"Live, late breaking, investigative" could be getting a face-lift. It just depends what the research says.
KCTV Channel 5 has a new news director. His name is Blaise Labbe (It'll be a little while before we get a better look at Labbe. I asked KCTV 5 for a photo of him and received the small one below), and at the time of his hire, he was the director of online content for Griffin Communications in Oklahoma City. He was previously the news director at that city's KWTV.
Labbe established an early link to the area: His son plays football at Mid-America Nazarene in Olathe. Labbe tells The Pitch that he was impressed with the city in his short visit.
Do you have some idea of what you've got planned for the station or
what you've done at other stations that you might implement there?
From
a basic bottom-line standpoint, my news philosophy is a little
different than what their approach has been. But we're undergoing a
research project right now, and I'd really like to see what comes back
from the research project and then try to implement things from there.
But I think that's going to be a key is let's see what the research
says because I'm sure there's some direction that it'll point. The one
thing to keep in mind is, I think it's hard to take a template from one
place and bring it to another place. Each market is different. The
people are different. Their staffs are different. Cities are different.
Cultures are different. Everything is different. I think it's hard to
just pick up and say I'm going to take and do this here and it's going
to work over there. It may not.
What is that research looking at?
I'm
not exactly sure. We've talked in generalities. It's going to be
comprehensive. It's going to look at everything. I can tell you that.
Hopefully I can get up in the next week or so, and we'll sit down. I
haven't had a conversation with the consultants to see exactly what
because the project started before I accepted. Hopefully within the
next week or so I'll sit down and have a better idea of the thing.
KCTV
5's slogan is "Live. Late breaking. Investigative." Are you going to
maintain that? From what I understand, the station got rid of its
investigative reporter and did away with its investigative unit.
As
far as the brand, I don't know if we'll keep that or not. I think the
research is going to give us some baseline information to tell us if
we're going in the right direction or we need to make a change. So
we'll have to wait for what the research comes back and says.
As
far as the investigative team and the investigative unit, I truly
believe that is a part of good journalism, and I think we need to
continue in that vein. How that looks and what form that takes, I'm not
sure. Again, a lot plays on the research. Do I believe that we're just
going to stop doing investigations? The answer is no.... But again,
what form and what that looks like, I don't know just yet. Research is
going to tell us a lot.
Yeah, that's what I'm taking away. A lot of question marks. Once you see that research, you'll know what direction to go.
Yeah,
and I'm glad the new general manager has taken on that type of
approach. It's easy to come in with new management and start tearing
things apart and making it be what you want it to be. But the stance
here has been, let's see what the people want. And let's take a look at
the research. Are we doing the things that we need to do? I think
that's very smart on our part.
You look at it and get a feel for what's going on.
Yeah,
it'll be a feel. After that, it takes a little while because you have
to figure out, how do you execute that? And make sure that it's making
sense and make sure from your staffs' perspective that they understand
what the vision is but not only the vision but here's our end goal.
Here's what we're trying to accomplish. And we need to make sure that
is articulated well to them so that we're all on the same page. And you
want to give some time for them to take a look at some of this and
digest it.
I'm really big on inclusion. It's not my newsroom.
It's our newsroom. And I want them to be a part of that. And so a lot
of the decision making and how we approach things, I want input from
staff and I want them to be able to get a feel for the research because
it's crazy for me to dictate everything. Hell, I don't. A lot of them
have been in the market for a while, so they'll probably be able to
bring me up to speed on certain things. It takes a little while to
execute all of that. It's not going to be a drastic change all of a
sudden. There will be some changes, but I think a lot of it will be
gradual.
Have you met staff or is that still to come?
That's still to come. My goal is to be there next week some time ... to come and meet staff.
To me, it sounds like you're open to suggestion at this point as far as what the research is going to show you.
I
don't want to come in with any preconceived notions or preconceived
ideas on how things should be. When we're taking the time to do this,
I'm talking about the research project, let's take a look at it and
let's see what direction. And plus, I think staff will have some good
input into how they feel and what they think and let's try to merge 'em
together and see what we come up with.
What were some of the things that you did in Oklahoma City?
I've
always [believed in] telling good stories and trying to incorporate the
newsroom within the community. I have a philosophy that came from a
good friend of mine. She asked me a question once -- why is my job so
important? -- and I have her the standard journalist's answer, which
was we give a voice to the voiceless. We're there for those people. She
said, 'That's good, but I want you to keep something in mind and that
is that your job is the only one protected by the U.S. Constitution.
And your job is to serve the public. And don't ever forget your public
service first, and that it's important to educate and inform your
community.' That weighed heavy on me, and it still does today. I want
to make sure that's what we're doing, and there's a lot of gimmicks and
a lot of hype, a lot of this that's out there, and I think it plays for
a while and then it fades. You have to be a credible information source
to the community that you serve. And if you accomplish that, I think
people will trust you. They will believe in you. They will follow you.
And those are the things that we base our newsroom on here in Oklahoma
City.
And that's a philosophy that won't be lost once you get here?
No.
That will be the main theme in that newsroom when I get there. How we
execute it and incorporate what we find from research and what I find
from staff ... that will be our foundation. Let me put it that way. And
then everything else becomes building blocks on top of that.
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"Everything is different." So why does local news look pretty much the same on every station in every city across the country?
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