2017-10-22
...Finally, an honest place to find the perfect news station...
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News Director: Susan D’Astoli
Experience described as: “Kind, respectful and holds employees accountable.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“At News 13, we have 24 hours to spend on important, local stories that other stations don’t prioritize over the crime and national news of the day. If you’re trying to learn how to be part of the future of where local news is headed, this is a great place to work.”
While working for WSET this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“This station is the reason I, and so many others, got out of the news business. It was an overall toxic environment. When I tried to report it to the appropriate persons, nothing was ever done to correct or solve the issue. The leadership lies and their only concern is getting the story. The morale is low and the assignments are oftentimes unrealistic. My advice is to avoid this station at all costs. It is not worth it.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Ernesto Romero
“Abhorrent. One of the worst experiences I’ve ever had with boss – in and out of the news business. Dreaded going to work and my skin would crawl when he walked through the door.”
While working for KYMA/KSWT/KECY this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I was on the receiving end of sexual harassment by my own boss. It wasn’t during work hours, but it seemed to affect me during work hours (would be ignited, not considered for stories, etc). He would scold, curse at you also for the smallest things. Also, you had to be on call seemingly 24/7. He would text you constantly about anything and everything — when it could’ve been sent in an email. Mostly laid back, but a little too laid back where you’ll receive no guidance or leadership. Takes tremendous amounts of time off and delegates tasks to everyone else. Massive egos in this newsroom and reporters’ egos get bigger because he picks favorites. Even if you believe you work harder than others, you’ll miss out on big stories because you’re not his favorite. Very toxic and demeaning newsroom.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Avoid this station if you’re trying to break into the business. The newsroom is home to ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, and Telemundo all under one roof with one news director. The quality or the newscasts are mediocre and money is rarely spent on new equipment. The ND has only worked at KYMA (NBC) so expect all company resources to be put into that show (5&6). Do not expect constructive feedback on your work. Also, upper management doesn’t take your concerns seriously. Avoid like the plague. You will become unhappy.”
News Director: Jay Quaintance
Experience described as: “Good”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“High turnover”
News Director: Chad Hypes
“It was a really positive experience. He was really open to different ideas from the team.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This was my favorite job I ever had. You’re expected to put in a lot of work but the news director, gm, and ep when I was there did a great job of creating a positive, supportive environment that I’ll always remember fondly”
News Director: Esteban Creste
“There to repeat what his bosses tell him”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“We need better ratings, what can we do?? A new set, new graphics, maybe new news cars,reporters on radio stations (that also dont do well in the ratings), new ads on the subway. And did you see our new ticker, thanks to our GM and corporate finance. I know ratings will increase from that. Anyone have any ideas that won’t cost money that I can tell my boss?? Anyone?? Please email them to me.”
News Director: Sarah Zak
“Sarah has a good news mind and is open to new ideas. However, my biggest issue with her is a lack of honesty and directness. She is also incapable of making a decision and sticking with it. I never knew where I stood with her, and as an employee it was very frustrating.”
While working for WFTX this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“WFTX, Fox 4 needs an organizational enema, in my nearly 4 years at the station, Fox 4 was on its third general manager when I left. (Not including the interim GM) And while that seems normal in some shops, I found the issues or burnout, low morale and lack of direction persisted throughout my time there.
When I arrived in 2015, as the nightside reporter we had 4 photogs – one for every reporter. I worked in the Collier County bureau, there were days I would turn away a photog because I set up my interviews so quickly. We would average 3 live shots a week, when I left in April of 2019, we were lucky to get 3 live shots a month – there were no photogs left, none of the ones who left were rehired.
Even more maddening, In my last year and a half at the station, management kept pulling me out of the bureau to cover other stories. When I asked if I could just be based out of the main station, they balked.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you join the ranks of the hard working MMJs at Fox 4, you are going to be required to shoot two look lives for the 5 and 6 or 10 and 11, do your web write up, Cut a new vo/sot for the morning show and send an email at the end of the night to the newsroom updating the status of your story. When I started in 2015, the only thing I we were required to do was a package and web story, like most normal stations. When I confronted management about this workload, I was told “most stations require their MMJs to do this much”, my response was “most stations also allow their reporters to do more than one live shot a month.”
While the workload was tough, it wasn’t the reason why I left. I left because the News Director and Assistant News Director seemed unwilling or incapable of helping me grow and develop as a reporter.
They seemed more interested in calling me into their office to write me up about petty matters. I’m no saint, but I worked my tail off there for almost 4 years. All I wanted in the end was more opportunity and honesty from managers.”
News Director: Angela Robbins
Experience described as: “Terrible experience.”
While working for WCCB this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Pettiness everywhere. Management constantly changing work hours, and schedule. Pompous management not willing to listen to the consensus of the newsroom.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“When I asked for a raise, they offered me 10 cents extra per hour.”
News Director: Cathie Batbie-Loucks
While working for KVOA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Mark Colavecchio
“He’s nice, radio guy turned ND. But no real experince. He just doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.”
While working for KTBY this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Very unorganized, no structure, no training, job get threatened on a regular basis from the ND and GM. They love writing people up. Too many things to list.
It’s a station where you get in and get out.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“IF this is your ONLY way to move to Alaska… then take the opportunity… if not find another way.”
News Director: Christopher Swope
“The news director was never an issue for me personally. We got along well and had a good relationship. I was given several promotions under him and given chances to do what I wanted.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“I would have stayed at the station if there was more of an opportunity to advance into a full time weather position. My chief has been at the station for about 15 years and the morning met has been there for 6 and neither plan on leaving. Having said that the weather team is awesome to work with and will gladly cover each others shift. The chief will handle your schedule so it makes it easy when it comes to doing more weather. The news director was good at managing the day to day flow of the newsroom. The assistant ND had been a reporter at the station for several years and takes time to help out new reporters but can be pretty tough on them. Assignment editors were very good with helping with story ideas and the newsroom as a whole is very connected to everything going on in the community. The photographers are all solid and easy to work with. The day side producers are also solid and will work with reporters to get creative with stories for their shows. The morning team is extremely solid when it comes to working as a unit. The night side producers are very easy going. The main anchors have all been at the station for several years and have a firm grasp on the news of the day. There are some big egos with a few of the older reporters but it’s easy to ignore the newsroom drama. If you are willing to work with the producers and news directors on your stories than you will have an easy time. Being the number two station we pushed hard to overtake the legacy and that meant thinking outside the box. The news director loves new ideas and will give anything a shot if you pitch it well enough. If you want to cover crime stories this is the station for you. The assistant news director puts a heavy priority on crime stories and the Charleston PD is fantastic when it comes to giving out info and getting perp walks. Overall I would rate my experience at WCHS as very positive.”
News Director: Adam Pursch
“Worst person I’ve ever worked for.”
While working for KOKH this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Negative environment blamed on staff managers never took ownership for the part they played.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: John Stone
Experience described as: “Awful”
While working for KXAS this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Toxic environment, news director is not educated, condescending and verbally abusive managers”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“There are some great and talented people working here… unfortunately news director and managers are awful.”
Managing Editor: Marcus Foster
Experience described as: “Excellent”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The station is not bad but the management is not great. We have some great people but some are very sneaky.”
News Director: Sarah Zak
“No communication, unreliable, no leadership skills, doesn’t know what she’s doing. First time news director.”
While working for WFTX this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Low morale. Everyone wants to either quit or get a new job because of management. It’s the WORST managed station in the business. Awful decision making. VERY short staffed. They make people work a ton of overtime. There’s no confidence in any of the leaders, including the assistant news director and assignment desk. They are clueless. We are last to every breaking news scene. There’s no feedback, guidance or training. Everyone is on their own. They give no direction when you do a story. No live shots, mainly looklives. No opportunity to grow. Technical issues happen daily, to the point we can’t air the newscast.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“All managers are fairly new in their leadership roles and don’t work well with the entire staff. The station has had very few people stay after they’ve been hired. Some have even quit in the middle of a shift.”
News Director: Mike Tomko
“I was actually the Assistant News Director. He was a terrible mentor.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This station is seven miles from corporate Sinclair HQ, and is heavily controlled by those at corporate. It is a testing ground for group-wide projects which can be nice, but there are too many cooks in the kitchen — and no one who will stand up to corporate and voice an objection if something isn’t working and is detrimental to the local product. The News Director is completely spineless and spends most of his time in the GM’s office, where there is very little transparency and an uneasy feeling emanates. When I was there, a certain reporter had a horrible clique and — if she didn’t like you — you were either a) always in the “dog house” and/or b) forced out. Honestly, I left because she made it impossible for me to come to work. Her husband worked at corporate and she is best friends with the corporate head of the news division. I could have stuck it out, but the nail in the coffin was when I was strongly encouraged to give to the corporate PAC. I found that reprehensible.”
News Director: Tracey Watkowski
“She is a good person but maintains a careless and toxic work environment like most newsrooms”
While working for KGO this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“While I worked there I had a plethora of toxic experiences but one in particular involving the managing editor they hired from Utah, Marci Young. I was working a shift with a reporter who’s story I was adapting for the web. The story was about a push by the NAACP to ban the star spangled banner due to its racist second verse. Young took it upon herself to comment to everyone in the newsroom that “why do they care, none of them were ever slaves” and looked right at me. I was the only African American female to work in the newsroom for the entire time that I was employed with KGO. For a news station in this century to have zero black women working on any day parts is atrocious but even worse to tolerate such behavior. I reported the incident but nothing was done about it. I only found out recently that Marci Young is back in Utah, teaching journalism at a local JuCo. I hope she doesn’t put any students through what I endured. Also it should be noted that my direct manager was a black man, but he unfortunately was more concerned about keeping his job, then doing what is right and protecting another black woman who endured racism at the hands of a white manager. Such is the sad sad reality of many newsrooms.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
News Director: Michael Goldrick
“He’s careless about anything other than money. He doesn’t care about diversity, employee growth or retention, or the health of the newsroom overall.”
While working for NBC 4 this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Like most newsrooms in America, this one is full of hierarchy, abusive hours, abusive managers, loose tongues and very little diversity outside of talent.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
News Director: Kelly Boan
“Passive aggressive leader who is a workaholic, fosters a negative environment through poor leadership from the top down”
While working for WHNS this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Where do I begin. There’s a reason in the last 7 months our two female anchors (morning and night), 2 anchor/reporters, 2 MMJ’s and a sports anchor all left the station. It should also be noted several of them left mid contract. This place is a breeding ground for toxicity.
The problem starts from the top down. The news director has a “her way or the highway” attitude. She believes comparing talent to each other breeds success when it actually breeds anxiety and a lack of confidence. She doesn’t address inherent problems within the newsroom like the bully she’s assigned to run it. I’m referring to the assistant ND who disrespects everyone in the newsroom with her outbursts and her demeaning remarks. People are treated like numbers and not people. They say safety is a priority in the field yet they make reporters knock on doors of criminals after they’ve been released on bond by themselves. They hire inexperienced journalists, throw them to the wolves and the berate them when they’ve messed up. The ND doesn’t care about people’s family, time or well-being. God forbid you take a sick day, when you return you’ll get the silent treatment.
If you bring a problem or concern to the news director or AND, don’t expect a solution. They will continue to say “that’s the way it is” and bury it.
It also should be noted the station is all about “click bait” when it comes to story choices for the newscasts. There’s very little enterprise or investigative journalism going on and don’t even ask about politics. The poor MMJ’s and reporters who end up having to cover a big political story never have the sources to do so because the station management barely listens to story pitches that have anything to do with what actually impacts people. Also, it should be noted the only reporters who EVER get a photographer are the morning reporters. The MMJ’s nightside run their own live shots.
There is no feedback whatsoever, positive or negative. So if you’re looking to grow, it won’t happen here.
Just felt the need to write this after reading the “glowing review” someone wrote on this website. Ask most people who work there or have worked there and they’ll tell you first hand there’s valid reasons FOX Carolina is in the middle of a mass exodus right now.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
News Director: Matt Templeman
Experience described as: “Extremely Toxic”
While working for KEZI this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management is absolutely terrible. Verbal Abuse, racial discrimination, burner emails to bash reporters, email newsroom about reporters, compare you to other reporters, threaten to fire you, and an overall extremely toxic environment. You will regret signing a contract. If you’re experiencing any of those things I mentioned, management WILL NOT have your back. They will paint a negative picture about you to the newsroom, and harass you. A terrible station to work.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“You’ve been warned.”
