and video to tell stories. KIAH employees were informed Thursday about the changes, which apparently involve reassigning anchors and reporters to new, off-camera duties and signal a sharp reversal from the station's recent advertising campaign focusing on its lead anchor, Mia Gradney. Roger Bare, Channel 39's general manager, said KIAH will be the pilot program for Tribune Broadcasting's NewsFix, which is expected to launch in late September or early October. "The core concept is to focus more on storytelling by allowing those in the story to tell the story and to place video and audio at the center of all that we do," Bare said, repeating a sentence included in a memo given to employees. One Channel 39 employee, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the station's behalf, said employees were told that the newscast would feature fast-paced stories, added special effects and a minimum of on-camera appearances by reporters or anchors. "It's not going to be as much of a newscast as a collection of stories that will roll into each other," the employee said. "There will be natural sound, and you won't see the reporters. "It will be news for people who don't watch news, which sounds a lot like opening a bar for people who don't drink." NewsFix is the brainchild of Lee Abrams, the former radio executive who is Tribune Co.'s chief innovation officer. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Abrams said the company wants to "bring us into the 21st century in terms of what (viewers) see and hear. It's elevating us and escaping the grip of the 1970s television playbook that seems to be what every station in America is addicted to." Abrams was not available for comment Friday, but Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman said NewsFix is Tribune's effort to differentiate its newscasts from its competitors' programs. "The emphasis will be on storytelling from the standpoint of the people telling the stories," he said. "I don't think it will be like anything you've seen. It's a different way of doing the news, and we're excited about it." Channel 39 employees were told they will be shown a prototype for the newscast next week. Weitman described the prototype as a collection of stories from several Tribune stations. Tribune, which owns 23 TV stations, will roll out NewsFix on stations "that don't have a strong legacy news product or where the local news tradition may not be as strong as it is in other markets," he said. Channel 39's news has traditionally been the lowest-rated among the five local English-language stations that provide local newscasts. Only 0.1 percent of Houston's 2,123,460 TV households, or 2,123, were tuned in at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, and 10,617, or 0.5 percent, were tuned in at 9 p.m., according to the Nielsen Company. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/7122045.html
So is this just basically the reporters doing on-site reporting the whole time? So no more, "back to you, Bob!"?
Meh, I don't even watch the local news anymore. I get informed via cnn, google news and chron.com, all places online. Makes sense to change things up if you're only capturing such a small viewing market. Any gain (and they'll get some with this "new news") is a good thing for ch 39.
Is that what it is? I understood it to be no news people , period. Except for maybe special circumstances, like weather. The way i see it, if the story is about a child being kidnapped, then the focus is the family, friends, or anyone they'd usually interview. They'd edit it in such a way that they'd tell their own individual stories and the station would then edit that so it tells the overall story, and they are the ones reporting their own news, not strangers (anchors/reporters). I guess that would play like a bunch of very short stories, with maybe an off camera narrator where necessary.
It would be cool if they replaced the on camera anchors with computerized/animated robots reading the news in a monotone, robotic voice.
I'm glad she is getting some love here, I don't recall her ever being mentioned in that Dominique Sachse thread
I haven't watched anything on 39 except for seinfeld reruns for a few years now. I did enjoy all the Mia commercials, sigh.