That big, whooshing sigh of relief you heard on Morehead Street last Friday came from News 14 Carolina employees who found out that their jobs are safe. At least for now.
Their sister news operations in San Antonio and Houston were not so lucky. Jointly owned by Time Warner and the Belo Corporation (owner of WCNC-TV in Charlotte), Belo pulled the plug on its partnership last week. So last Friday morning, 190 people were called into their respective newsrooms, they were handed their pink slips, and the channels went dark. Lack of profitability and low ratings were given as the motive for the crime. The Houston Chronicle reports that Dallas-based Belo lost $18.7 million on the cable news venture, yet reported an overall $45.6 million profit in the April-June period.
News 14 Carolina dodged the bullet by becoming wholly owned by Time Warner, but you can expect changes to be coming “to create greater efficiencies,” as Time Warner Cable (TWC) stated in a press release.
TWC Charlotte president David Augur told me that he and GM Ron Miller will be meeting in days to come with their counterparts at News 14 Raleigh “and start talking about how to make it work.” This could mean merging or streamlining operations between the Charlotte and Raleigh newsrooms.
“I can tell you that we will continue to provide local news, “Auger said.
Also up in the air is the relationship between News 14 and WCNC-TV. The two outlets shared video and news gathering resources given their Belo corporate connection. With that tie severed, that could go away, too.
News 14 employees are trying to read between the lines. “Of course, there’s a lot of consternation: “How does this affect me’ happening,” one senior staffer told me. “Things will have to change.”
Another news staffer put it more bluntly. “Everybody’s scared to death because so much is uncertain right now. We’re glad Time Warner is hanging on to us — it’s a testament to what we’re doing — but how long are we going to have jobs? We’re polishing our resumes, and many of us expect job cuts.”
News 14 Carolina debuted in June 2002 with a state-of-the-art digital newsroom, and recently won an Edward R. Murrow award for best local news website in the country. Stay tuned.
E-mail at Shannon.Reichley@cln.com.
This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2004.