News Director: Kay Norred
Experience described as: “Truly terrible”
While working for WFXR this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“There is no pride, managers thrive on politics and playing games, very disorganized.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This is what you need to know about the actual station without getting into the managers yet: The station is 4th place and very new (only a few years old) and is literally considered a joke by the other stations in the market. Other managers within Nexstar joke that WFXR is a tax write-off for the company. Viewers and even government agencies within the market have never heard of WFXR and that will make your life harder as an employee there.
The fourth place mentality keeps employees and managers alike from wanting to win. Morale is low because of the feeling of absolute defeat, even before you add in what toxic management does to the place.
Also, real talk: the station only has a two-hour morning news show and a one-hour news show at 10 p.m. No mid-morning, mid-day, 4p, 5p, or 6p. They have a little digital show they just launched in the evening, but if you are wanting to get real-life news experience of what it is like to turn content for multiple newscasts a day … you won’t get it at WFXR. The other stations are equipped with SEVERAL shows and run circles around WFXR.
Morning reporters will have the closest real-life news experience with multiple live hits. Dayside reporters, forget about it. You won’t have ANY deadlines or opportunities to be live unless you are turning something for the digital “show” (not real life newsroom experience compared to other reporters turning stuff and going live for 4p,5p,6p shows). Nightside reporters will have the opportunity to go live at 10 p.m.
Here is something else major you need to know: the viewing area is EXPANSIVE. There are five major areas that make up the market: New River Valley (Blacksburg and everything west of it), Roanoke area, Lynchburg area, Danville area, and Lexington area. All of the other stations have invested heavily to make sure there is a bureau in each area to cut down on drive times/exhaustion and increase response time. However, WFXR has not fully invested in this idea. What this means for you: if you are a reporter, you will be driving A LOT, you will get burned out from having to drive so much. From a producer perspective: if breaking news happens in any city that isn’t Roanoke, you will be 100% beat by the competition because it will take your reporter an hour or more to get there whereas the other stations have bureaus a few minutes away. WFXR managers keep talking about getting a Lynchburg bureau and have hired an NRV bureau (he mostly does sports though) … but the other stations are lightyears ahead.
Okay on to management:
First off, if you ever are contemplating working at a station where Kay Norred will be your boss: Run, don’t walk away. However, if that isn’t an option for you, the following is what you can expect…
She will not be direct with you, passive aggressiveness is her specialty. If there is something she doesn’t like about you or thinks you need to improve, she won’t tell you right away. Instead, she will make fun of you or spend her time making passive aggressive comments about you. As soon as you leave a room, she will talk about you to others. There isn’t a single person at the station that I didn’t see her smack talk. She is CONSTANTLY rolling her eyes and bad mouthing her employees and will let anyone who will listen know how much she doesn’t trust her team.
She may appear sweet and genuine to your face but never trust her. She will find a way to use what you say against you, whether professionally or personally. Literally, nothing that comes out of her mouth is honest or genuine (think Regina George from Mean Girls). A co-worker witnessed her telling a reporter that she did a great job on her package, then turned around and told someone else she actually didn’t like it much at all. So if you are someone who craves honest feedback, you won’t get it from her. You will never know whether to believe what she is saying to you.
HUGE NOTE: She is a stickler about being on time. If you have to work for her…remember be early, not late. If you are even 1 minute late or even on time (not early), she will make fun of you publicly and talk about you.
She doesn’t have a life outside of work (no pets/kids/husband/family/hobbies, etc) and it shows because she has zero perspective on what life outside of work is like. She works long hours, never uses sick days, comes in on the weekends, and rarely takes a vacation — which is fine because it’s her life EXCEPT she will expect the same of you. She LOVES to boast about the long hours she puts in. She thinks of herself as a martyr in that way. Kay works so much… so she must stay on top of everything, right? Nope. She works 12 hour days but is somehow always still behind. She rolls her eyes when people ask to talk to her during the day and is constantly complaining that people are stealing her time. She blames others for not getting her work done. So when elections, special events, really anything rolls up…all plans are incredibly last minute and thrown together.
ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE: She is VERY forgetful. So if you tell her something, make sure she writes it down in her notebook, otherwise, it will be like the conversation never happened.
Also, if you are looking for a news director who is willing to jump in the trenches with their team, Kay is not that. Most newsrooms have several managers to help with day-to-day but at WFXR the ND and maybe assignments manager is all you have. But if you dare ask Kay to do something that she believes is beneath her ND duties, she will tell you a little story about how pilots don’t have to land planes to get a passenger a sprite.
She LOVES playing games with people’s lives and plays politics in the newsroom. She has an “A-TEAM” made up of a few of her favorites. She even held a secret meeting with these employees and told them “they were chosen not hired.” But don’t be fooled, if you make it on this A-Team, she will still talk bad about you behind your back. But as an A-Team member you will be expected to never talk bad about her and emulate her by working long hours and never complaining. All of her new hires are her “friends” aka loyalists from other stations. It’s less like working for a news director and more so working for a cult leader. For those that don’t like pretending like they are in cult just to survive, she is pushing them out the door by making their lives miserable or demoting them. She likes to say the following all of the time: You are either with her or against her.
Kay is also extremely religious and will shove God and the bible down your throat any chance she can get. She must mention prayer, God, and the Bible 1,000 times a day. If she knows you are religious, she will use it against you. Kay told one employee she thought she was a “God-fearing” woman and “someone like that” shouldn’t be concerned with officially having a job title (having it publicly announced), even though that person was already promised the job.
She is also very terrible with communication. New hires will show up out of nowhere without an email from Kay, others will disappear with no word from Kay. An evening anchor team and morning team was swapped, with no words/explanations from Kay. The lack of communication creates rumors and stirs distrust.
The chief meteorologist John Carroll is the other decision maker in the newsroom. He is also a snake in the grass. He is constantly rolling his eyes behind the news directors back about decisions and griping about adding extra shows for severe weather, really he will gripe about any decision that isn’t made by him. He rules his weather team with an iron fist (micromanager, much?) and talks bad about his weather people to anyone who will listen. The worst is how much he hates the morning meteorologist and how uncomfortable that makes everybody else. He will openly talk bad about him in the middle of the newsroom and do everything in his power to make the morning meteorologist mad. He openly talks about wanting the morning weather guy fired to anyone who will listen.
John is very similar to Kay in that he has no life outside of work (no spouse, kids, hobbies, nothing) and will work long hours and work on the weekend. But you better believe he is going to tell everyone about how long he worked, even though it is voluntary and it’s because he has nothing to go to at home. He expects his weather team to be the same. Every time anybody on his team requested vacation days or called out sick, he would complain to anybody who would listen and would always remind people that he never takes vacation days. He would also imply his employees that took sick days were faking an illness. In conclusion, if you are going to take a spot on the weather team, be prepared! You have been warned.
The GM Arika Zink makes zero sense with her decisions. She is a nice lady, but incredibly incompetent. She keeps toxic and/or lazy managers around in and outside of the newsroom who are hurting the station and its employees. Arika not only keeps them around, but she also PROTECTS them. The HR violations that happen at WFXR are horrendous.
The station needs managers who are going to clear the air, be true leaders and leave the politics and games at home. The station needs someone who will want to win and will constantly encourage their employees to be better. They need a leader who believes and trusts them. Truly, Nexstar needs to replace the GM, ND, and every other department head that is there right now with new energy and proven leadership. Until that happens, stay far away from WFXR.”
News Director: Scott Pickey
“Pickey has his favorites. Simple as this he is a major HR problem. Takes anger out on people in an abusive and bullying tone. You are always wrong no matter what happened. No feedback ever given. Like I said if you are on his good side no problem at all.”
While working for KOSA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Pickey has no problem bullying you and yelling at you for the smallest of reasons. KOSA is a starter market and they advertise as such. But the way Pickey treats you makes it not worth working there.
GM Don Davis is worse. All about the bottom line and only cares about the product, not the person. He is the reason there are HR problems at the station- he sweeps them under the rug to kiss up to corporate.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Positive, Fun, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The people you work with are great, management has issues.”
General Manager: Aaron Ramey
Experience described as: “Terrible. Draining. Exhausting. Depressing. Frustrating. Detrimental to my mental health and the relationships around me.”
While working for WBND this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“You are not a person. You are a machine. They don’t care about you, your mental health, your physical safety and forget about ever getting help or advice to further your career or performance.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Do not work here. South Bend is a great college town and fine place to land as your middle market but I strongly advise going to ANY of the other stations instead.”
News Director: Kay Norred
“Kay Norred is the closest I’ll come to working with a real life version of Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter. It’s hilarious but the truth.”
While working for WFXR this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I’m going to start this with a few very simple words: DO NOT WORK AT THIS STATION! NEVER WORK WITH OR FOR KAY NORRED (ND)! NEVER WORK WITH OR FOR ARIKA ZINK (GM)! It’s really that plain and simple. Now for details. Imagine your worst day at work ever, and multiply that infinitely…you’ll only come close to what it’s like to work for this place day in and day out. My best day at this station was my last day when I walked out of the gates of hell. Kay Norred is a walking definition of a psychopath and narcissist. She acts all nice and sweet as can be on the surface, and will stab you directly in the back as soon as you turn around. She has no consideration for your life or time outside of work. She expects you to function like a brainwashed robot. If she says jump you better ask how high or else you’ll be off her “A team” as fast as you can blink. You call out sick and she’ll guilt trip you on the call. Then she’ll make sure everyone in the building knows how unreliable you are because you used a sick day. This is only the beginning of a very long rap sheet of problems that nearly everyone at that station has had with her. I honestly don’t even want to waste too much time talking about the dumpster fire that the GM is. The only logical string of words you’ll hear come out of her mouth is “from that viewpoint” and “for that matter.” Most of the time she doesn’t even use that properly! She knows about all of the problems that people have with the ND and does nothing about it. She’s swept so many HR complaints under the rug that she could easily be sued so hard that Nexstar would go broke. Oh and I should add a little tidbit about the feud between the Chief Met John Carroll and the Morning Met. It’s been going on for 3 years. The chief hates the morning guy with a burning passion, and trust me, you WILL hear him openly talk about it ALL THE TIME. He has already had two great meteorologists leave the station because they couldn’t stand to work for him anymore. If you’re a meteorologist looking for work, you would be better off forecasting for little league soccer tournaments than working for John and the station. I’ll close with these words again: DO NOT WORK AT THIS STATION!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I know it’s easy to think someone may be overreacting about their experience at a station. I’m begging you, for the sake of your career, do not work here. If you don’t trust this review then you should just reach out to any contacts you have that have worked there. They will tell you the same thing…”
News Director: Jay Webb
“Jay is one of the best bosses I’ve ever had. He’s fair, he treats everyone with kindness, and he puts people first. The newsroom is a healthy atmosphere and he genuinely cares about his employees. He know we’re a small market and helps us grow.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“A great starter station! Very hands on. Lots of opportunities to go live for MMJ’s. If they need help running a live shot, they can usually get it.”
News Director: Galean Stewart
“She is fair and firm. She turned the newsroom and department around since taking the leadership job in 2017.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Reporters are challenged to come with enterprise story ideas. They turn at least two stories a day. Veteran journalists are well respected in the community and are a home brand for viewers. The station is located far from the city; otherwise, great station to work for!”
News Director: Kathryn Bonfield
“It was good and bad. She is definitely focused on staying #1 and making sure the station is on top at all times. But at the same time she doesn’t care how she treats people in the process. If you are not one of her favorites she lets you know.”
While working for WJXT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I literally hated going to work every single day. I left the news industry after working here because I felt so defeated. I eventually got back in because I realized things need to change and I can’t do that from the outside.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Overall working at this station does teach you how to push yourself and be competitive but at the cost of your happiness and sometimes mental health”
News Director: Shauna Ziegler
While working for KFOX this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I have never worked in a more toxic enviorment, it was like being back in high school all over again. Some fellow coworkers were nasty and rude and would talk behind your back. Everyday someone would be in tears because of someone else. I was in a constant state of anxiety and treated horribly by a male executive producer.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you’re looking to work at a TV station please do not work here. They will break you and make you cry and if you don’t fit into the mold they have you, your life will be terrible there.”
