Upstairs and Corporate

Fred Young FRED YOUNG - Fred I. Young retired from his post as Senior Vice President, News, for Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc., in December 2008, concluding a distinguished 46-year career. Young continues to serve in an advisory and consulting role with the company, now called Hearst Television Inc. As Senior Vice President, News, Young oversaw news operations at TV stations in 26 markets throughout 22 states, as well as the Hearst Television Washington, D.C. News Bureau. In April 2009, the Radio-Television News Directors Association presented Young with the Paul White Award, its highest honor. Young is one of only two of the Award's 53 recipients (which have included Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow) to have been a career local-TV news professional. Young has received other awards including a First Amendment Service award from the RTNDA, honors from the PA Broadcasters and the Associated Press Broadcasters, and a distinguished alumnus award from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Young joined Hearst Broadcasting in October 1962, serving for 25 years at WTAE-TV, Pittsburgh, as vice president and general manager, news director, and in other news management positions. He joined the Hearst corporate staff in New York in 1986. Read Fred Young’s Latest Post: Tucson Lesson, Breaking News Is Not Broken We have already read dozens, if not hundreds of postings by broadcast, print and electronic journalists about the horrific shooting in Tucson. Those who deal in opinion journalism are offering many theories for the motivation behind the deaths and wounding of this diverse group of good citizens. Both sides of the political spectrum have taken positions – while investigators have yet to develop a thorough understanding of the psyche of the unstable shooter. This column is not intended to analyze what the talking heads on both sides of the cable spectrum say in defense of their divisive discourse. Let’s deal here with what local broadcasters should do to prepare ourselves to maximize our coverage of future major stories while we work harder at minimizing errors, omissions and oversights. Our job is clearly defined by our mission and our legacy....read the full post

Howard B. Price HOWARD B. PRICE, CBCP, MBCI Howard is the director of business continuity and crisis management at ABC News in New York. A 35-year veteran of radio, television and newspapers, he is a two-time EMMY Award winner, and a recipient of The George Foster Peabody Award. He has worked domestically and internationally as a news producer, assignment editor, bureau chief, reporter and anchor, covering some of the biggest stories of our time, including the 9/11 attacks and the 2003 Northeast blackout. A certified business continuity professional (CBCP), Howard is charged with maintaining operational resilience at all ABC News platforms. He also serves as an in-house consultant to the ABC Owned Television Station Group. Howard holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and an MBA in management and marketing from New York University. He has been a featured speaker at numerous professional conferences and workshops, a guest lecturer at MIT, and is a member of the Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII), the Business Continuity Institute (BCI), the Association of Contingency Planners (ACP), the Contingency Planning Exchange (CPE), the NorthEast Disaster Recovery Information Exchange (NEDRIX), the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). Howard is the founder of the website, MediaDisasterPrep.com, and writes its companion blog, MediaDisasterPrep.wordpress.com. A married father of two, and a resident of New City, NY, Howard is fond of telling anyone who’ll listen that events are disasters only if you haven’t planned for them. His e-mail address is Howard.B.Price@abc.com. Reach him also on Twitter (@HBPrice and @mediadisaster) and on Facebook. Read Howard Price’s Latest Post: Who’s REALLY Ahead of the Curve? Establish a Protocol for Breaking Weather News. I’m forever baffled by the doomsayers who say terrestrial radio and TV are yesterday’s news. “Digital is where it’s at…online is how you stay ahead of the curve” these days in the media. Really? As I write this, an unusual – and unusually severe – tornadic weather pattern is marching across the southeast US. So of course, being ahead of the curve and all, you’d expect radio and TV websites to be all over it, right? Early warnings, what-to- dos, key phone numbers – all the stuff a listener might need to prepare and respond? ...read the full post

Brian Bracco BRIAN BRACCO is Vice President, News for Hearst Television Inc. Bracco supervises the news and marketing departments of the Company’s station group. Bracco also oversees various group wide projects. Previously, he was one of two Group News Executives for Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc.. Bracco joined The Hearst Corporation in 1987 as news director of KMBC-TV, Kansas City. From 1987 to 2000, he guided KMBC-TV from the number three position to first in news ratings. For more than a decade KMBC- TV maintained the number one position. The station is the recipient of numerous Emmy, SPJ and three National Murrow awards. The station was honored with Murrow awards for Best Newscast and Continuing Coverage. Before joining KMBC-TV, Bracco held positions as news director, assistant news director, managing editor, producer, anchor and reporter. He has worked in the Wichita, Kansas, Columbus, Ohio and the Birmingham, Alabama markets. Bracco is a past chairman of the ABC news advisory board. He is a member of the Radio Television News Directors’ Association. Bracco is a graduate of the Hearst Management Institute. Bracco received a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Kansas. Read Brian Bracco’s Posting: Next Generation Newsrooms Are Here Now! Several years ago at the Democratic National Convention, I watched as journalists from other countries covered the event with lightweight handheld HD cameras and edited on laptops before sending their stories back to their countries via FTP. That was my “aha” moment. Why could we not do the same thing? I took the idea to Joe Addalia, director of technology projects, and Al Lustgarten, vice president of information technology for Hearst, and asked them to identify roadblocks that might prevent us from creating Next Generation newsrooms within our stations. They said there were no MAJOR roadblocks. So off we went to innovate. We added Jacques Natz and Michael Gay from our digital team. The objective was simple. Give reporters and photographers off the shelf equipment they need to publish and post stories on the Web and to broadcast stories to our stations. The new deadline for stories was NOW...read the full post.

Feeding the 24/7 News Cycle