Hand out pink slips to dozens of your little market darlings Local TV It would be undesirable for news to be bad even in the best of times. But to do it right as unexpected and dangerous weather disasters tear across the country this month — from wildfires in California to a historic freeze in the South — was particularly tone-deaf.
However, that’s what Allen Media Group It did last week, and announced it would ditch its reliable local weather anchors in a cost-saving move. The idea was to simply feed forecasts from the Weather Channel’s Atlanta hub to the company’s stations around the country. Allen Media Group said it may move some local meteorologists to Atlanta, but for the most part, your local forecast will now be handled by someone hundreds, or even thousands, miles away from the community the station serves.
In a press release, Allen Media Group — which owns 27 television stations across the country, as well as the Weather Channel and others — “attempted to report the most accurate, timely and engaging forecasts for communities across the country.” What it did not explain were the local layoffs that The ensuing Allen Media Group declined to give a figure on how many people have been affected.
But Allen Media Group clearly wasn’t ready for viewers to see this interpretation right. They have somehow forgotten how viewers of connected news relate personally to their local people. These TV personalities are stars in their local markets, often because they have been the most important source of information when the weather gets scary. They know exactly where this hurricane hits, where the winds are blowing and who is in harm’s way because they live there too. Not some meteorologist in Atlanta.
I also don’t think they expected much that their farewell from their local stations would go viral. I found myself tearing up in Goodbye from Terre Haute from Allen Media Group, Ind. Wthi-TV Patrece Dayton and Kevin Orpurt. I’d never heard of them, and had never been to Terre Haute, but I could immediately see why that city loved these two – and I wasn’t happy with the decision they could.
This was repeated with both the Weathercasters and other anchors across the Allen Media Group stations across the country as the stations underwent another brutal round of layoffs. This isn’t just a problem at Allen Media Group, it’s a problem in journalism, as both national and local news outlets are making drastic cuts — when we need them most.
Allen Media Group, of course, isn’t the only TV station group making radical cuts by centralizing operations — Sinclair, CBS, Gray Media and others have done so in various forms in recent years. These cost-cutting moves are a disappointing financial reality given a soft advertising market and audiences turning their attention away from television. It also happens in newspapers, of course.
But what’s lost in these moves to centralize coverage is the local expertise and nuance that comes with having your boots on the ground, knowledge of the intricacies of your community and a personal relationship with viewers. Ironically, removing all of that will only hasten the demise of local media as we know it. What’s more than a daily weather forecast? Stripping away the very selling point that still makes streaming valuable — its live, local nature — may help save some coin in the short term, but it’s a recipe for obsolescence in the long term.
like I recently wrote, Los Angeles fires are here We reminded us of the importance of local media in an age when social media has become in large part a worthless fire brigade of lies, conspiracy theories, and hate. And things are only going to get worse under the new regime in Washington, D.C. – one that rewards those lies and covers up the truth.
When it comes to weather, the effects of climate change will make our environment more dangerous and unpredictable in the coming years. This is a public safety issue, and broadcast stations hold a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license that requires some responsibility to act in the public interest. Firing your own meteorologists and reporting from Atlanta is the opposite.
Byron Allen He has proven himself to be a savvy businessman in building Allen Media Group into a diversified company with assets across broadcast, cable, streaming and film distribution. Recently, he’s also famous for bidding billion dollars on media companies, so he has the resources. And according to some local media reports, Allen Media Group may be reconsidering Mass Weathercaster’s layoffs and looking to bring some back after advertisers also objected. Requests for comment to Allen Media Group were not returned, so it is unclear how many employees may keep their jobs. But this was a lesson for all broadcasters: Take the “local” out of local TV at your peril.