News Director: Adam Pursch
“Micro manages, belittles employees and has thrown things in the newsroom.”
While working for KOKH this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I’ve seen him talk over a black producer as if she wasn’t there. He micro manages WAY too much. A toxic work environment doesn’t even describe this newsroom.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Behind the scenes is unorganized. I know commutation is less than non at some stations, but the fact that the producer and assignment editor barely talk and they sit right across from each other says a lot. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to apply at this station unless there’s a change in management.”
News Director: Darrel Lieze-Adams
“He is fair, honest, has great new judgement and will fight for his employees”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This station is one of the few I know left that do not make you anchor/produce or wear multiple hats. If you are a reporter, you are a reporter. If you are an anchor, you are an anchor.
The station does have the most newscasts in Southwest Florida. You will be getting plenty of experience going live. You have to be prepared to hit the ground running. If you aren’t prepared or up for a challenge you will not have a pleasant experience. Management is more than willing to work with you, if you are willing to work with them.”
News Director: Perry Boxx
Experience described as: “Very knowledgeable and helpful”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control
News Director: David Hughes
“He’s nice enough, but has questionable morals. He’s often frazzled and can’t handle confrontation. He plays favorites very obviously.”
While working for WDBJ this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Yelling and inappropriate behavior were tolerated. Long hours, poor pay, and a lack of appreciation from management gave rise to negative attitudes in the newsroom.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“There are a lot of wonderful, talented people at the station, and the equipment is better here than at other stations. There are strong friendships and a welcoming environment among reporters and producers. The only issue is the management. They have started to hire inexperienced reporters and producers, and do not always give them the tools they need to get better and succeed. I have seen a manager stomp around, yell, gossip, and throw things on a regular basis. If you work overtime, you are not compensated because they will force you to take awkwardly long lunch breaks in the middle of another shift.”
News Director: Trav Ruiz
Experience described as: “Terrible, Rude, unhelpful senior staff.”
While working for KTAB | KRBC this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Senior staff only care about their own positions. Would regularly withhold promotional goods for staff and keep it for themselves. Constant scheduling problems, they never had enough staff and would schedule multiple members off at the same time and scramble when they realized their mistakes. Did not care about improving reporters skills. They lied to their staff about information in contracts. Staff constantly overworked and was strongly suggested that if you couldn’t get your stories done in the time they told you to do it in, then it was not their responsibility to pay overtime and you shouldn’t report it because it was your own fault. Overworked staff to the point where I saw several people crying in the news room. Never cleaned station vehicles, they all pretty much had a rotten food smell in them.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“After my contract ended, staff refused to return calls and assist me with new employment, I worked under Ruiz for only a week and he decided to black list me by lying to stations that I had been applying too. They paid very little even for a small market. Very little room for upward movement or cross training. Constantly critical without offering suggestions for improvement. Most equipment did not work with engineers that either didn’t know how or didn’t want to fix broken equipment. Examples: used an actual nickle to re-level one of the studio camera. I also needed my tripod fixed (simple tightening of a bolt) and while the engineer was explaining how it couldn’t be fixed, I fixed it myself.”
News Director: Rick Moll
“Super nice man, a bit of a hands-off leader at times”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“The station genuinely cares about its employees and the compensation is fair. Training is an area for improvement, but overall, it’s a great place to work.”
News Director: Matt Kummer
“He is very engaging during meetings and has more of a hands-off approach during newscasts.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This is a great, award-winning station to work for. There is a very talented team that young journalists can learn from. I loved working here!”
News Director: Carolyn Mungo
Experience described as: “Amazing!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
News Director: Hiring ND: Darryl Huger, End ND: Michael Raffaele
“Darryl was a GREAT guy! But I think I caught him after he had checked out mentally at that station, but he was a good mentor. Michael Raffaele is TERRIBLE! He has no idea what he’s doing and is turning the station into “cut-in” central.”
While working for WACH this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Overall, this station is a complete mess to work for: Edit bays barely work or they’re extremely slow, tons of internet problems in the building, ingest stations take FOREVER which is hardly conducive to a breaking news work flow, cameras are ancient both for reporters and the ones in-studio, nothing gets fixed in a timely manner, station preaches LOCAL but the corporate must-runs make that motto an absolute job, forget about doing stories that the community actually cares about. Hires kids fresh out of college who don’t know what they’re doing yet they never get feedback so how are they suppose to get better? I mean seriously the list can go on and on about the short-comings of this station. If you need experience, take the job but get the heck out when your contract is up! No point in staying. It’s embarrassing how this station even functions when it’s in a TOP 100 market. I worked for a starter station in an smaller market that operated better.
Don’t expect to cover anything besides “doom and gloom” under Michael Raffaele’s watch. Anything FUN doesn’t exist here. Worst thing this station did was hire him. He’s an absolute lunatic!”
News Director: Mike Schram
Experience described as: “Positives and negatives. Very mature, calculated, and polite, but also OCD”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Positive, Fun, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Operates like a typical mid-size station, and one that’s last in the market. Everyone is overworked in an understaffed newsroom. Newsroom culture could definitely be better at times.
Aside from that, a great place to work. News director and GM were great.”
News Director: Ike Walker
“He was the “best” news director of all the ones that I’ve had. He could definitely be a jerk, but he knows his stuff and runs the #1 station in the DMA.”
While working for KVLY this person experienced:
“They overwork you and run you ragged. With the number of newscasts that station has and the angles they give you for packages it can be a trailing day. If you’re not one of the higher ups favorites…you don’t have a pleasant stay.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized
Additional comments:
“I’ll say that out of all the stations I’ve worked for this is the only one that had it’s sh*t together. It was an absolute power house where I probably learned the most from being at. They had enough edit bays, equipment was fixed in a timely manner, but it was under-staffed like every other station. I will say that it’s a good place to start out. It’s not the BEST working environment but you’ll come out of it a better journalist because of the trials.”
News Director: Marlene Speas
“Horrible – I repeat DON’T go there unless its your last option.”
While working for KTVO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management never took time to help train their reporters. It’s a free for all. The assistant news director Andy Grove is rude and horrible to every reporter he’s encountered. You get don’t get any feedback on stories, your work or know if any progress has been made. They don’t let you go live. They expect you to come in on your after your shift has ended but to cover “breaking” news (a car accident) when you’re at home after a long day of work, at dinner with a friend, busy, etc. No where in the contract does it say it requires reporter to be on-call 24/7 all day everyday. Everyone transfers after a year or quits because its that bad. You’ll be lucky if you get a spot on the morning show.. because it’s the only show that doesn’t suck management wise AS much as the others.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I warned you….”
News Director: Scott Elledge
Experience described as: “Good news director. No problems with him”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Good place to start. It has it days like most regular jobs. People talk about each other too much like they in highschool. Too many fakes to be honest. Only person you can trust is yourself”
News Director: Megan Lewis
Experience described as: “Challenging, but positive”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Don’t get me wrong, working here is NOT easy. It’s a small market, and we’re behind in the ratings by far. But, most of the people who work there genuinely care about their job and the product. Megan Lewis can be a bit overwhelming with her demands, but is generally reasonable and cares about her employees.
The anchor team is young, with the main female anchor a “lifer.” She can be a perfectionist, but helps reporters/producers a lot whenever we need it.
Most of the newsroom drama comes from reporters who spend too much time together outside of work.
Cowles is a family-owned company, but sometimes it feels like they forget about their Montana stations. Communication is not always great, and it shows in our product.”
News Director: Dave Ciliberti
Experience described as: “Strange, dishonest.”
While working for WCMH this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Created a newsroom of fear & distrust of gut instincts and local knowledge. Leads by fear and questioning. Looks down on pregnant women or those who have small children.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Unsupportive & backstabbing colleagues. Or completely self-absorbed and/or selfish. Few people to trust. Real lack of a team environment under current management, from the GM down to the ND and Assistant ND.”
News Director: Beth Jensen
Experience described as: “Toxic”
While working for KELO this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The newsroom is made up of all white employees. The news managers rarely hire people of color despite having a community full of diversity. The news content reflects that, many times lacking diversity or only telling one side of the story. The assignment editor bullies the entire newsroom, despite the fact that he lacks a college degree and has minimal writing skills.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“There’s a price to pay to be the number one station in the market. Although the pay is good, the overall work environment is toxic.”
News Director: Victoria Spechko
“Victoria isn’t your typical boss – she is a newsroom leader. She will challenge you. If you can take constructive criticism well, you will learn and become a better journalist. The newsroom is full of team players and everyone has your back. The employees get along very well and it is a comfortable space to work and be creative. If you are offered a job here, I would recommend taking it. Whether you plan to be here short term or long term, you will learn and make great connections that will take you places.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Positive, Fun
News Director: Ryan Minnaugh
Experience described as: “Worst experience of my career”
While working for WFLA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Get called to HR on the regular for petty issues…was told I was useless to the station last week after representing the entire company (Nexstar) at the Winter Olympics.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Not a good place.”
News Director: Matt McConico
While working for WPMT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Very toxic newsroom. Station run very poorly.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Mark Farrell
Experience described as: “Positive, very open to creative ideas and opportunities to grow”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“It’s a great starter station that allows you to grow and develop. It’s close to OKC and Dallas and often allows for many news personalities to move on to those markets or other big markets! The overall newsroom is positive and fun, with good leadership and colleagues.”
News Director: Val Thompson
Experience described as: “Extremely positive, a very good ND”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Great starter market. Smaller market, smaller staff so you are expected to wear many hats even at the entry level, but upper management and co-workers were always very supportive. Very hands on and engaged news director, but he does not micromanagement staff, a very good quality in an ND. Pay is average for a small market in the industry but Cville can be a tad expensive without roommates. Since I’ve left station was recently sold by Gray to another company, so I do not know the effects of that but overall I really enjoyed my time here.”
News Director: Robin Whitmeyer
Experience described as: “Good. She is direct and to the point. There is little training or talent develop but Robin will give feedback when asked.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“There are no MMJs at this station since the photographers are in a union.”
News Director: Jeff Harris
Experience described as: “Horrible, misogynist , traditional white man.”
While working for WBBM this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“There were times when you became very well. Aware that you were just that token colored person in the room. Especially when you pitched stories that were for minority communities, the would only choose to do them if It was a crime story. In the end Jeff the ND got demoted and the president of cbs Chicago stepped down and went to work in communications. They could not keep anyone on staff and constantly had turn overs . The majority of colored reporters quit. Out of 50 producers/desk people, there were 6 POCs .”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Scott Lawrence
Experience described as: “Below average”
While working for KFDM this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“News Director lacks leadership and communication skill. General Manager keeps persons in positions of management with lengthy, toxic, negative history in their HR file. A work environment so toxic, that I left after 6 months. Bullying, harassment, negativity. A newsroom setup for failure. It was my third station and I never experienced worse.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“You’ll need all the luck you can get.”
News Director: Dave Kaplar
Experience described as: “Great! Only puts as much work into you as you put into the station. Wants you to grow and reach goals”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“You can succeed or be stagnant here. If you show you want help and to grow, it will be given to you.”
News Director: Dan Boers
“I felt unheard, unsupported and defensive in every conversation we had.”
While working for TV 8 this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“One of our tenured meteorologists was “asked to leave,” after 9 women in the newsroom complained about sexual harassment, intimidation in the workplace, and religious discrimination. The met was never fired, but given 30 days to leave himself. Our weekend nightside anchor was also involved in the claims – a mere 3 day suspension with pay for him. He still anchors and his behavior has not changed.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This station refuses to seek out people of color for talent. WOOD TV is #1 in their market, but the staff does not reflect the diversity that the community IS. There are two black male reporters, one Asian female anchor – and that’s it. I am a Hispanic woman and worked for WOOD in two internships, hired in production, promoted to assignment desk, promoted again to Live Desk Reporter. Dan Boers hired a novice, White male journalist with no reporting experience in a top 40 market. Our main anchors and producers were wildly disappointed in his decision. I made the choice to move out of state to mmj and never look back.”
