This morning’s rumor has Jeff Kiernan leaving his job as news director at WCCO-TV for an upgrade in Boston.
As the hacks says … “Developing”.
(Update) It is now confirmed. Kiernan, news director for ‘CCO since 2003, will exit here on the 19th and begin work on the 24th in Boston for the two CBS owned-and-operated stations, WBZ and Channel 38. Former WCCO (and KSTP) GM, Ed Piette is currently the resident boss for those two operations. Boston is the country’s seventh-largest media market, the Twin Cities are 14th.
I spoke with Kiernan a few moments ago. Having covered some colossal clunker news directors over the years I have no problem at all in saying that Kiernan, who did 20 years in Milwaukee before coming here, is one of the brighter and more thoughtful newsroom managers to work these towns in the last 20 years. He is a careful, fellow, however.
At a moment when new media and internet-TV convergence imperils local TV news at least as much as newspapers, Kiernan has demonstrated politically dexterity in maintaining ‘CCO’s reputation as the first-stop for breaking news amid serious financial pressures from parent company Viacom, Inc.
I asked Kiernan if he could be objective now about the qualitative differences between the cities’ four TV news shops. In my opinion very little separates the news-gathering/story-telling abilities of KARE, WCCO and KSTP, with KMSP, depending on the reporter, just slightly back. Yet audience habits are deeply ingrained. When the bridge collapsed WCCO drew the bulk of the audience share during prime time, but KARE claimed the 10 pm news while KSTP did a terrific job staying on it round the clock — an advantage to not having distant corporate masters to answer to.
Kiernan took the, “there is tremendous quality in the Minneapolis St. Paul [TV news] market” angle, which was a little disappointing, but entirely arguable if you’ve ever watched the follies that play night after night in markets as huge as Los Angeles, for example. “I have a great deal of respect for KARE, KSTP and KMSP,” he said. “They each, I think, offer very distinct choices, and each produces quality.”
Ok, so he’s not going to call anyone a demented rat bastard.
How about how many reporters and photographers he’d add to WCCO to bring it up to his ideal staff level?
“Well, you know, even if I had 10 more reporters and 10 more photographers there would still be times when I’d say I didn’t have enough. But as the business continues to evolve, you simply have to be realistic. This is a business. And in some places we’re seeing audience declines and advertising revenue declines. There is a tremendous amount of change out there. I choose to be realistic and acknowledge that.”
I told him that from my perspective very few news directors stay in their jobs, much less get promoted up, by constantly complaining about a lack of resources.
“You have to be realistic,” he repeated.
And give me an idea, I asked, how much change you see coming in the look and tone of local TV newscasts over the next, say, seven years.
“Seven years! I’d shorten that up to a year from now, or even six months. Issues of convergence, new media and things we know nothing about today will have a significant impact on this business.”
My point was the static formatics of local TV news, the mom and dad anchor “teams”, the strict allotment of time to weather and sports, the whole “Leave it to Beaver” atmosphere that so often reminds you of something dug out of a time capsule. You’d think by it is a shtick long overdue for serious re-invention.
I didn’t really expect Kiernan, a realistic TV news businessman, to agree with me and say, “You know, you’re absolutely right. This stuff is so hopelessly cornball it couldn’t open for Mr. Ed. Just the other day I was thinking of dumping Shelby and Amelia for these two Goth mimes I saw at the Fringe Festival, but then I got this Boston gig.”
Bottom line is that Kiernan avoided making news himself, which I get. TV news, local-style, is a business, and right now it is a precarious business. What has worked is still working well-enough, revenue-wise, and in reasonably large part, journalism-wise, that no corporate board is going to blow it up for the hottest trend of the hour.
But another couple years of 15% annual audience declines and rapid expansion of video news prowess from the Web 2.0 crowd and precarious will get pushed closer to, “Evolve or Die.”
I told Kiernan I’d keep up with him.
As for Kiernan’s replacement, WCCO’s press release talks about the usual extensive, exhaustive nation-wide search, yadda yadda. But two names that may be of immediate and logical interest would be former KSTP news director, Scott Libin, now down at the Poynter Institute, and Libin’s second-in-command at KSTP, Mark Ginther, now with WFAA in Dallas. Either would offer a fairly seamless transition from Kiernan and both are thoroughly familiar with this market.
After a reasonably successful short (Lena’s Spaghetti) in the Telluride Film Festival, Director Joseh Greco set out to make “a film about mental illness that was not only true to [his] experience, but also universal” — an emotionally honest look at schizophrenia. I’ll spare you all the plot details, which on paper (or screen) might inaccurately portray a typical Lifetime movie. I assure you, the schizophrenic mother is not played by Meredith Baxter Birney. Canvas is raw and real, telling the beautiful and painful tale of ten-year-old Chris Marino (played by newcomer Devon Gearhart), his dysfunctional family, and the bizarre and somehow admirable relationship that develops between the boy and his father in the midst of crisis.
Dig out that military uniform (or respectfully pick one up at 
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