Layoffs in Indianapolis

DanOregon · Sep 24, 2018

The latest "trend" for local and other news outlets is just doing a video cut and not using words to tell a story.

playthrough · Sep 24, 2018

crimsonace said: ↑

Word is, several others from the station have been laid off, too. Kravitz was by far the most visible

The issue with TV news is that it is a consultant-driven business with a lot of herd-following. The fad four years ago was hiring good journalists away from newspapers to bolster web traffic by providing high-quality print content and compete head-to-head with the newspapers. Now, it's not generating the revenue (or another fad has replaced it). Could also be, with the consultants moving onto the next shiny object, TV stations are viewing their websites like newspapers did in the early days - as an annoying add-on that's not the prime product and thus aren't really worth putting much time and effort into. The quality of writing on TV station sites - other than what the newspaper alumni like Kravitz provide - is often very ghastly. Much of it would be sent back for rewrite in the high school freshman journalism class I teach.

That said, I feel for Bob. Many of us have been there - I bailed out on the biz before it happened to me - but he's a good guy whom I've enjoyed getting to know in recent years. He did a ton for WTHR, including his usual columnist gig and on-air appearances. WTHR also aired the local minor league hockey team's games on a digital subchannel for a year and he did color commentary for them when his schedule allowed. He broke the "deflategate" story while working for the TV station, which likely generated a ton of traffic and *never* would've happened without a newspaper journalist working for them.
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I never understood why WTHR spent all the money to hire Kravitz and then didn't hire (or already have) anyone to edit his stuff. Like every writer, he needed an editor. And a better platform behind him -- for a few years, his columns would say "By Anonymous" at the top. He was a shiny object in a crappy box.

Indy has an edition of The Athletic and, as a subscriber, I'd love it if he was picked up there but it doesn't seem like many of the markets have been hiring columnists.

PCLoadLetter · Sep 24, 2018

playthrough said: ↑

I never understood why WTHR spent all the money to hire Kravitz and then didn't hire (or already have) anyone to edit his stuff. Like every writer, he needed an editor. And a better platform behind him -- for a few years, his columns would say "By Anonymous" at the top. He was a shiny object in a crappy box.

Indy has an edition of The Athletic and, as a subscriber, I'd love it if he was picked up there but it doesn't seem like many of the markets have been hiring columnists.
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From a TV perspective I don't get the hire at all. That transition rarely works -- the newspaper reporter is generally bad on TV and his/her presence on the web isn't going to move the needle. I get that Kravitz is a big deal in Indy but it made no sense after the initial splash of the hire.

Back when Gannett bought the Arizona Republic and already owned KPNX-TV they made a big deal about how they were going integrate reporters on both sides. It was a huge failure. One of the newspaper guys was really good and eventually became an anchor. All of the others were off the air within weeks.

playthrough · Sep 24, 2018

PCLoadLetter said: ↑

From a TV perspective I don't get the hire at all. That transition rarely works -- the newspaper reporter is generally bad on TV and his/her presence on the web isn't going to move the needle. I get that Kravitz is a big deal in Indy but it made no sense after the initial splash of the hire.

Back when Gannett bought the Arizona Republic and already owned KPNX-TV they made a big deal about how they were going integrate reporters on both sides. It was a huge failure. One of the newspaper guys was really good and eventually became an anchor. All of the others were off the air within weeks.
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Kravitz would be the first to tell you he has a face for radio. It was heck of an opportunity to get out from a Gannett shop before it got rid of him; until four years later when it was the TV station doing the cutting.

It's been a good few years for readers here between his columns and Gregg Doyel at the Star. Two very different styles.

PCLoadLetter · Sep 24, 2018

playthrough said: ↑

Kravitz would be the first to tell you he has a face for radio. It was heck of an opportunity to get out from a Gannett shop before it got rid of him; until four years later when it was the TV station doing the cutting.

It's been a good few years for readers here between his columns and Gregg Doyel at the Star. Two very different styles.
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I would love to know how many hits Kravitz was getting on the station website. I would bet it was really low, and that's no shade toward Kravitz. It's just the wrong forum.

Mwilliams685 · Sep 24, 2018

playthrough said: ↑

Kravitz would be the first to tell you he has a face for radio. It was heck of an opportunity to get out from a Gannett shop before it got rid of him; until four years later when it was the TV station doing the cutting.

It's been a good few years for readers here between his columns and Gregg Doyel at the Star. Two very different styles.
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I really miss his radio show with Eddie White.

BurnsWhenIPee · Sep 24, 2018

PCLoadLetter said: ↑

I would love to know how many hits Kravitz was getting on the station website. I would bet it was really low, and that's no shade toward Kravitz. It's just the wrong forum.
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It always seemed to me the addition of Kravitz for the TV station in Indy, and the Louisville station that hired the Courier-Journal writers, was more about hurting the papers there than helping the stations.

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Layoffs in Indianapolis

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