News Director: Bob Morford
“He is forgetful, shifts blame, and is very poor at communication”
While working for WAFF this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Everyone is leaving or getting fired. He keeps moving on air talent around. The station morale is so low. It comes from the top.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
News Director: Mitch Davis
“He helped me grow as a reporter. However he plays into a lot of news politics. He knows how to give you the run around. He also loves to have power over you. He gossips a lot with the producers as well.”
While working for WKBN this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The work environment was very toxic. They would load a lot of work on you and give you no overtime. They would y’all about you behind your back in the news room. Gossiping is very high. You have no set schedule. You might have off Monday and Tuesday one week, then off Thursday and Friday the next. Causing you to work 8 days in a row. You might work from 3PM-11PM one day then the next day work from 10AM-6PM. Producers gossip a lot. If you are a minority DO NOT GO HERE. There is no news room diversity and they don’t care.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Nicole Ebat
Experience described as: “Excellent & Exciting”
While working for KPTM this person experienced:
“Even if we are not the highest ranked market in the area, I can proudly say this station gives you the chance to pitch story ideas with confidence, grow as a journalist and still be under the #74 market category. If you are looking for a place to grow and tell stories, you have the support of your boss & coworkers to get it done.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“I will say you need to be motivated to try new things and push yourself…it’s easy to get in a rut of an every day crank out a package and go home…it’s a great place to experiment, fail or succeed, and learn from it.”
News Director: Melissa Cashwell
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Positive, Fun
News Director: Alex De Leon
“Terrible! Very toxic environment with lazy employees who lack professionalism. This station is poorly managed.”
While working for WTVO this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Several employees have left due to the toxic work environment Many employees are lazy and lack professionalism. This station is poorly managed. I would never recommend this station to any journalists looking to break into the industry.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Megan Wolf
“She has favorites and it showed in how she interacted with employees and others saw it as well.”
While working for SNJ Today this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The news director, Megan Wolf, openly berated employees when they’d mess up, but for this who were her favorites, she praised them and was more than willing to work with them. The owner of the station, Ken Pustizzi, wanted to cover positive news, but his version of positive news which meant we couldn’t cover students fundraising to help a local family, or a community coming together to clean up a park. The news was more or less filled with police reports and stories about an area hospital system. The pay disparity was wide with a forecaster making $65k, the director making $45k, an anchor who only did two hours of work (despite having a full eight-hour day written in her contract) being paid $50k a year, meanwhile reporters, web producers and PAs made between $11 and $13 an hour.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The station lacks room for advancement in both pay and the position itself and is a hassle to get to.”
News Director: Gerardo Garza
“Does not care for his employees.”
While working for KGNS this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Working there is hell. The news director never appreciates MMJ’S hard work. Nothing ever makes them happy, they always tell you how bad you’re doing. Rarely, almost never, do they say something positive about your work. The news room is filled with toxic people who are out to get you, no matter what. Unless you want to go to a place where they humiliate you and treat you like a slave. This is not the place where you want to go.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“They don’t teach you how to edit or use the camera. You have to learn as you go and don’t even take the time to train you. Don’t go there working in that environment is not worth it. Yes you learn, but not because of them it’s because of the hard word and dedication you put in your stuff.”
News Director: Steve Hyvonen
Experience described as: “Cluster f***”
While working for WXIX this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“ND & AND play favorites. It’s a major issue. Good people have been let out of contracts early, while some of the laziest and disrespectful people stay.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Adam Henning
Experience described as: “Spineless”
While working for WPEC this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Sinclair is known for spreading propaganda and that is no different at WPEC. Must run conservative agenda pieces are crammed down your throat. Anyone remember all the anchors from the Sinclair stations reciting the same propaganda? They make reporters do it too.
The assignment desk was replaced with a “content center,” which means anyone can be the assignment desk person. That makes for complete newsroom chaos. It also means that inexperienced people give the anchors scanner traffic to report as fact without confirming. It’s also everyone for themselves. If you are out in the field relaying info back to the newsroom there is always a mistake or miscommunication. You need to call 5 different people to make sure everyone is on the same page. There is virtually no maintenance on the equipment, computers regularly crash and wireless mics don’t work. You are expected to do the work of 4 people on a regular basis. The pay is poor and lower than the other stations. If you are on a contract and the station hits the sales goal you don’t get a bonus. Only employees that aren’t under contract get the bonus however, everyone contributes. A good portion of the staff comes from smaller Sinclair stations and for some, this is their first shop. The product shows it, with poorly written and presented stories. The reporters are stretched so thin because of their workload, sometimes they make up information they weren’t able to get. Many reporters and photographers have abruptly quit because of the poor working conditions. The assistant news director seems to have a chip on his shoulder because he isn’t the ND. He talks down to producers and reporters. If you are an attractive woman or anchor he may cut you some slack. Creativity is not welcomed and usually removed from the writing.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Look elsewhere.”
News Director: Brooks Blanton
Experience described as: “Approachable. Very sympathetic to his team. Has a hard time keeping cool in big breaking news situations.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Most days, the newsroom is a well-oiled machine. Everyone knows their assignments and are quick out the door. That being said, producers are often at odds with reporters as there is little understanding between the jobs. Good stories are often thrown out for “the easy get”. Management often struggles to hire competent employees and the turn over rate is very high.”
News Director: Julie Flynn
Experience described as: “Good news sense. Reasonable and level-headed.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“Much of the staff are talented and very capable but lack a sense of direction. Leadership has a hard time defining roles, and there is often questioning if the right decisions are being made.
Most employees are very helpful and willing to help each other out.”
News Director: Jeff Houston
“I don’t want to bash him. However, he’s simply not a good person. That translates into awful mgr. very little empathy, and very much like a mean girl from high school. Gossipy and plays favorites. Get everything in writing – immediately! (Been known to say promotions, raises and schedule change discussions never happened)”
While working for WBMA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Massive turnover- disrespectful managers – too focused on tiny things instead of overarching issues – regional ND is a former news director from a previous job. His unscrupulous morals and uncomfortable convos with women were always apparent when he was in town. The entire Sinclair executive board of suits would talk about leaving their wives to visit their girlfriends in Bham. Disgusting. That regional ND once had me do a studio fashion show for him before I could report on the morning show. He picked the outfits he wanted me to wear and how he wanted my hair. It made me feel gross.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“It wasn’t always like this the former ND, Garry, was fair and a hard worker. He’d work the desk in an ongoing breaking situation like snow. He’d fill in on a show if someone’s child got sick …. he’d listen and consider other ideas. He wasn’t perfect, but it set the tone for the entire operation. When he left, the newsroom fell a part. My friends who still work there confirm.. it hasn’t recovered. So many people get out of the biz, quit with no job lined up, and cry in the parking lot. It’s no way to live. I haven’t regretted getting out, once.”
News Director: Steve Cohen
Experience described as: “Negative”
While working for KUSI this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The station is run and operated by a local family in town. They thrive on the fact that they are an independent with no network affiliation. They FORCE their overly-Republican views on the staff and make them portray this to their viewers. It’s essentially a propaganda station. Cohen does nothing to stop it. It is a toxic work environment and the company doesn’t care for their employees and the executive news staff doesn’t do anything to stop it! In a two week period in March 2019, over 10 staff members left to all find different jobs elsewhere either at other stations in the market or leaving the business in general.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Toxic environment, not worth working under their propaganda.”
News Director: Shannon Maze Isbell
Experience described as: “Fair and approachable… not involved in the daily news at all… focused on her other duties. Asst ND is in the daily grind.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Different shifts operate differently, but I adore our group of coworkers. We’re like a family. We have a group text message thread for entertainment and ideas…. everyone has a say… Most everyone is a veteran and does there job. The only reason for turnovers is the rough hours. I’d highly recommend working here. There’s always gonna be unorganized days, corporate changes that lead to layoffs, but this is a place where I feel that I can stay for decades….. like so many of my coworkers. That’s a rarity these days.”
News Director: Robert Davidson
“Robert is a great news director. He knows the news business. He really wants to seee his reporters grow, and his door is always open. You can approach him about anything and he’s understandable.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Sometimes things can get a bit unorganized which causes a lack of communication, but overall this is a really good news room. Great producers, and great writers. This is a great market and TV station for starters who are just getting into the business and looking to perfect their craft and go to the next market.”
News Director: Bruce Barkley
“He is awful. He treated all the of the reporters and producers like they were children and pitched news stories that were not only uninteresting, but also impossible to get. He would have temper tantrums in the newsroom. He also kept me from airing a legitimate story because it put a business we advertised with in a bad light. But instead of just admitting that was the reason, he tried to make me sound like I was a poor journalist. Every anchor, reporter, producer and executive producer took my side about airing it. He was the only one with an issue. Bruce also left certain people alone but picked on others. He should never have been put in that position.”
While working for WYFF this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“It’s also worth mentioning he’d send out emails, even call you into his office warning he was “cracking down” on overtime but then had the assigment desk call you in early and make you stay late for a live shot an hour away. He would try to make you come in later the next day and miss the editorial meeting just so you wouldn’t have overtime. Everything was on his terms. Did I mention he was awful?”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Morgan Schabb
Experience described as: “Somewhat negative”
While working for WAND this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The news director always had her favorites and if you weren’t one of them you weren’t treated as well. She is younger so gossip was always something happening. Not only about people in our newsroom but also of people at the other stations as well. I think she tried her best to be a good leader but because she was younger had a hard time. She wasn’t ever open to ideas that pushed the envelope. She liked ideas that were safe and wouldn’t upset viewers. Also there would be several times they would say we were “#1″ when in reality we weren’t.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I would say it’s a great place to get experience but keep your guard up and don’t trust anyone. Everyone is there to gossip. Just be careful.”
While working for WMC-TV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The assistant news director, Chris Best, would bully and harass reporters for trusting their gut in tough situations. He’d constantly ask you to do things that weren’t safe, ethical or even professional. He would routinely call and curse reporters out if their story wasn’t as good as the competition. He would lie about his knowledge of stories and other newsroom happenings. He also started a Biker Dad Facebook page and would assign reporters to cover events that he was attending. He’d get made at reporters who pitched stories that were close to their heart but then pitch his own. He livestreamed his bike ride into work just to show why he was late all the time. He created a toxic work environment, yelled at seasoned and respected reporters and just wanted to be somebody. The worst part is that he drove out good talent. Almost all the original and experienced reporters and anchors left in his time here. They were tired of his crap and couldn’t take the moral. To this day, I think about him. He was the absolute worst person I’ve ever worked for in my decade in news. And he went on to Mobile to work as a news director. Funny how bullies like him keep moving up because no one will fire them.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“There are some GREAT people on staff who really care a lot about their work. Seriously, they fought a good fight. In fact, most people in the newsroom were like family to each other. I believe that most people had good intentions and really wanted to do good work. It’s why so many stayed for so long. And it’s why so many still stay.”
While working for WSMV this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Women were told to wear fake eyelashes and darken their eyebrows. The news director also body shamed women who were not tiny and promoted women with far less experience if they were “hotter””
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“They have serveral lawsuits pending against them. I’ve heard mixed opinions about new management, but a lot of the damage has already been done.”
News Director: Brandon Long
“He knows a lot about the industry. I can see how he has potential to teach reporters and anchors a lot, but his way of talking to people is very condescending and he’s very sarcastic. It can come across as he’s talking at you. It’s sometimes intimidating to go to him.”
While working for WMGT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“It’s extremely understaffed. As most small/ medium markets you’re probably doing the job or 3 people regardless. At WMGT, it’s lack of care from management. There’s not much investment within our employees. We are the number 3 station in Macon, out of 3. There’s no drive to beat the competition. There’s also no resources to be the best either. Equipment is run down and everything isn’t the best of quality, even with new things we get.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The turn around rate is extremely high. We have vacancies we haven’t filled in almost a year. There’s no push to try and fill them.”
