OK. Here’s a pop quiz. Which of the following headlines strikes you as the most routine, to the point of no longer even being newsworthy?
“Mideast in Turmoil”
“Bush Says Surge is Working”
“Gonzales Can Not Recall His Own Name”
“Rumors of Firings and Low Morale Wrack Ch. 5”
I know. I know. The trivia at Caribou is tougher.
The first calls came a couple weeks ago, and the story, for someone who covered the ups but mostly downs of KSTP-TV news for 15 years, was familiar to the point of being pure deja vu. As in … “Wha? Huh? Where’s Stan Turner?!”
“No, really. This is the worst it has been in 15 years,” said one KSTP employee. “I know you’ve heard that before, but this time the place has really jumped the tracks.”
Conversations with several more sources — all asking for anonymity in what they see as an unusually wretched climate — corroborated the basics of the rumors. (How’s that for solid?)
The essence of it all is this: News director Chris Berg will likely leave soon after the first of the month, (the end of the July ratings period), at least one veteran on-air personality, possibly weatherman Dave Dahl, may also leave, maybe on his own maybe otherwise, and the door may stay open for others.
What each source asserted independently is that they believe it is unfair to blame Berg, who many apparently have come to like and respect. Berg is a guy who induced snickers when he took over four and a half years ago for his cornball-tough “new sheriff in town” poses but who I’m told mellowed with age. The oft-repeated picture has Berg “beating his head against a wall”. A wall built of chronically bad advice by Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc. Hubbard Broadcasting’s inexplicably long-term consultant.
Only Dick Cheney could be as flat out dead wrong as often as Magid Associates and still be getting a check.
For years, almost as far back as the last days of Ron Magers, Magid has billed Stanley Hubbard, the family’s patriarch for research on who to replace in anchor chairs and how to brand and style KSTP’s news. The results are pretty indisputable. Ratings have cratered to the point where only Bush’s and Cheney’s are lower. Simultaneous with steady erosion in audience levels down to what amounts to fourth place status in local news, the station has watched characters as often bizarre as Randall Carlisle, Harris Faulkner, Kent Ninomiya, Chris Conangla and on and on do quick, highly-mannered spins in the anchor chairs before being flung out the back door, all while a stream of news directors were hired and whacked nearly as often.
With each departure there was another round of employees (those canned AND those surviving) blaming Magid for yet another round of clueless, stale ideas and Magid in turn blaming THEM for poor execution of what Magid presumably assures Stanley Hubbard are superbly researched and expertly diagrammed game plans.
I’m told a recent Magid Inc. visit with their usual research presentation and “interaction” with newsroom staff went rather badly, with KSTP reporters in something close to “open rebellion”. (I am allowing for hyperbole there.)
An accelerating factor in this latest meltdown is — again as corroborated by multiple independent sources — the apparent inability of Berg’s boss, Rob Hubbard, (Stanley’s son and General Manager), to assert any kind of positive influence over his news department.
“The guy never says anything positive or supportive of anything we do,” groused one long term employee. “I don’t need to be patted on the head every time I do my job. But don’t come down to the newsroom if all you’re ever going to do is shit all over us and blame us for the ratings. Clean up your own act.”
Calls to Dave Dahl, Chris Berg and Rob Hubbard have not been returned.
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