Posts Tagged ‘WSEE’

12 News joins Education Nation

Last year at this time I expressed my disappointment, and the P&T community had a lively discussion over the lack of special coverage in Erie and other local NBC markets during the network’s Education Nation week. This year, I’m excited and congratulate Lisa Adams, News Director and the WICU/WSEE reporting team for taking advantage of this event and hugely important topic.

Here’s coverage from Sunday:

The stations are planning on stories throughout the week on education issues. That’s the power of media as a force for good, and our community’s future depends on getting our schools right.

9/11: media remembrances moving

All this week, media channels in Erie and around the globe have been filled with stories and special programming marking the 10 years since the devastating events of September 11, 2001 in New York City, Washington, DC and Shanksville, PA.

MSNBC: Men secure a flag over a World Trade Center beam prior to transportation to Erie, Pa., for construction of a memorial to remember the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

For me it is very easy to jump back a decade to that profound sense of horror, pain, and loss; not only in the immediate wake of the attack, but of the accumulated loss over ten years of wars, decimated economy, and internal national strife.

Those of us who were media producers on 9/11/01 instantly recall our efforts of getting the news out to the community, the hours on end radio and television news broadcasts, the extra edition of the Times-News, back-office staff filling roles where needed so that the organizations would meet the challenges of that horrible day.

Perhaps the most rewarding culmination of those extra efforts was United We Stand, the historical combined remote of all the Erie radio and television stations, well covered by the newspaper to raise funds for the American Red Cross and the victims of the attacks on September 20, 2001 at the Millcreek Mall. That sense of unity of purpose was unfortunately soon lost, and so our sense of loss in remembering is multiplied.

There has been some excellent reporting this week, with specials still planned on Sunday. Don’t miss this local content:

Poll: your online news video usage

In our poll last week about the media navel-gazing over their Hurricane Irene coverage, the majority of readers of P&T participating in our poll thought that the level of coverage was appropriate. Of course, that whole conversation died down when people saw the video of the real inland flooding damage in places like Middlebury, VT and Patterson, NJ.

Here’s a quote I recently read on my Facebook news feed:

I can’t believe that in the 21st Century I can’t watch the news (I) choose.

Well, actually, you can; kinda. Both WJET/WFXP and WICU/WSEE offer online video versions of certain stories. WICU/WSEE will also produce an online news headlines cast a couple times a day. GoErie will offer Web Extra video packages with big newspaper stories. Right now, no one locally is live streaming their news casts, nor offers an online archive of their casts.

How do you use local news video online (you can choose up to three answers)?

What is your online news video usage?

View Results

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New WICU/WSEE website huge improvement

erietvnews.com

Screen grab of erietvnews.com - June 15, 2011

The new website for Lilly’s Broadcasting’s news products at WICU and WSEE is a huge improvement over what they had to date.

The design is clean, media-rich, and should be profitable. What’s interesting is that the on-air promos continue to push the individual domains for the TV stations, wsee.tv and wicu12.com, which then forward to erietvnews.com. I think that’s a good idea, since they have over a decade and a half of branding invested in those domains and rolling out a whole new brand is unnecessary and expensive. And it shows that in spite of much discussion in these parts, Lilly-Erie seems to be committed to keeping the individual news brands separate.

Features of the site are headlines up front, news articles with full-size video complete with ability to link and even embed video onto your own site, as well as share on Facebook or Twitter. There’s also satellite weather and only one ad “above the fold” so that your not wading through so many pop-ups to get to the top news. I like the bio page, with nice new pictures of the news staff and some witty personal stories, as well as the comprehensive directory of the entire company, complete with phone extensions and email links…I appreciate the willingness to be available to the viewers.

They’ve also included a mobile version of the site, which now joins YourErie.com in having separate mobile strategy for a mainstream Erie news outlet. We’ve yet to see any kind of mobile app to come out of GoErie.com/Erie Times-News.

There is still some cleanup to do at erietvnews.com, some design issues including random white space and lines that fall off, along with broken links. However, we are grateful for the investment made in this technology that really enhances viewer’s lives.