While working for WATE this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“General manager is horrible and only cares about business. Reporters are overworked. Long days, no overtime pay. Poor management. HR guy isn’t even trained, he handles the finances. No regard for concerns of employees. Toxic relationships between coworkers.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Avoid”
News Director: John Haferkamp
Experience described as: “Uninvolved except for scheduling”
While working for WNWO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Although WNWO is a Toledo station, it’s news is broadcast from South Bend (WSBT) . Leading to a disconnect with reporters/photogs (Toledoans) and anchors/producers (South Bend crew). Not only that but the anchors were given pretty much all control, basically acting as news directors. There was no “teamwork”. A former news manager told my reporters racist, sexist, and anti-semitic things on the Toledo side, I was told I could not report it because they did not happen to me. On the South Bend side, WSBT seemed like a great station to work for.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“It’s a newshare, operated out of South Bend. It leads to power struggles between the 2 stations in completely different states and markets. They also operate another newshare for a Pennsylvania station. They are all not great in the market and will never be given full attention.”
News Director: Chuck Maulden
“The previous news director was inexperienced. Terrible at communicating and played the blame game instead of taking responsiblity for managment mishaps. He was more set on the title of news director rather than actually doing the job. His time there resulted in the termination of long term news personalities, employees and a massive turn-over.”
While working for KOTV this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The general work environment just dealing with co-workers was amazing. Upper management was the problem. They operated on a shut up and just do whatever we tell you policy. They were quick to talk about how poorly you were doing during a review, but all the year leading up to that no concerns were ever brought to light.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Your fellow co-workers will be your only saving grace. The rest of the newsroom is filled with amazing people. And if you happen to be a management favorite you’ll be fine. And the city is great and packed with news.”
News Director: Carl Abraham
Experience described as: “Relatively enjoyable”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational
Additional comments:
“Number one station in the market without much competition. A pretty good place to work.”
News Director: Jennifer Scarborough
“She was tough but fair. I wish she gave better feedback. Many years of experience but she never left the market. So I took some thinks with a grain of salt”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational
News Director: Karen Araiza
“She’s very smart and always looking to push the button, but morally devoid at times. She’s also very spontaneous which isn’t always a good thing. She’s showed up randomly to people’s shoots, micromanager”
While working for WCSH this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Again she just didn’t seem to have the best morals and often pitted the newsroom against one another.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Dawn Miller
“She’s not technically the news director. Instead she is the news manager and the only manager at the physical location in the market. She doesn’t micromanage, but she also lacks vital communication skills at times. Not the most motivated and instead wants MMJ’s to do tasks she doesn’t want to (on top of all they have to do)”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
Additional comments:
“It’s not somewhere you’ll want to stay for too long. This station is a “news share” which means the anchors and producers and news director are all in South Bend, Indiana. There’s not much feedback because there aren’t many leaders with a hands-on approach. There are no veteran reporters or anchors to learn from. At any given day only 2-3 reporters are scheduled to work, which means if someone is sick, there’s very little content and the slack has to be unfairly picked up by whoever is around.”
News Director: Tina Commodore
“I didn’t work with her, only a week.”
While working for KOKI this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination
“As a producer I was fine, but over in the production side, even though I had been at the station a year, as well as being more qualified for a position, was passed over. After that, everyone kept asking me why I didn’t get the job because everyone knew I wanted it. They said the current production manager at the time, only seemed to have an all male staff.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Overall it was a very pleasant environment. People were nice, even when crap hit the fan, it was not toxic. I didn’t work full time but all the drama seemed pretty tame and everyone seemed pretty happy. It was an honor to work there and I would love to go back, but as a full time employee.”
News Director: Shawn Venhaus
“Shawn was unqualified for his position. He made multiple female reporters feel uncomfortable, and would use the word f****t in private meetings with staff.”
While working for KFDA this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The News Director would give embarrassing attention to new, pretty reporters – often making them feel uncomfortable. Management would often allow newsroom disagreements fester into an overall toxic environment.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Management aside, I was able to learn a ton about broadcast news. The long-time anchors were critical of all writing, and forced me to become a much better writer and producer. Management and work environment were huge issues, but I’m a better journalist for having worked here.”
News Director: Russ Poteet
“Russ is the best ND in the industry for training and encouraging starting reporters. He takes very little resources and makes a respectable newscast. Expect to be worked hard and be critiqued, but also expect to keep Russ as a contact/mentor for the rest of your career.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Definitely feels a bit like an extra two years in college at times. The MMJ’s are all right out of school and live in a College town. Lots of drinking and can get a bit cliquey at times. Lubbock is awesome for punching outside it’s weight class. There are national stories that you get to cover because you’re isolated in the middle of nowhere.”
News Director: Morgan Schaab
Experience described as: “Kind and encouraging but tough when need to be”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This is a great shop. I like our creative freedom and room for growth as journalists. Our ND has high expectations but is encouraging and cares at the same time. Production team can be exhausting but it’s not the worst.”
While working for KECI/KTVM/KCFW this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“LITERALLY DO NOT WORK HERE. The only place MAYBE worth working at is KTVM because they have a better Assistant News Director at the Bozeman station, and you would be removed from the toxicity hub of the main station, KECI, in Missoula. The News Director and Assistant News Director heavily favor men and are really hard on women. Terrible leadership style, the Missoula AND constantly gossip’s about employees to other employees, terrible learning environment and leadership style. They tear people down instead of lifting them up and helping them succeed.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Management needs an overhaul. Ten newsroom employees (of about 25) left between the beginning of August 2017 and October 2017 — that should be a huge red flag. Hiring managers tell you that they are a “learning station” during interviews, but they do not live up to that whatsoever and instead use extremely hurtful, hostile and aggressive language whenever the smallest of mistakes are made — in a market 160, which is a beginners market. Managers have terrible, backwards news judgement and are not open to new ideas or creativity. They are not approachable, it’s their way or the highway. HR is virtually non-existent because it is ran by one guy in Colorado. I’m honestly surprised this station hasn’t seen a major lawsuit. The only positive thing I have to say is that conditions might be changing with the transfer of ownership from Bonten Media Group to Sinclair Broadcasting. Reporters are never thanked, they constantly work 10 to 12 hour days, get called in on their days off and scorned if they can’t make it in. It is the most unprofessional work environment I’ve ever been a part of. You are overworked, underpaid and underappreciated. Station management holds no one accountable for anything. They ruined my passion for the news industry. I might be a disgruntled ex-employee, but don’t think I didn’t pull my weight. I went above and beyond for this station, always kept a positive attitude and filled in for every single on-air and behind the scenes position. Bottom line, do not work here.”
News Director: Bernie Ritter
“Absolutely awful. Chose favorite reporters, did not defend me when I was sexually harassed, expected me to work for free (on an hourly wage) because “the station was no longer giving overtime”
While working for WJCL this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“When I was sexually harassed via email by a viewer, I was reprimanded by the news director for responding and standing up for myself. The ND claimed “we don’t respond to viewers in a negative way” and actually said that I “brought [the harassment] on myself” because of what I was wearing.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Three months into working at the station, they said they would “no longer be paying overtime,” but we were still ordered to work extra hours. We were not paid anything for those hours, despite making an hourly wage. The news director favored reporters who didn’t fight back against this, and often praised them while tearing down other reporters.
I was an MMJ in a bureau an hour and a half from the main station, and never received any feedback from the main station unless it was negative. I was also reprimanded for not coming in to optional, unpaid work meetings held on the weekends at the main station.
I quit my job after 8 months because it took such a toll on my mental health that I lost nearly 30 pounds. When I quit, they threatened to make me pay out my full contract, despite North Carolina having a “right to work” law which prohibits this. I was told to “make an offer” of what I would pay to get out of my contract. The news director also threatened to take me to court if the offer wasn’t high enough, and said that I would lose because I didn’t have enough money to fight with Nexstar.
This was a truly terrible work environment, and I hope my review helps other MMJs avoid this station.”
News Director: Ivan Garcia
Experience described as: “Unprofessional and toxic”
While working for KUNP this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“KUNP is supervised by the executive producer, who is unfit for a leadership role as such. He is unprofessional, makes sexual remarks and advances on his female employees. He uses foul language and disrespects his employees. He picks and chooses the news he will air, even if there are news that are of importance to his community, if it’s not something he is personally interested in it won’t air. His actions are especially degrading towards women. Takes any feedback or suggestions as a personal attack. If you don’t agree with him on something or pretend he is right about everything, he will start giving you a hard time about petty things. He is an insecure individual who projects that on colleagues by disrespecting them or blocking opportunities for them. This person will offer you so much when recruiting you but won’t keep his word once you are hired. The only way he will help you advance or not make work a toxic place for you, is if you never stand up for yourself or against his wrongdoings. His level of experience also will not help you grow professionally or improve your craft.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Stay away!!! The English counterpart is it’s own other world, but as a whole the place is toxic. People here do not care about you as a person it’s all business. They will protect employees that have seniority despite serious issues and their unprofessional behavior.”
News Director: Jennifer Dodd
“She’s barely present. When she is and you have the chance to talk to her, she forgets. It makes you wonder if you’re an integral part of the news team when your own boss conveniently forgets your goals, your dreams or any promises she has made. There were times she pushed reporters to obtain or air information that may have been obtained unethically. As a journalist, while I understand the need for gathering and releasing information first, but I’m not willing to risk the station’s reputation and my credibility by doing something that is borderline illegal.”
While working for News 8 this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“There are days I’m surprised I still work here. Since I was hired, I’ve experienced my boss telling me that I’m hard to understand because English is not my first language—even when colleagues say otherwise—, I was harassed by a former coworker for turning his advances down and it took the station YEARS to terminate him despite at least five years worth of reports against him, and a blatant disregard for the quality of stories we air everyday. Recently, we hired an MMJ who’ve never reported nor shot a story before. When managers hand you a camera without a battery or tape in it, then tells you to shoot something…that just shows you how much they know about news gathering and the work that is involved in putting a good story together.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“There is a lot of potential for this 24-hour format. It’s maddening how it’s not incorporated AND nurtured through valuing its employees and their talents.”
News Director: Darryl Adams
“If you’re one of the favorites, life is not terrible. But the expectations of everyone are very very high.”
While working for WBBH this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management tried to foster teamwork by fostering competition. It was not healthy. There was no consideration for personal lives… Working there was seen by management as a privilege, not a mutually-beneficial relationship.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Brad Meyers
“I worked for the previous news director Scott. He left shortly after me, but a lot of the management came from another station. It is a good ole boys club, and they dont take well to new ideas or people.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized
Additional comments:
“WECT is a great starting station. They take their jobs seriously, but if you get on the wrong side of the wrong people, you will regret it. They also have had several major flops with on air talent over the past two years. The 3 best reporters all left within a three month span in summer 2018.”
News Director: Jim Platzer
Experience described as: “Below average”
While working for WJAC this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Platzer is rude and doesn’t care about his employees. He calls them ‘bodies’ and ‘girls’ and has no respect for anyone. It doesn’t start with Jim. This is a Sinclair station. The poison is trickling down from the top and the more that the news directors dish out poison, the more rewarded they are.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Eric Valadez
Experience described as: “He has no idea what he’s doing”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“9 News does not live up to their reputation. I had creativity stiffed by management with zero direction. I had a multi-year contract that was terminated without severence a year in after I moved my entire life to Denver. They don’t care about anyone, especially if they think you make too much money. Don’t buy the hype, 9News is not what it once was for developing talent. You can cut your teeth elsewhere and actually make money doing it.”
News Director: Jennifer Rigby
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This is a wonderful place to work.”
News Director: Jamie Justice
Experience described as: “Good, she is fair”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“Overall WSYX/WTTE is a good place to work but the GM has a VERY tight grip on his wallet. Don’t expect to make the money you are supposed to be making. Work hard, payed little.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“There’s an unofficial “no jerk” rule at this station. If you think work is beneath you, complain about all your co-workers and aren’t a team-player, you are not welcome here. WREX is all about a healthy work environment and helping people through tough times they may face. I couldn’t have worked for a better station/company.”
While working for Spectrum this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“A lack of communication and a lack of morale. We didn’t even look at Nielsen ratings because we barely registered.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you can help it, don’t come to Spectrum; it was a negative experience that drained me and left my career going in the wrong direction.
