Saturday, December 17, 2005

KSN promotion somewhat misleading


In an earlier post today, I noted that KSN anchor Jim Jackson is tops in my book as far as area news anchors go and has been for years.
The experience of KSN's top anchors, Jackson, Tiffany Alaniz, and Gary Bandy, has been stressed in a recent series of promotions, which is an excellent idea. All three have been major players in the Joplin TV market for years. Jackson has been on the job for more than two decades, grew up in southwest Missouri, and knows this area. That being said, the Jim Jackson promotion being run by KSN is misleading. It states that he has "covered" more than 65,000 news stories. That number is probably more than 64,500 short, even after you throw in election coverage.
There is a difference between "covering" 65,000 stories and reading 65,000 stories. Undoubtedly, Jackson writes and edits copy on many of the stories on KSN's news. He has also been out in the field and is a solid reporter. It is undeniable that his knowledge of the area is a great asset for the KSN news team, but that does not translate to covering 65,000 stories.
It would have been easy for KSN to promote Jim Jackson without offering this misleading statistic. Many good reporters actually covered most of those 65,000 stories. Anchors play important roles in the daily newscasts and they are the face of any local news operation, but when it comes to covering stories, it's the underpaid, overworked reporting staffs that do the lion's share of the work. Surely, KSN's promotional department can stress the experience of Jim Jackson, Tiffany Alaniz, and Gary Bandy, and also promote the rest of the news team.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good post... I had the same thought when I saw that commercial. How many stories would that be a day?

Anonymous said...

That is 7.1 stories everyday, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, for 25 years. That would have to be a world record.

Anonymous said...

That's John Hacker-esque production.

Anonymous said...

I've read the newspaper for the past 25 years. In that time I'm sure I have read 65,000 stories too. For the most part, that's what Jackson and all of those desk jockeys do. I guess if you read them out loud with a microphone and make-up on you get to claim you "covered" those stories.

Anonymous said...

Hasn't Dowe Quick from KOAM been anchoring at least that long? It just seems I grew up with him doing the news.

Randy said...

According to KOAM's website, Dowe Quick has been with the station since 1980.