Kareem Johnson | A Reporter's Notes

St. Louis–Mike Garrity, one of the assignment reporters at KSDK is leaving for the East Coast to New England to work for WMUR the powerhouse Hearst ABC affiliate in Manchester New Hampshire, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Deb Peterson.

Peterson reports that “Garrity, who has been with KSDK-TV (Channel 5) since 2007, said he believes his last day here will be Sept. 11 and that he is scheduled to start work in New Hampshire on Sept. 20.” Garrity told Peterson that he wanted to live closer to his family.

Congrats to Mike.

Send your messages to his twitter account @MSGarrity

Here are the May 2010 Sweep Results for St. Louis; Where available I’m  providing the numbers from May 2009 for comparison.  Status Quo for the most part, but  KDNL is doing better in overall ratings, KMOV is down everywhere, and KSDK retains the overall news lead, with KTVI nearly tying them in weekly averages.  We could be seeing KTVI become the overall leader in the market. The last time KTVI led in sweep ratings was when they were an ABC affiliate.  It proves that consistency works.  KMOV and KSDK need to take notice. Keep your news team consistent, focus on the fundamentals of journalism, and the viewers will watch.

KDNL has a unique opportunity to reintroduce it’s news image if it wants to.  ABC’s schedule is doing respectable in the ratings locally, and could provide a solid lead-in for a newscast.  It’s time for a news presence on KDNL. Onward to the numbers.

Daytime:

Evening/Prime/Late after the Bump:

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 11, 2010

ANCHOR / REPORTER KELLY JACKSON RETURNS TO NEWSCHANNEL 5

KSDK, NewsChannel 5 announced today that Kelly Jackson will return to the station this coming Saturday as a weekend anchor and reporter. Jackson left NewsChannel 5 three years ago to take a job at Gannett sister station KXTV, the ABC affiliate in Sacramento. For the past three years she was co-anchor on KXTV’s weekday morning newscasts. Jackson’s career with NewsChannel 5 began back in 1998 as a co-anchor with meteorologist Scott Connell on Today in St. Louis at 5 a.m. Additionally, she was a host and reporter for Show Me St. Louis as well as an anchor on NewsChannel 5 at 5:00 p.m. prior to her leaving for California.
“We’re very pleased to welcome Kelly back to NewsChannel 5,” said Lynn Beall, President and General Manager of KSDK. “Of course she’s never really left our family, working for the past few years at our station in Sacramento. We are excited that she’s returning to St. Louis and bringing with her the energy and enthusiasm NewsChannel 5 viewers remember. Kelly has a long list of accomplishments, experience and skills as a journalist, but the thing I’ve always enjoyed about Kelly is her service to our St. Louis community.”

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Jasmine Huda

St. Louis–KSDK alum Jasmine Huda will back on the airwaves at KMOV-TV, the CBS affiliate in St. Louis. Huda left KSDK at the end of her contract back in January after an agreement could not be reached.  Huda will offiically join the News4 St. Louis team in a couple of weeks, but will not be on the air until August 1, when her no-compete ends. Until then, she’ll be off-air as a producer.

From the Post Dispatch’s Deb Peterson:

Channel 4 insiders say Huda, 31, will become a reporter, probably in the 10 p.m. time slot, and will also be a fill-in anchor.Allan Cohen, general manager of KMOV, said he was pleased the station was able to negotiate a deal with Huda. He noted that she is not replacing anyone at the station and is an addition to the staff.

“We’re absolutely delighted that she’s decided to join our station,” Cohen said. “But she really made me feel old when I found out that she had been in the same high school class (Ladue High) as my daughter, Stacie.”

My take: KSDK keeps allowing good talent to leave; Huda will be an immense asset to KMOV. She proved repeatedly while at KSDK she’s a solid reporter.  Glad she stayed in town, and she’ll round out the reporting and anchor team at KMOV nicely.

November 2009 Sweep Ratings for the sweep days from October 29 to November 25, 2009. Commentary follows the prime time numbers.

Daytime:

Evening/Late after the Bump:

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McLean, VA — Gannett, operator of KSDK in St. Louis is laying off 1400 newspaper jobs, reports Bloomberg.  Gannett will make these cuts because of declining revenue from newspapers, it stated in a memo.

“We must take these steps because the advertising environment remains challenged,” Bob Dickey, president of Gannett’s U.S. Community Publishing. 

Gannett has already instituted mandatory furloughs and pay cuts in it’s broadcast properties, including Minneapolis-St. Paul’s KARE-11 and KSDK in St. Louis. 

Dickey in an interview with Bloomberg has stated that additional unpaid leave will not be sought. Gannett has about 41,500 employees.

St. Louis — Viewers may have noticed some changes during whether segments.  Chief Met Kent Ehrhardt is now doing 5 and 6pm newscasts, with Steve Templeton taking over 10pm.

Tonight, Glenn Zimmerman filled in for Dave Murray on KTVI.

Mike Roberts filled in for Cindy Preszler on KSDK.

St. Louis — Deb Peterson reports that Rebeca Wu, reporter and anchor for Newschannel 5 is rumored to be leaving the station to take a job with the FBI. Wu has not answered inquiries, and news director Mike Shipley has no comment.

“There are some developments with Rebecca but I can’t go into the details. Call me back in a week.”

-Mike Shipley, News Director, KSDK.

In other Channel 5 news, KSDK has picked up another reporter. Ashley Larchin, niece of of  Deanne Lane, comes to KSDK from WLTX in Columbia, South Carolina, another station owned by Gannett. No word on when her first on-air date will be. Larchin was previously a production assistant at KSDK.

My Take:

KSDK is losing another good reporter/anchor. If Ms. Wu takes the job with the FBI, I wish her the best of luck.

There something I’ve been meaning to do for a while: Starting next week I will begin watching and reviewing each station’s newscasts for the week and providing commentary and review each newscast. What I want to do is to see how St. Louis stations follow or cover the news over the course of a day.

I will watch each newscast on KSDK, KMOV, KTVI, and KPLR.  on that day. I will record each newscasts.  At a later date I will do weekend newscasts.

KTVI: 5-9am; 11am; 5-6:30pm; 9pm; 10pm

KMOV: 5-7am; 12pm; 5pm; 6pm; 10pm

KSDK: 5-7am; 12pm; 5pm; 6pm; 10pm

KPLR: 12pm; 7pm

The search for summer/fall work continues, though. KMOV hasn’t responded to my resume, so I’ll probably be making a few phone calls.

Despite the climate in the business right now, I have to very real issues: I need exposure in a  TV/Radio/Print newsroom, and while interships are nice, I do need to live, so being paid is sort of a necessity. Although saying that, I’m still open to intern.  

So, in between studying, I’ve begun the process of  getting in contact with the news director at KMOV, and soon KSDK (a resume is coming their way soon). I’ll be doing the same with KTVI/KPLR.  I sent a resume last Friday to KMOX, just to see what sort of response I would get. I’ll keep you up to date on that.