It’s a 24-hour cable station, which means only 40% of people CAN watch us, and those that do often choose the over the air stations unless they’re checking the weather. In other words, you work to the bone to get seen by a very small slice of North Carolinians.
The allure of being in a top-25 market quickly vanished when the reality of being understaffed hit. We barely ever did live shots and we missed several big moments in my time there because we didn’t have enough reporters to cover it all.
Things here were not good when I was there, and I fear things may get worse as more people choose to cut the cord. There are great people here, but being in a top 25 does not make up for these complications.”
News Director: Anne Wittenborg
While working for KSTP this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I was the only female photog and there is not enough room here to put embolization down”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
News Director: Suh Neubauer
Experience described as: “Uninvolved/gone for long periods, no station direction, unorganized.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This station is completely unprofessional. There is an overall lack of interest in the broadcast by the management and even the news director. There is NEVER any news meetings, nobody pitches stories, equipment always broken. This led to the staff not caring: there is no accountability, production staff talks constantly over the headsets about unrelated topics, shows suffer. One May, the Prompter stopped working. The engineer couldn’t figure out the issue right away so nobody did anything. We went without the prompter for the WHOLE SUMMER. It wasn’t until around September-ish that it was finally fixed. We film on tiny SLR cameras and 40$ plastic tripods. It’s embarrassing cover stories next to real stations.”
News Director: Esteban Creste
Experience described as: “micro manager”
While working for WXTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“If there is a long-term strategy, it is not communicated to the staff. Futures planning is inconsistent. Staff is routinely told in the open that they may only contribute suggestions about stories that should be covered but not about any other area of the newsroom. All levels of staff report to the News Director, making some supervisors irrelevant.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
News Director: Amie Hudspeth
“She is racist towards white people. She doesn’t train anyone, yells at/calls workers stupid and to “pull your head out of your a**.” Everything done in the newsroom is inspite of her. No leadership abilities or good news judgment.”
While working for KAVU this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“At least 3 white employees quit while I was there due to treatment from Amie Hudspeth. Other employees also quit because they were over-worked and not given pay for overtime. Amie will comment on talent/reporters appearance to the extent of asking them if they are pregnant and telling them to “maybe get something to hold all that in.” One employee worked 100 hours over 2 weeks without being granted overtime pay.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you want to learn to become a better journalist, DO NOT COME HERE. Newscenter 25 (KAVU) is where dreams go to die. There is also a bat infestation that shut down the studio for almost a week to clean the air, because talent was getting rashes and irritated throats/eyes.”
News Director: Galean Stewart
“As a first time manager (news director), her inexperience shows in day-to-day decisions regarding news coverage to favoritism showed among staff specifically multimedia journalists. It’s not a good learning environment for journalists looking to grow in their craft. Find another smaller market where management truly cares and will help you be better as a storyteller.”
While working for WDAM this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Entire management staff is inexperienced including the general manager. The GM is more concerned about advertising (keeping account holders happy) than community coverage that counts. Small market turnover is expected especially here, because of managers in the newsroom. Training for staff behind the scenes and in front of the camera is not adequate.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you’re considering employment at the station, find previous employers that will give you insight into the newsroom culture.”
News Director: Jeff Nelson
Experience described as: “Not Good”
While working for WDAY this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Favoritism based on your looks. If your a beautiful female in the news directors eyes then you will get anything you want. If you are just so so, then you are just along for the ride until the end of your contract with no real advancement.
Also news director will pick what type of hair style he likes for you after you start.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Unless you like playing mind games with the station managment then you may want to pick a different station.
Everyone is also hourly not salary, unless you are in managment.”
News Director: Jason Pasco
Experience described as: “Great”
While working for KTVN this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The ND was amazing, but he chose a terrible Executive Producer, Zac. He was mean, awful and was set on making everyone miserable. Multiple people quit in a matter if months because of him. He was so bad that the company sent him to Management Training in Hope’s to fix his behavior, it only made it worse.
Everyone else is great, you can move up quickly if you try. But if Zac doesnt like you- you will get nowhere.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Phillip Ohnemus
While working for KULR this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I was contacted for a newscast producer position. The news director, Mr. Phillip Ohnemus is also on Indeed.com regularly and was not happy that KULR did not win any Emmy awards this year. This news director has insulted entry-level candidates who really want to be a reporter / multi-media journalist (MMJ). Mr. Phillip Ohnemus recently contacted me for a job interview at KULR and said that he doesn’t want any “introverted, awkward, loner, shy, and wallflower people” in his newsroom and in the journalism industry. When I told Mr. Phillip Ohnemus that my true journalism endeavor is to be a multi-media journalist (MMJ), Mr. Phillip Ohnemus said that “newscast producers cannot be a multi-media journalist (MMJ) and will not be successful in this venture at his station.” Mr. Phillip Ohnemus also felt I was not vocal enough to contribute to anything his newsroom and at KULR-8, and that I am just an “awkward, loner, wallflower” person. It is known that it is an “image business,” but do not make entry-level candidates feel discourage that they are “unattractive,” “ugly,” and not “pretty enough.” Mr. Phillip Ohnemus does not truly understand or know how difficult is for any entry-level job candidate to find his or her first television news job at a small market station. KULR-8 and its sister affiliates across the state of Montana, KFBB, KWYB, KTMF, and Cowles Montana Media Company (Cowles Company), must give all entry-level candidates the opportunity to learn all roles in a newsroom regardless of any news positions the candidates is being hired for and to prove the news director (Mr. Phillip Ohnemus), entire news staff, and newsroom management personnel wrong. If an entry-level producer candidate really wants to be an MMJ in an entry-level starter-market station like yours, give them a chance and give them real, truthful and actual help. Do not discourage entry-level candidates telling them that they cannot do anything and cannot be successful in anything, especially in a starter-market station. Help them to be a news reporter / MMJ, especially if newscast producing is not what he or she wants to do for the rest of their entire TV news career. Give entry-level candidates from all walks of life, all backgrounds of life, including candidates with learning differences/learning disabilities, a real chance and a real opportunity to be a multi-media journalist (MMJ). Do not put them down. Help entry-level newscast producers who truly want to be MMJs, be MMJs. There are entry-level newscast producers out there that do not want be a producer for the rest of their life and have no desire for newsroom management. Show all entry-level candidates respect! Give everyone an equal, decent, fighting chance and an opportunity to be an MMJ.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “HAHAHAHAHAHA”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Mike Rausch is a worthless piece of garbage who is so enthused by himself that he fails to see where he comes up short.
The most glaring example is the hiring of Executive Producer Matthew Zelkind, who is a notorious sexual predator, and had been fired for showing pornography to his fellow employees. Gross, bruh.
While I believe new GM Pimentel has made significant improvements, I fail to understand why he continues to employ Rausch, who has single-handedly brought morale at the station to an all-time low. Moreover, Rausch has a history of being an unethical journalist himself, along with some very poor decisions, none more telling than his call to send news drones airborne during a wildfire. Of course, several fire aircraft were forced to ground, which embarrassed KRDO to no end, and resulted in one of our producers getting laid off.
Do not allow yourself to be a prisoner to this place. There is a reason why there are so many people leaving.
As long as Rausch continues to run the show, our ratings will continue to fall lower.
DO NOT WORK HERE.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Mike Rausch is not the legendary newsman that he claims to be. As I have stated, he has a horrible reputation within industry executives, and I have never been so unhappy in this business.
One of our digital employees left recently because of Rausch’s poor treatment of her, which sounds like 99 percent of all the burnout.”
noun
Entry into a building illegally with intent to commit a crime, especially theft.
Ex. “A two-year sentence for burglary.”
News Director: Kimberly Wyatt
Experience described as: “Toxic”
While working for WEAR this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
““The only person I have ever met that knows everything about everything and blames others for her mistakes” meet Sinclair owned WEAR ABC Channel 3 News Director Kimberly Wyatt.
The ND and managers are completely unmotivated and unprofessional, which is why it’s a laughing stock across the market. I warn you, stay away from this place. The most important survival tactic was to get out as soon as I could.
The newsroom has absolutely no guidance and is basically run by an understaffed group of college graduates. This news station is extremely understaffed, nearly a dozen employees have left under Wyatt’s leadership, because everyone is miserable and wants to get out. It is not a place you feel comfortable at and you constantly feel like you are walking on eggshells everyday.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If Wyatt were not there then it would be a great working environment. Long-time anchors Bob Solarski and Sue Straughn were great to me. Bless their hearts with having to deal with such chaos on a daily basis.
I would never recommend this station to anyone. No one cares about you as an employee. The station is severely understaffed. No constructive criticism. You’ll be promised things that will NEVER happen.They hire people with no experience. Quantity over quality.
Why the GM keeps a ND around who belittles and lie to her employees, is a mystery to me. Maybe if she and her little “yes ma’am” minions were gone, the station’s morale would jump dramatically. Maybe, just maybe employees would stay there for more than 2-3 years and gain more viewers than the local newspaper.”
News Director: Emily Adamson
“She was awesome. Balanced demands of management with the needs of the newsroom. She’s a person you want in your corner.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“- Management and corporate oversight are pretty unorganized. There’s a lack of ownership over MT affiliate operations, which is pretty significant issue with how often we relied on each other.
– No discussion of ratings, which doesn’t help provide a drive to compete for a station third in the market.
– Pay is not great.
+ Ending on a positive, the SWX sports brand/channel is an awesome launching point. All reporters interested in sports should not look over this opportunity if they’re concerned about market size.
+ It is a great starter market/station for news/sports.”
News Director: Trent Bailey
“Has absolutely no experience in the industry. He does not know how to take leadership or be a boss.”
While working for WBUP this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I would not recommend this station to anyone. I got hired under another News Director, but unfortunately left because the station does not care about anyone. The News Director they hired worked in Master Control and has no idea what he is doing. If you are looking for a place to grow and learn. DO NOT COME HERE! There is no sales department or HR. The GM does not even live in the area and has no idea what happens at the station. The News Director does not even know what stories you do. Some days he wont even show up. He probably works 4 hours a day. The newsroom has absolutely no guidance and is basically run by a bunch of 23 year olds. Severely understaffed, because everyone is miserable and wants to get out. The creepy engineer lives in the building and showers in the girls bathroom. It is not a place you feel comfortable at and you constantly feel like you are walking on eggshells.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Absolutely no resources and they will never get any. The News Director told us we were basically a tax write off for the owner of the company. You are better off doing a post-grad internship then working here.”
News Director: Lena Sadiwskyj
“The only person I have ever met that knows everything about everything and blames others for her mistakes.”
While working for WTVY this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The News Director talks about others. She makes it her goal to make everyone on staff miserable at all times. If she were not there then it would be a great working environment. The GM and managers were great to me.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Talented on air team and a great production and engineering staff.”
News Director: Trent Bailey
Experience described as: “Miserable”
While working for WBUP this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I would never recommend this station to anyone. No one cares about you as an employee. The station is severely understaffed and underfunded. No constructive criticism. No live capabilities. You’ll be promised things that will never happen. They hire people with no experience. Quantity over quality.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t work here.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
“Painful! He’s beyond arrogant, a narcissistic jerk who wants to push his political ideology rather than facts. A horrible tyrant to work for.”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Rausch needs to be replaced. As good as the new GM is, I’m surprised and highly disappointed that Rausch is still employed there. He is an arrogant, self-serving jerk whose hobbies are to make the lives of everyone under his supervision cow-tow to his extreme alt-right philosophies and if you don’t tow the line, he’ll make your life miserable!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“There are some great people working at this station. The new GM is miles better than the previous one and is trying hard to make a difference. Why he keeps a ND around who belittles and berates his employees, is a mystery. If the ND and his little “yes men” minions were gone, the station’s morale would jump 10 points.”
News Director: Jacob “Jake” Taylor
“He starts out being super kind and nice, but later turns into a real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He can be nice and funny, then turn into demanding and harsh, within a minute. You never knew what you would get. It would be very confusing and stressful.”
While working for KIMA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I was discriminated with having a learning disability. Jake would tell me all the time I was slow, not going fast enough or not making enough progress. I always felt so targeted.
