Oregon Media Insiders

As reported in the New York Times today, Meredith-owned stations are accepting product placement deals with various brands e.g. McDonald's iced coffee on the anchor desk.

Is it really a big deal though? I assume there are financial arrangements associated with some Good Day Oregon live shots.

Meredith has signed an affiliation deal with .2 network as a digital subchannel, run by Guardian Enterprise Group out of Ohio. It is not known which side of the house will inherit the channel, although my bet is on KPTV as this looks to be a solid contender for movies and content based on the website.

I have an email into KPTV.com to see if they can tell me where the subchannel will end up.

I'm new to Portland but it makes no sense to me that we have four (are there more?) complete news teams here in Portland. They show the same news, the same weather and sports, at about the same time.

All that money poured into these operations and careers, is there a big picture that I am missing? Are these stations all profitable?

From today's memo from the really rather overexposed on OMI these days Patrick McCreery, SM/ND:

I am very excited to announce the addition of two new Fox 12 newscasts on Fox 12 and PDX-49.

Starting September 8th we are adding a 5pm newscast on KPTV Fox 12 and an 8pm newscast on PDX-49.

These will both be one-hour newscasts making Fox 12 news the undisputed news leader in Portland!

Absolutely no relation to this being a year ending in a number that's divisible by four, I'm sure.

That makes it...lessee...not counting Better...I think eight hours of news a day? Which doesn't seem to me to be more than the rest do, but I may be counting on my fingers wrong; I got too much sun at Park Day. That's a lot of Dirty Dining in any event. I would think they'd go for at least a modest staff-up, but who knows. Work smarter, not harder? har-de-har?

Remember the rumors that Fox12 ND/SM Patrick McCreery was being groomed for the GM position at Meredith's Phoenix shop? Not so much:

Meredith Corp. today hired Edward L. Munson Jr. as general manager of its Phoenix CBS affiliate, KPHO. Munson most recently was vice president of sales for LIN TV Corp., leading the sales strategy for the group. His 17 years at LIN TV, working in...

blah blah blah who cares except his mom. So Patrick stays put.

KPTV ND Patrick McCreery is now Station Manager for the KPTV/KPDX duopoly. From the press release:

"This promotion is in recognition of Patrick's significant contributions to the performance of KPTV," said Kieran Clarke, Vice President and General Manager of KPTV/KPDX. "Over the past five years, Patrick has demonstrated a superior ability to build a winning news team. He is always focused on a winning strategy."

McCreery will oversee numerous station functions for the Portland properties including KPTV FOX-12, KPTV.com, KPDX MYN-49, KPDX.com, and LivePDX.com. Newsroom management will report to him. McCreery will report directly to Clarke.

Also at KPTV, to quiet the person in another thread, Greg Flock has been promoted from general sales manager to director of sales.

Update: Aaaand, not long after, he was shown the door. No one seems to know why, but apparently it was quite abrupt. Apologies for not having the second half of the story, guys.

Update 2: Apparently it's not clear from what I posted: Patrick is still the ND, guys. He's ND *and* Station Manager now, though I can't imagine that there won't be someone taking over some of his ND functions now. Maybe he doesn't sleep much, who knows.

The sweep is over... click "read more" for some highlights & lowlights.

As seen in the comments, it's true: KPTV's Austin Reed, the guy we've literally watched grow up as a TV reporter, is on his way to NYC. I wrote and asked, and he replied:

For now I will be freelancing for radio/tv/entertainment companies. I've been at KPTV for three years total and I'm not really used much anymore. The MOViN radio gig fell apart a few months ago when all jocks were laid off at the CBS Radio building. Plus the Portland market still has the idea of me as the "little teen reporter" so I need to explore other options and I've always wanted to live on the east coast. I'm young...single and free, so what better time?... Last story for KPTV will air Sunday, the 27th at 10p.m.

Yeah, I call him "news boy" myself, so maybe he needs to go elsewhere for a while until people realize he can shave now. ;) Good luck, Austin! Go for it!

I totally missed the debut of the 4 pm yesterday; I was out of the house. I'll be watching this afternoon. But for those of you who did catch it, what did you think?

Promoted from the comments after a quick verification:

Jamie Kern (aka Jamie Lima) is leaving KPTV and the biz. Patrick's email:

It is with mixed emotion that I have to report that Jamie Lima is leaving Fox 12.

On the one hand, I am sad to see Jamie leave. Her energy and enthusiasm have been great additions to the team.

Her role in Saturday and Sunday Good Day Oregon has helped those shows grow to number one in almost every hour.

However, I must admit when Jamie told me why she is leaving, I can’t help but be happy for her.

Jamie is about to embark on the opportunity of a lifetime. She is launching her own business and I seriously suspect we will soon see her on national television. I will leave it to Jamie to explain her new endeavor but I would like to wish her the best of luck and thank her for her contributions to the station.

The 12er I talked with couldn't tell me what Jamie will be doing, so I hope she lets us know when the time comes.