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marty@focalpp.com

Tell him I recommended him to you.

1. Ben Nuckols – bnuckols@ap.org
2. Alex Dominguez – adominguez@ap.org
3. Brian Witte – bwitte@ap.org
4. Kasey Jones – kjones@ap.org (Night Supervisor)
5. Rob Carr (Photographer) – rcarr@ap.org

* Sara Brumfield is working out of AP’s D.C. office temporarily.
sbrumfield@ap.org

This post was mentioned on Twitter by rlibby01: Great Baltimore Public Relations Council (join!) spotlight on @AMANNARINO http://bit.ly/4xGQB8...

“Television viewership is up. The average person watches television four hours and 15 minutes each day, up two minutes from last year,” said Wertlieb. “When television is relevant to the local community, viewership is up. Broadcasts of weather, football and local news keep our viewers watching.”

As Wertlieb spoke to the group, he acknowledged the Internet’s power.

“The [world wide] web is discussed all the time. We can’t hold stories anymore. Stories must get on the web all the time to keep up,” said Wertlieb.

The discussion continued as Butt and Rahn shared their perspectives on news stories, pitches from public relations staff, and the realities of a shrinking workforce.

Butt described an ideal news story as one that has “good stuff, great characters, an interesting story, and a call to action.” “If I find a good story and put it on television, the web, a podcast, people will watch it,” said Butt. “That will never change.”

Rahn agreed, and she shared insight into grabbing her attention at the newsdesk. “Some stories may be great on paper, but not on television,” she said. “Send me interesting visual stories.”

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/bal-md.ae.groft28may28,0,6686100.story

Groft named WMAR news director
By Chris Kaltenbach
May 28, 2009

Longtime WMAR staffer Kelly Groft has been named the station’s news director, giving her the chance to head a struggling news operation she joined a decade ago.

“I’m thrilled, it’s something I’ve wanted for a very long time,” said Groft, who officially takes the job Monday. “I’ve never shied away from a challenge.”

Groft, a Harford County native who grew up near Bel Air, came to work at WMAR, Channel 2, in 1998 as a producer for the 6 p.m. news. She and her husband, Jay, a news photographer for WPMT, Channel 43, the Fox affiliate in York, live in southern Pennsylvania with their two children, Hannah, 7, and Camden, 4.

Groft replaces Peggy Phillip, who spent a little less than a year as WMAR’s news director after coming to Baltimore from Syracuse, N.Y. Phillip has been named news director of NBC affiliate KSHB in Kansas City, Mo. Both WMAR and KSHB are affiliates of Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps.

WMAR’s news operation has spent much of the past 15 years mired in Baltimore’s ratings basement. For May, the station’s 11 p.m. weekday news had just over one-third as many viewers as top-rated WBAL, Channel 11. Its evening news fared even worse, garnering less than one-third the audience of top-rated WBAL.

Groft, however, remains optimistic. “I can say, for the first time in a long time, that we really, truly do have momentum,” she said. “We are growing, we’re seeing little bright spots, more than we’ve seen before.

“We are ‘The station that works for you,’ and we’ve stuck to that brand, we’ve embraced that brand. People are learning it, people are reaching out more than they ever have. We’re being noticed by more and more people in the community.”

Four photographers, two photo techs and one picture editor were let go, according to Angie Kuhl, unit chair of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild.

“They (Sun) are clearly trying to move to be an information producer, not a newspaper publisher,” said Angie Kuhl, Guild unit chair at the Sun. “It is a flattening of the newsroom.”

BALTIMORE, Md., April 29, 2009 – Members of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild said yesterday that Tribune Co. is bent on gutting what was once one of America’s great newspapers after 40 newsroom employees, or 20 percent of the staff, received layoff notices yesterday.

The move comes a day after Tribune fired 18 senior editors and newsroom managers on Tuesday and Wednesday without warning. Many of the editors and managers, who are not members of the newspaper guild, were ushered out of the newsroom by security guards.

“Tribune, through careless management practices, has saddled itself under $13 billion in debt and now Baltimore is paying a price,” said Cet Parks, Executive Director of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild. “Tribune is siphoning good jobs from Baltimore and sending work that talented editors, reporters, photographers, copy editors and designers have done here to its home base in Chicago. That is not right.”
Tribune plans to lay off the 40 newsroom employees by May 27. Targeted employees, who include four columnists, photographers, critics and copy editors, received hand delivered letters Wednesday afternoon signed by Monty Cook, senior vice president and editor. Also, in the last two weeks The Sun has laid off seven employees in other departments including advertising and customer service.

Since Tribune acquired The Sun in 1999, the newsroom staff has been cut by more than 60 percent to currently 148 employees from roughly 420.

“While we understand that media companies, especially newspapers, are reeling from declining advertising revenue, shrinking circulation and a year-and-a-half of recession, we believe Baltimore needs a metropolitan paper that covers the important events in the region,” said Angela Kuhl, Guild Unit Chair who works at The Sun. “It is imperative that Baltimore maintains a newspaper that brings people news, exciting and provocative stories and enriches the lives of all who live here.”