With my hours, I rarely could get my errands done outside of work. I was told to take sick days as needed and was later criticized for that.
Jake wouldn’t be hard on reporters if they were late on things, but I’d face the brunt of it if the shows didn’t go perfect or things never came in.
The reporters were mostly easy to deal with but they would get overwhelmed easily if if they had to do a PKG, and multiple VOSOT’s a day.
Daniel the director was mean and very grouchy. He would make jokes and snarl if the reporters were late, the rest of the Production people were very hypocritical and get angry at me easily.
Jake would let them tell me too many things at once they wanted the reporters to hear but not tell them themselves.
I felt like people were gossiping against me.
I felt like I never truly fit in and I barely heard from anybody at KIMA after I left, in comparison the KEPR people were the ones who cared.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“We were a dominant number one, beating the competition combined. I was always proud of the shows that were put together. As the only producer in Yakima, I felt like I did too much with too little help.
It didn’t help that we could barely get news if someone was off, we were fine at full staff and had a much harder time if people were off.
If you want to report at KIMA, expect to turn a PKG and up to two VOSOT’s a day on Dayside. A PKG and sometimes a VOSOT night-side. Plus a PKG, VOSOT and maybe a VO weekends. As for mornings it varies, but live shots and a mini-pkg or VOSOT or VO for later.
We had half our staff here and half in Tri-Cities. Mornings are Tri-Cities anchored and weather. but have a Yakima reporter. 5 & 6 are all local. 11pm weeknights is partially local, but anchored, and produced out of Tri-Cities with a Yakima reporter. Weekends are all anchored, and produced along with sports in the Tri Cities but there is a weekend Yakima reporter. Sports is Yakima based Mon-Fri but weekends are Tri-Cities.
As for producing, it’s all the stuff you’re used to but a lot of struggling on your own. Jake would help sometimes but not always. Jake is ND/Anchor and would often ad-lib scripts and sometimes fumble. We also had no local weather (pre-taped) and had to write weather tosses and that would be hard if the weather was boring. The KEPR weather people were a delight and super helpful though.
Unless a reporter volunteers to shoot your live shot you will ALWAYS be a MMJ, there are zero photogs.
Reporters rarely fill-in anchored and never knew how to write scripts to anchor. So I would have to Produce and fill-in as ND those days. There was zero training for reporters to be ready to anchor.
On the good days I loved my job and on the bad days I cried. I was proud of the content and almost always being first. I hated the Sinclair must runs 99% of the time.
The staff at KEPR are a real delight. Easy to deal with and so kind.
Get to know Bill and Kevin and you won’t regret it. Bill knows everything and tells great stories. Kevin is kind and funny and a great fill-in director.
It isn’t the worst newsroom I’ve been in but I am happy to be gone. I ended up in the hospital because of the job and management didn’t care.
The Station Manager is a hypocrite, he’s nice unless somebody lies and he takes their side.
I rarely got praise, a lot of criticism instead. I felt like I put in so much work and hours. My shows had strong and unique content.
I wasn’t allowed to talk to the reporters to ask what went wrong in a newscast. I was number two in command but felt like I treated like a three year old.
I would say go to KIMA for the first job only if you have the thickest skin. It’s a tough newsroom and you will get burned out at times.
As for Yakima. rent is very expansive overall especially if you want to live the West Valley, which is the safest and most convenient but also far away from the station. It’s much harder to get an apartment in Terrace Heights near the station. Yakima has great shopping and food, but zero nightlife.
Make sure you make it to the Tri-Cities to meet the KEPR staff. Seattle and Portland aren’t super far and great to visit the if the weather is good.
If you can get past Jake’s split personalities, KIMA might be for you, he has decent news judgment and most of the days you’ll get to cover what you want.
Sinclair is decent to work for minus the political BS and you get good health, dental and vision insurance after less then 90 days.
KIMA is a decent station, run by idiots who don’t understand that staffers are human and that this is a starter market. If you are a reporter at KIMA, you’ll probably be fine. If you are the only Yakima producer, good luck, you’ll probably need it.
Have fun if the backpacks fail, the live shots die because they aren’t being monitored as much as they should.
I miss news sometimes, but not the stress and unnecessary drama KIMA had before I left.
With KIMA I say, may the odds be ever in your favor.”
News Director: Mike Mickle
Experience described as: “Doesn’t make decisions, blames others for his mistakes, very egotistical”
While working for WHBF this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The entire group of managers and the station owner are completely unmotivated and unprofessional. Everyone seems to do the minimum required of any task, which is why it’s a laughing stock across the market.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This has to be one of the worst stations for which to work in the entire country.”
News Director: Kelly Boan
Experience described as: “Positive and affirming”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“Even though FOX Carolina is usually last in the market on air, the station shines in digital. Crews often break stories first AND accurately, and the web team is often lauded by competitors for going the extra mile. The station can admittedly play off to a more conservative appeal with “FOX” branding on Facebook (given how more conservative people on Facebook do follow anything with “Fox” and “News” in the same sentence), but nonetheless digital is tops in the market and also within the company. Going back to on-air struggles, the station is still the relative new kid on the block, with an editorial department that wasn’t even started until the early 1990s, with a lack of legacy viewers that the NBC competitor, WYFF has. However, that’s changing as WHNS dominates in digital and reaches older viewers on Facebook.
The web team has plenty of tools at their disposal to win the day online, and it helps that corporate switched the websites over to a new, more efficient platform. Live streams to the website/app and to Facebook or YouTube are a specialty. The web team does have to sell their souls a bit when they have to make aimless Canva “Facebook polls” or when they share videos from other digital outlets, but they just get it done, get it done well, and get back to doing news.
Working with field crews is easy, and having company cell phones certainly helps, a thing some station groups outright refuse to offer. Based on my interactions with colleagues who specifically go into the field, the crew usually has all they need to accomplish tasks. Some equipment is older, but we can likely turn the stink-eye to Meredith for this. Newer, more powerful laptops would be a welcome change. One good note is that MMJs are almost always paired with a photog for live hits, and more experienced photogs really help turn a PKG in a creative direction. The station also employs video editors for morning, nightside, and weekends, so VOSOTs, affiliate video, and digital requests are all handled by them while photogs and reporters/MMJs focus on the main stories. Additionally, seasoned pros who have worked at the station a while are always chomping at the bit to teach new tricks and try them as well, and plenty of young guns are looking for that.
Local management is easy to get along with, and it’s easy to find a solution when there is an impasse. However, as the digital leader, expect an onslaught of emails when major breaking news or severe weather hits. It can be annoying, but coming from a station where literally nobody seemed to give an honest care it’s easy to forgive. Management also appreciates that you have social lives outside of the newsroom and are happy to accommodate almost all reasonable time off requests. They also encourage community involvement, and there are folks in the newsroom who give time to local non-profits.
The main concern for this station is the fact that Meredith is one of the smaller station groups in the country, with only 15 stations in their portfolio. I would urge Meredith execs to look at stations soon to be up for sale in other markets, as not going forward with a Cox acquisition was an honest mistake. We could have figured out WGCL and WSB in Atlanta easily, and acquiring Cox stations would have meant more sisters across the country, including in nearby Charlotte and on the coast of Charleston that could act as a natural funnel for upward-moving talent, not to mention an easier regional news connection than trying to hold together informal agreements with now Gray TV stations. Additionally, the studio is a bit outdated, although the introduction of the “Big Ass Monitor” is a welcome update for better studio shots. The newsroom shot is a very nice one, but some better lighting might be in order for reporters with darker skin tones.
Is WHNS a perfect newsroom? Of course not. But is it a good place to work? Yes it is, and you will learn a lot no matter what your job is. It’s very easy to get along with most staff, and the weekend crew is notably tight-knit and can pull off even the most pressing breaking news situations without needing to call in the cavalry. Coming here is an absolute improvement over the last gig, and I’m looking forward to more adventures with this team.”
News Director: Bob Newman
Experience described as: “Miserable”
While working for Spectrum (Central NC) this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“If you want to be on air with people who produce sub-standard work with no consequence, this station is for you. If you want to have inadequate editing software, have at it. You won’t get a laptop either.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Everyone there is miserable. No one even watches. Don’t do it.”
News Director: Jim Newman
“Avoid this place like the plague. If you like to Enterprise, investigate, do active live shots or breaking news, THIS IS NOT THE PLACE FOR”
While working for Spectrum (Central NC) this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Chad Cross
“Nice guy who’s competent. Very mellow, doesn’t scream at people, and has good news judgment”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“There’s good storytelling at KXAN and the reporters, producers, and anchors are very easy to work with. Just a few complaints. The pay is unimpressive for a Top 40 market (to be fair, I think all the Austin stations pay poorly), producer contracts are too long, scheduling is a mess, the assignments desk can at times be unorganized, and the station hates to promote from within.”
News Director: George Davilas
“Has no reall news background just entertainment”
While working for KPNX this person experienced:
“This place has lost at least 10 photographers in over a year. People are not happy and don’t like the direction this station is going in. Forcing photographers to write more. They can’t find experience photographers they are willing to pay them, let alone, mislead them when brought in for an interview.
They hired a new chief photographer who was a news director in two small markets in Texas and Idaho who does not know how to run a live truck and had to call a photographer for help. Not a person who can lead a staff of photographers know for storytelling and will have a hard time earning their respect.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Open to Creative Control
News Director: Rick Jacobs
Experience described as: “Inconsequential”
While working for KGW this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Not worth it, things are about to change. Rick is retiring.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The best move this station made was appointing John Tierney interim ND. He’s smart, sexy, and has got the goods to take this station forward! All hail Tierney! The bearded, obsequious one is movin’ on up!!!”
News Director: Lane Kimble
Experience described as: “Super positive, let’s you pursue the stories you pitch most of the time and you learn A TON”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This station is truly an amazing place to learn. I got a chance to report, produce, and anchor during my time here. They truly let you pursue the stories you want which is great. They’ll never turn down a live shot either! The Northwoods of Wisconsin is pretty rural, but there are stories in this market you won’t be able to cover anywhere else. It’s a great station for people starting their careers who want to become strong, creative storytellers.”
News Director: Lane Kimble
“Excellent mentor, learned a lot from him. Can’t remember him ever saying no to a story pitch and is willing to let you grow in whatever way you’re interested in. (Want to anchor more or do more live shots? Ask Lane and he’ll probably say yes.) He’s a great person to start your career under.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Open to Creative Control, Positive Fun
Additional comments:
“This is a fantastic place for broadcasters right out of college to get their start in. The newsroom culture is supportive, creative and collaborative. You’ll learn a ton here and be well-prepared to move on to your next job after two years.”
News Director: Kay Norred
“This lady is whacked.”
While working for WFXR this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Every single news manager at this station is an incompetent moron and corporate knows it, too. The best part? They don’t care. The GM, Arika Zink, should’ve been fired YEARS AGO! In fact, she’s not at all qualified to be a leader or manager of anything. The News Director, Kay Norred, causes all kinds of drama. She talks about her employees behind their backs to other employees and is very vindictive. If you’re not loyal to her – watch out! Oh, she’ll also hold grudges against you if you’re sick and have to call into work. She’ll also call and harass you and say you don’t sound sick and won’t talk to you once you do return to work. It’s very childish behavior. Plus, she and the chief meteorologist are having relations outside the office. Corporate knows about that, too. But again, they don’t care. It’s disgusting and overall, an unprofessional place to work. Also, this place breeds incompetence and things go wrong everyday. You’ll never get ahead here because you’re constantly worrying about what kind of drama you’ll be dealing with for the day. There’s never a plan for the newscast because managers never know how to plan for the day. And if there is a plan, it’s never executed well. This station is full of amateurs. Plus, there’s only a morning show and 10pm. Its been operating for 3.5 years and the GM will continue promising midday and afternoon shows but don’t let her fool you… it’ll never happen. My co-workers were wonderful and we tried our hardest to put on a great show every night but management constantly got in our way. Management never helped us achieve anything. Worst leadership I’ve ever encountered. Oh, and the station is DEAD LAST in the market. I loved my coworkers when I was here but management will make your life a living hell. And to top it all off, this is a Nexstar station so don’t expect half decent compensation. They won’t pay you half of what you’re worth. DO NOT COME HERE. PERIOD.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“DO NOT COME HERE!! UNEMPLOYMENT IS BETTER.”
