Jonathan Mitchell will reach the first checkpoint in his marathon later this week.
He expects to find out Friday how WNWO-TV, Channel 24, fared in his first ratings period as news director.
Chances are, WNWO will as it has for decades finish a distant third in a three-way race. Mitchell, who has been on the job for three months, is pretty much resigned to more of the same for the rest of 2005.
It is a marathon, not a sprint, he said. We have a ton of work to do.
By this time next year, though, Mitchell expects WNWO to be challenging WTVG-TV, Channel 13, for No. 2 among viewers age 25 to 54, the demographic that generates the most advertising revenue for local stations. ( I think they re vulnerable in some of the younger demos, he said.)
What about overtaking perennial No. 1 WTOL-TV, Channel 11? Um, wait. Given WNWO s ratings history, let s hold off asking that question until it makes it to No. 2.
WNWO general manager Rick Lipps said he is happy with the direction [the newsroom is] going under Mitchell s leadership.
There are a lot of good people at this station who want and deserve a management team that is aggressive, committed, and willing to roll up their sleeves and get the job done, Lipps said. Jonathan is part of that team.
Mitchell, 29, was executive producer of the 4:30-to-9 a.m. newscast at WXIX-TV, the Fox affiliate in Cincinnati, before moving to WNWO, which is an NBC affiliate. Both stations are owned by Raycom Media.
While admitting to branding more stories as exclusives than his peers, Mitchell scoffs at the notion that WNWO has become more sensationalistic in its news coverage.
That s not my thing, he said. Sensationalism is doing a story for no other reason than shock value. There s no viewer benefit. Look at the stories that we ve done [the most prominent example being Kevin Milliken s reporting on the rates charged by Columbia Gas] they re the antithesis of sensational.
Mitchell says WNWO s ascension to No. 2 will depend on how successful it is in doing the following: 1. Own weather, every day ; 2. Own the big story ; 3. Deliver a mistake-free newscast on a daily basis.
We re nowhere near where I want to be, he said. We re not even close.
MOVING ON: Karla Hult, weekend news anchor for WNWO the past 2 years, has accepted a reporting job with WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. Hult, a Minnesota native, is making a big jump in market size, going from No. 70 to No. 14. Her final day will be March 21.
DISPARITY: WTVG news director Brian Trauring is looking to fill two on-air positions a sports reporter and a news reporter. He says he has received in excess of 300 resume tapes for the sports opening (to replace Jason Brown) and fewer than 100 for the news opening (to replace Jim Carey).
DOWN TWO: The Toledo radio market dropped two spots, to No. 84, in Arbitron s rankings. With a 12-plus population of 518,500, Toledo is sandwiched between Baton Rouge and Little Rock.
First Published March 14, 2005, 2:00 p.m.
