The Economy

You've never worked for a company entering into union negotiations.

 

The ownership of televisions stations is becoming more and more concentrated in penny pinching companies like Sinclair. How long until production is centralized in ways similar to newspaper design centers?

 

It’s getting there. We have two producers who work remote. It’s a fantastic bandaid, however. They’re both military spouses who had to leave their last stations — five years of experience each and they seem to be really grateful for the gig. I’m fortunate in that I’m at a shop that doesn’t mind paying for quality. For now.

 

I'm at the only growing newspaper in America with zero fear of layoffs . . . and I'm counting the days until I can get the hell out of there and retire.

241 days.

 

What kind of retirement package does Putin offer?

 

One of the questions that hangs over many sectors of mass media in the United how much behavior will change as people age or if they will maintain the habits of their youth. Because if Gen X and Gen Y'ers don't eventually change the consumers of mass media will literally die off.

I have siblings who insist on subscribing to the daily Denver Post. But none of our children have ever subscribed to a hard copy paper. And probably never will.

In television and radio the same thing is happening. Younger people are simply not watching network television or local news. And as they do not seem to be consuming more traditional media.

 

Do we slap a “Biden did that” sticker on the quarterly earnings reports for oil companies?

 

Master controls all over the country have been consolidating for years.

 

Sinclair reported RECORD earnings in the 2Q of 2022. During the start of a recession and with most political advertising softer than expected.

Master control and other production jobs are hubbed, more than ever before.

 

One of our local stations is Sinclair.
On the early evening news, our good station is giving local news: auto fatality, vote to build a new school, weather, pets at the shelter, etc. The Sinclair station - because I know what Sinclair is and what to look for - has national gas average, border crisis, China, rising unemployment.

 

I'm jumping in late to the TV news discussion.

My station does 11 hours of news a day and they're looking to expand that. We'll be up to 12 in a few months. The biggest hurdle to expansion right now is just hiring people --mostly producers -- to staff it. Finding candidates has become a major challenge, particularly as more and more people get out of the business. (I finally got a promotion that was on hold for nine months because they simply couldn't replace me.)

Yeah, ratings are incredibly low compared to what they were 20 years ago. The station groups are still making plenty of money. We expanded our commercial breaks a few months ago to accommodate the political advertising demand. (I'm in a battleground state which is terrible for viewers but fucking AMAZING for the sales department.)

The "remote producer" thing is a weird one for me. I know at least one station in our chain is advertising for remote newscast producers and stressing in the ad "you don't have to live here!" While I get the appeal for the worker and the company... I was producing from home off and on through the pandemic and it was a pretty miserable way to put together a newscast. That's in a market where I've lived for nearly 30 years. I can't imagine putting together a local newscast for a city I'm unfamiliar with.