u/treesqu

As a former multi-decade Tegna (Gannett/Belo) employee, I cheered when Adrienne O'Rourke left, but was puzzled when all her "Regional VP's of Content" (News) remained.

Here is Google's AI explanation: "While Roark (sic) exited the company's highest content role after just over a year, her appointed deputies—including Vice Presidents of Content like Raquel Amparo, Chris Peña, Julie Wolfe, Javier Morgado, Carol Fowler, and Michael Valentine—are positioned lower down the corporate ladder. Firing the entire mid-level corporate content layer simultaneously would completely paralyze local newsroom strategies, content feeds, and daily operations across TEGNA's 64+ television stations."

As a former Tegna News Manager at several of your largest operating units (local stations), I can confidently state that losing this unnecessary layer of "mid-level corporate content management" would NOT just "completely paralyze local newsroom strategies"; it would remove an expensive and unproductive layer of bureaucracy, which would free your local stations to better serve the communities that none of these "mid level corporate managers" are familiar with to maximize local station's profits.

Tegna CEO Patrick Paolini, please remove these "mid-level corporate managers" & free your local newsrooms to serve their communities, and maximize local revenue without interference from all of the clueless "Good Idea Fairies" Adrienne has imposed on them.

I would aggressively digitize, transcribe and catalog all of the archives within the analog "silos" of all of my historic operating units and combine them with my current (and continually updated) digital archives into one massive IP tranche, then maximize monetization by selling them as AI training resources as well as employing AI to repurpose them into FAST and other monetizable "channels" to extract revenue by selling advertising, licensing rights and subscriptions from them. I would also partner with other ownership groups to combine our regional/local IP ownership rights to cover the entire USA. There's a gold mine available to whoever does the very hard work to make this a reality.

I will be as vague as I can be, but I want to advise journalists working for Christian Nationalists about what my be ahead (based on my experience).

After I left the biz, I realized my former manager fits this mold. Upon his death, he was described publicly as "an angel" by our station's management. He was not (and I identify as a "Christian.")

When I worked for him, I casually rebuffed his suggestion that I join his "Bible Studies" at work as well as joining his church.

I worked in an area considered to be the "Buckle of the Bible Belt." These sorts of "invitations" were not unusual and were (usually) not a big deal.

Unfortunately, that was not the case with "Brother" (Bubba).

Eventually, he & I (and the company I had worked at for several decades) parted company.

Before he forced me out, I had planned to submit my retirement a month or two later, so it was not a big deal to me (except I would have liked the option to leave under better circumstances).

However, it turned into a much bigger deal for our HR team, who reached out to understand why I did not file for unemployment (I didn't want to jump through the hoops our state requires to prove I was looking for a job to collect 1 or maybe 2 months' pay) when I was immediately eligible for social security and my pension.

In retrospect, I realize they felt that the company had some legal exposure, had I chosen to challenge my forced departure.

And in the middle of all of this, my former manager died of a massive heart attack.

Unbelievably, I was contacted by former co-workers and mid-level managers above me about eulogizing him at his funeral, "because he spoke so highly of you."

Needless to say, I declined.

RIP "Brother" Bubba.

When I entered the TV "news biz" as a teen in the mid 70's, one of my first mentors warned me that "The only constant in TV news is change."

Boy, was he right!

I experienced the last years of film-based news coverage, the transition to ENG/videotape, the arrival of cable tv, the explosion of local newscasts into every time period imaginable (beyond just "Noon, 6 &10 pm"), live microwave & satellite coverage, the 24 hour news cycle, the internet, and the transition from analog to digital playout & production, plus the rise of the increasing importance of our websites, apps, and FAST/streaming channels, before I finally retired.

That was a helluva ride.

Now, from the sidelines since I have retired, I watch the consolidation of local stations & broadcast groups, the competition from unregulated streaming competitors, and the emergence of individual creators & independent news groups on Substack, YouTube, TikTok, etc and all I can say is:

"The only constant in TV news is change."

Understand, I feel what you are going through!

I have had entire newsrooms shot out from under me along the way (with all of the layoff pain you can imagine), and it never got easier or less stressful.

For those of you still in the thick of an industry that never pays what it should, or rewards the people making it work as it should (and often generously rewards those least responsible for success), as it does, I salute you, and wish you well in a business which Hunter S. Thompson once (in)famously described thusly:

"The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason."

Like the mentor I encountered earlier on in my TV journalism experience, these words - unfortunately - also ring true now that I have left.

"The only constant in TV news is change."

Two million cruise passengers now sail each year out of Galveston on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, MSC & NCL

As a veteran cruiser and native South Texan, I believe there is a huge opportunity to open a "Port of Call" for these cruise lines on the relatively undeveloped Southern areas of "North Beach."

If the port were to construct cruise ship piers north of the USS Lexington & the Texas Aquarium, I am convinced they could serve most of the lines sailing out of Galveston (on the last day of their northern itineraries from Mexico & the Caribbean back to Galveston).

In addition to developing stretches of North Beach into a destination for cruise passengers, this could also serve as a jumping-off point for bus tours to the Lexington, Aquarium, and the Selena Museum, as well as the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (Whooping Cranes), and the King Ranch (to name just a few local attractions).

Your thoughts?

https://preview.redd.it/jjv5x3f4l59h1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2d10c4b4a7cf754e6533888d6a675449c0c8125b

USCG & CBP AMO (along with the Border Patrol) have scored some large migrant smuggling takedowns off both coasts in recent weeks!

We are sailing out of the Long Beach cruise port for the first time & our balcony overlooks the Queen Mary, which is permanently docked next to the pier Carnival uses.

It seems odd to me that Carnival does not offer pre and post-cruise excursions to tour the ship or a "stay and sail" package to stay in a room aboard that ship before or after the cruise.

Just seems to be a huge missed opportunity.

Thoughts?

Byron Allen is buying BuzzFeed (which also includes control of HuffPost) for $120 million (but will be funded by only $20M upfront, with $100M as a promissory note due in 5 years).

After the November midterms, the expectation is that the GOP will retain control of the Senate, and MIGHT be able to retain control of the House, IF their gerrymanders break their way (which, after the recent Virginia court ruling, is more plausible).

Should that happen (with the GOP in continued control of the Presidency, Senate, and House), I'd expect Nexstar to shower massive contributions on the GOP victors, resulting in the elimination of the 2004-era 39% congressionally-established station TV ownership cap - paving the way for the merger to be completed (and many more by other companies - like Sinclair -to follow).

Governor threatens to strip Grand Prairie of $530k in state funding if city does not cancel the event.