Where have your TV faves gone?

In a small television market like Erie, often new faces will become familiar but then vanish, and the viewer will be asking “whatever happened to…?” Here’s a few folks that in recent months have flown the coop of the Flagship City and where they are now:

(Selena) Sunshine Wiles

Sunshine Wiles

Selena Sunshine Wiles, formerly of WJET

It was big news when Selena Wiles left the Tri-Cities in Tennessee to replace long-time anchor Karla Mullenax at Action News 24. So after just a couple years, it was shocking for the Erie viewers when she left again, this time to return to her home area of West Virginia. So much so that Selena Wiles is the most “googled” personality’s name on Press and Tower.

Ms. Wiles brought back her given middle name to the West Virginia airwaves when she moved back home last summer. Sunshine is now back at her original broadcasting company and anchoring the 10:00 nightly cast on FOX 10, WVFX/Clarkesville, WV. According to her bio:

By the summer of 2010, Wiles was more than ready to “return” home and not just be “closer” to family and friends in WV.  An opportunity with Wither’s Broadcasting and WVFX opened a door to return to her roots.
She says “it’s deja vu all over again, go Mountaineers, and this is almost heaven.”

(more…)

The rise of women in Erie media

What glass ceiling?

The rise of market veteran Pam Forsyth to General Manager of Lilly Broadcasting’s WICU, WSEE, and WBEP is a significant milestone. Yet it is a natural outcome in a market that has long valued its female media professionals. Just last month, Lisa Adams was upped to News Director at the same cluster; who when joined by Program Director Paula Randolph creates a context where powerful female voices are heard from the entire spectrum of a station’s operation.

Meanwhile, downtown we find the Erie Times-News/GoErie.com and Connoisseur Media’s six radio stations with women in the CEO chair. And don’t forget that many ad deals are conducted by agencies led by women, including Ad Person of the Year, Pauline Gonda of Rambaldo Gonda Media.

Perhaps what makes the Forsyth promotion so exciting is that Pam came up through the ranks locally, starting in local radio sales at WSEG in the 1980′s, eventually hitting the streets for channel 12 where she has been most effective and empathetic for her clients and the viewers. I can’t think of a better person who can not only maximize revenues and market share while bringing continued healing and solidarity to the merged group.

The world of Mad Men seems a million years ago compared to this age of Erie media.

Times-News: stopping the presses, 40 laid off

Erie Times-News

Erie Times-News masthead

In the beginning, the newspaper that would become the Erie Times-News was started by nine printers alienated by their old newspapers management.

Today, the newspaper announced that there would be no pressman employed at 12th and Sass, meaning 40 employees to be terminated. Citing aging presses and costs involved with improving them, the Times Publishing Co. said they will outsource the printing and packaging of the daily. From the GoErie.com post:

Even though it is exiting the printing and packaging business, the company will continue to operate the Erie Times-News as a family-owned daily newspaper.

“This was a very difficult decision but one that we believe is in the best long-term interests of the company and the community,” said Rosanne Cheeseman, president and publisher.

“Our major concern is the age of our printing and packaging equipment and the millions of dollars it would take to maintain or replace this equipment. Although we have printed our own newspaper for nearly 90 years, with today’s technologies we have decided to purchase printing and packaging services elsewhere. The world of communication is changing, and more than 50 newspapers across the country have closed printing plants just since the beginning of 2009.”

The presses currently used to produce the Erie Times-News are 41 years old.

WJET/WFXP and WICU/WSEE quoted Communication Workers of America union spokesman Dan Wasser:

I think it’s not only a slap in the face to the employees, but also to the community where they get their revenue from. They predominantly state on their newspaper, that they’ve been serving the Erie community area since 1888, and after all these years, they’ve decided to outsource this work, instead of keeping the work in Erie, PA.

It was reported that Erie Police were called to the plant upon the announcement of the layoffs, which came on the first day of negotiations of a new collective bargaining agreement between the CWA and the paper.