Channel 39 to do away with on-camera anchors

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