Changes Announced Ahead of Sinclair Takeover of WJAR

Change is coming to Providence's WJAR-TV NBC 10 as the station is prepares to transition to Sinclair Broadcast Group ownership.

It will start by a high profile visit to the station from Sinclair executives.

NBC 10 VP/General Manager Vic Vetters, in an internal email, invited all employees at the station to a meet and greet with 7 top executives from Sinclair.

The executives visiting the station are David Smith (President/CEO), David Amy (Executive VP/COO), Steve Marks (VP/COO), Chris Ripley (VP/CFO), Del Parks (VP/Engineering & Operations), Don Thompson (VP/Human Resources) and Scott Livingston (VP/News).

The meeting will take place on "Friday, November 21st in Studio B at about 9:30 am." The meeting will be held for about 2 hours will all executives speaking and answering questions.

Most of the change, for now, will be happening in the news department.

"As we prepare for the arrival of Sinclair and the departure of Media General, I am very optimistic about the next chapter for NBC 10 News" NBC 10 news director Chris Lanni said in an internal email.

He continues "the book is going well, election night was a clear victory for us and - assuming you are not a Media General fan - we now have new reason to want to clobber the competition.  It’s a unique opportunity to show up not just 12, but our former owners as well. But those aren’t the only changes afoot."

Some of the changes happening ahead of the Sinclair takeover include:

• Adam Bagni will be moving over to news full time to become the official Bay State Bureau digital journalist.  "Adam has done an outstanding job wearing multiple hats in both the news and sports department during his tenure here.  He did a top-notch job blending those two worlds with his work on the URI coach stories.  And he truly understands the non-stop nature of our business with his prolific presence on social media.  I look forward to seeing him succeed in his new role, starting after the book" Lanni said.
• Susie Steimle will move to weekend evening anchor and reporter three days a week.  "Susie is an exceptional reporter who shows grace under pressure during her stringent Sunrise shift deadlines.  Her professionalism and attention to detail will be an asset on our weekend anchor desk" added Lanni.
• Kerri Corrado will join the station as a new multi-media journalist reporting morning's 5 days a week.
• Frank Carpano will return to his Sports Director role M-F and frequently fill in on the evening news desk
• Joe Kayata will oversee all of the weekend sports initiatives
• And starting in January Tony Gugliotta, Adam Bagni, Cierra Putman, Bill Rappleye and Mario Hilario will all be on 4/10 (4 days off, 10 days on) shifts.

Lanni said that "it may not seem like it, but all of these changes are intertwined and designed to accomplish a big picture goal that’s been years in the making.  You may have first noticed it taking shape following the welcomed addition of Chris and Kyle [news photographers], which allowed us to get the photog schedule to a 4/10 configuration.  Now, we can do the same with the majority of the reporters’ schedules as well."

The impact of these changes will also change the entire editorial day with the following changes:

• Beginning in January, there will be no more 8am editorial conference call, it will be replaces by a 9am face-to-face editorial meeting
• Attendance will be mandatory for all 8:45am – 6:45pm reporters, who will arrive informed and with original story ideas. Adam Bagni will join by phone from the New Bedford bureau.  Web will also have a presence in the 9am meeting. Mia DiBenedetto will go over the big clickers and will establish the digital priorities for the day (what will be live streamed, which developing stories will play best on Twitter, which talkers will play best on Facebook, long-form web article deadlines, etc.)
• Reporters will assist in setting up their own stories, relieving the burden on the assignment desk
• Photographers working with reporters will pull their own file, with desk assistance if needed of course
• With an 8:45a start time, all reporters/photographers would be available for noon live shots  if needed.
• This will allow the new 5-day-a-week morning reporter to focus on the next day’s Sunrise story, and gather sound and video for that

Lanni adds that there will be other "positive" changes as well.

He says that "this will be a seismic shift for this newsroom and it will require some getting used to.  We’ll all have to change some habits and use different parts of our brains (what! a story idea every day!).  That will come with time.  There’s a reason every other station in the country has a morning editorial meeting.  It will make our story selection better, improve our communication of coverage goals, story angles, anchor break-outs and brand reinforcement."

Lanni ends saying "These are very exciting changes and I am looking forward to 2015… for many reasons!"

You can download the full email though the link under the comments section.

 

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