News Director: Zoltan Csanyi-Salcedo
While working for KGBT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“This place is nothing but a shit show. Management needs to change especially the General Manager. She is nothing but a drama seeker, if you are a favorite then you can get away with murder. The former news director wasn’t any better. He would get after anyone who did their job accordingly but the ones who always mess up or can’t even do their job will always get praised. They hire unqualified people for jobs. The station it self is being ruled by a 20 year old immature child who is a director who is only a high school graduate with no news/production experience at a. All she does is call in sick every week and tries to get people in trouble with the assistant news director and the general manager. Good people who worked here were treated like crap but good for them for leaving to bigger and better stations.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This place isn’t worth working for. No one likes working here, don’t expect to bring in any ideas because they won’t care for it. They do basic boring shows with no attention to detail on anything. You are better off going to the competitor station. I wouldn’t want anyone to work for this station at all, unless you wanna be bossed around by a child, have a disorganized and chaotic news room. If you wanna be lazy and get away with that kinda work then this station is for you. If you actually want to advance in your career and have management and co workers who care then don’t come here.”
News Director: Dan Delgado
Experience described as: “Toxic, immoral, lack of basic human rights”
While working for KCAU this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“An all-star african-american camera operator was fired because he was “late 15 minutes on the morning show twice in the last two months” after receiving no warnings. This was after nearly every other staff member was constantly late, and got numerous warnings. No warnings or markups on the employees record, yet he was fired the week after the second african-american worker was hired, so they could still mark the box for having a ‘diverse workplace’.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This is an overall toxic station. I started at 26,000 as a reporter and a weekend meteorologist. Dan Delgado came into the station as the new News Director after the previous News Director was fired for passing out drunk in front of the local movie theater. Dan proceeded to push his authoritarian style, and our main anchor, chief meteorologist, and sports director all left within a manner of months of him joining the staff. I wish I joined them at the time, because I was then promoted to morning meteorologist, after covering for the chief for two months. After being promoted, there was absolutely no change in my pay, and I continued to work on the mornings for the next 7 months. Dan would continue to call me and other workers that he did not like into his office consistently, and I was threatened to be fired (although there were no alternative options for him) constantly. It got so bad, that people I worked with started counting the amount of times we would be threatened to be fired in a week, and it completely lost all of it’s scary-factor after the first three times or so. This place is a joke, and only a handful of people I have worked with there have actually completed their contracts. It was standard at KCAU to break your contract early because of all of the illegal activities and immoral actions that were used behind the scenes. The station has been severely understaffed since I arrived there, and it only got worse in my two years of working there. When I attempted to contact our local HR rep about illegal activities, she doesn’t take action other than immediately telling the ND what you said, which leads to further unfair treatment. Corporate HR is no better, as I sent dozens of emails and voicemails to them over my time there, to no response. Since I have left, I have also received screenshots showing KCAU slandering my name in facebook messages to viewers. On top of all of this, there is nothing to do in Sioux City. It is an industrial area with nothing but factories, and surrounding the main city, there is only farmland for as far as the eye can see. It’s a great city if all you eat is fast food. If you can avoid working for KCAU, I would highly suggest it, as you will only find yourself wanting out after a few months of being berated constantly, even if great work was the consistent output.”
News Director: Frank Jones
Experience described as: “Great! Provides useful constructive feedback. Very straightforward. Sets expectations but is understanding of employee’s personal lives.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“It’s a dream station. I’ve wanted to work at a station like this since I started my career. Management has high expectations but is very fair and good at giving constructive feedback. They want you to grow and be successful. They’re understanding of the importance of work-life balance. We are #1 in the ratings in most time slots. Richmond is a great place to live too.”
News Director: Curtis Hancock
Experience described as: “Good! Very supportive and involved. Sets you up to succeed.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Positive, Fun
News Director: Victoria Spechko
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Positive, Fun
News Director: Warren Korff
While working for WEVV this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Rick Jacobs
Experience described as: “He’s a jerk.”
While working for KGW this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“It’s just time for him to go. I hear talks about possible lawsuits against the ND all the time. The ND is abusive. If you’re caught talking bad about him, he’ll go nuts and try to find a way to fire you. It’s hard to follow what he wants. He changes his mind every day. He blames others for his own lack of vision. He blames others for poor leadership all the time. He should look at himself in the mirror.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“It used to be a great shop. It’s slowly burning to the ground under manic, horrible leadership.”
News Director: Chad Mahoney
Experience described as: “Terrible, Stressful, Overall Awful”
While working for WGEM this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I would avoid working for Chad Mahoney at all costs. My experience working for WGEM was not good at all. It seems like some of the management would bully reports for the smallest mistakes. While I was there, the anchors were rude and would talk badly about reporters and you could hear them through IFB. Just an overall toxic place to work and Chad Mahoney would do nothing to help. He would yell at you in front of other employees. He would also get mad if you came in early to look for stories for the morning meeting. Just avoid this place like the plague. Also not a great place for Minorities in my opinion.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Avoid this place like your life depends on it.”
News Director: Eric Walters
“He was Good to Work with!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“It was a Fun place for me to work. I really enjoyed it and learned a few new things. If you are starting out as a first time MMJ you will need to adjust to it. Working at night sometimes by yourself is not fun but if you feel unsafe and explain that to the News Director he will work with you on this. Some people have recently left Wbtw and gave this station a Toxic workplace. These employees were lazy and Toxic themselves who complained about everyone and everything. If you put forth your best effort, you will be rewarded with a possible promotion but if you don’t get one, you will definitely be better off for the next job that comes your way!”
News Director: Mike Rausch
“Mike has good journalistic instincts and can be a mentor if he had the time”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“It is absolutely incredible that the station hired a sexual predator like Zelkind, the guy is revolting. He is completely inappropriate. In fact he has a history of sexual harassment in his prior station, he was fired for it. He must have someone higher up that is protecting him, since he does not even know or can’t do his job as executive producer job.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Until Zelkind is there, it will not be a good work environment, it will remain toxic.”
News Director: Anthony Knopps
While working for WTOL this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Physically impossible tasks expected at same time. Crew communication problems never resolved. Discouraging environment for proposing solutions or correcting production mistakes. Inaccurate, incomplete and rude job orientation or direction. Producer mistakes blamed graphic operator on a daily basis. Working off the clock generally expected on a daily basis, break time typically not allowed.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Recently purchased and now hiring an entire shift”
News Director: Jay Quaintance
“It is sincerely unfortunate how terrible it is to work for Jay Quaintance. He has twice given two people 48 hours to begin doing a job they’ve never done or have any desire to do, or they’re fired. He doesn’t know how to talk to people. He cannot make eye contact with anyone. He will destroy everything about your show, without offering any way of improving before or after, all while he looks at everything but you. I know its not that important to like everyone you work with or for, but I don’t know anyone at JHL who DOESN’T HATE HIM. Oh and the schedule comes out in one week at a time, on Friday’s which is an improvement from Sunday. But another person had to complain to get him to send the schedules out on Friday.”
While working for WJHL this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I regret signing a contract EVERY SINGLE DAY.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
“Mike is OK, but the Executive Producer M Zelkind is a nightmare. I am tired of Zelkind tooting his horn…about nothing. he is totally incompetent”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Zelkind stirs things up, blows everything out of proportion. He should learn his job before he tries to tell others what to do…what a joke!!!!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t work for Zelkind. Mike is alright but can’t understand why he keeps an incompetent Executive Producer.”
News Director: Phillip Ohnemus
While working for KULR this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Cowles HR department is disgusting and unprofessional- victim-blaming and no regard for safety of staff”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“will make you work overtime with no pay. DO NOT WORK FOR COWLES”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This station is last in the ratings for a reason. They have two reporters at most working there and care more about sales and money than the well-being of its employees. They pay men much more than women despite us doing the same if not more amount of work. No overtime and no comp days. I was also making at least $8,000 less than the other sports reporters in the market who had far less experience than me. When I asked for a raise, they said they didn’t have the money and that I should be lucky to even still have a job.”
News Director: Scott Atkinson
“The News Director has a good sense of humor and you can learn a lot from his news experience. Very helpful with improving your writing skills.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This is a great starter station for people getting into a television news career. Management has decades of experience and, while sometimes personalities clash, it’s an overall good experience if you’re hard-working and willing to learn. Since most of the reporters that come in are straight out of college, it’s easy to become friends/get along with co-workers.”
News Director: Adam Plyler
Experience described as: “Extremely beneficial and rewarding”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational
Additional comments:
“WDTV recently underwent new leadership in the newsroom. So far, Adam has helped reporters, anchors, and producers learn strategies that have contributed to our overall success. Adam treats his staff like he’s a coach versus a manager, which has made people more willing to learn. There are still some of the challenges that naturally come with a small market station, such as being in a rural area, occasional technical problems, down to the second deadlines, and difficulty finding stories on some days, but everyone works together to help one another. This is a great market for a recent college graduate, especially as a reporter. You will be in a community that treats you like you’ve been there for years. Some of those challenges that come with being in a small market actually help you in the long run and you’ll learn how to navigate through different obstacles that come your way. You will also learn crucial techniques that will likely be expected of you at the next job you take.”
News Director: Morgan Schaab
Experience described as: “She’s fine”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“To those who keep trashing the other departments, remember – “those in glass houses…”
My experience is everyone works hard. No one person “practically runs the station.” Morgan’s great but she tends to be pals with everyone and when you do that it’s hard to lead.”
News Director: Jess Laszewski
Experience described as: “Uninspiring”
While working for WJCL this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Male managers often make jokes to young female MMJ’s that are inappropriate. Masochistic attitudes from the stiff male managers bring down the female empowerment vibe given by the news director. It’s a newsroom filled with ONLY female MMJ’s. There are two male anchors on the whole news team.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“A beautiful state of the art station filled with toxic managers that are petty, unprofessional, and discouraging to new reporters. An overall blatant lack of organization from management. Any outsider can see that they do not know how to make decisions quickly, or decisions that best benefit the newsroom and individual staff. Often times flying by the seat of their pants and have no plan. This alone leaves the newsroom constantly trying to catch up to competition.
Only anchors with experience get to work with photographers. They are the only ones that get to do hold pieces. There are only 4 photographers. 1 for mornings, 2 during the day 4 days a week, and one for nights but he often shoots sports. Thankfully, the ND doesn’t support solo liveshots. But you saw the numbers, you will hardly get a live shot.
ND is nice and has a vision. Not a bad ND, but has managers that are disrespectful to a lot of the young MMJ’s and producers. It is really frustrating to see sometimes, and have happen to you. I just wonder how the ND doesn’t notice or take action. If you speak up about something, you run the risk of managers treating you worse like they have to people in the past. Those people went on to better jobs in the long run.
A lot of new staff hired on fresh out of college. Would recommend this as a second job unless you genuinely care about news, urgency, and taking criticism to get better. Otherwise, you will flop like some have.
The station and set are pretty, but be ready to deal with a lot of ugliness from managers. They kill the aura in the newsroom. Too bad because there is a lot of hard working talented journalist at WMTV.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Just imagine a gorilla sitting on a baby. Crappy”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“When I first joined KRDO, I was at the happiest point in my life.
About two weeks in, I was ready to commit seppuku.
I never felt welcome at KRDO. I am not talking about my co-workers necessarily. Those guys were great. It’s really the management. News meetings are honestly a waste of time. You sit at 9 am and listen to Mike Rausch talk about himself for half an hour. Meanwhile, valuable time is wasted, with not a lot of production.
Personally, I skipped a lot of the meetings because I simply can’t waste 30 minutes when I am on a tight deadline.
Talk about how cool you are some other time. We have work to do.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I will say that we were open to creative control to an extent, but not very much.
Mike runs a tight ship and undercuts his staff. He will go behind his employees’ back to undermine their decisions.
Rausch has a history of violating journalistic principle. He even hired a new Executive Producer who was fired from his previous job for being a sexual pervert. Moreover, Rausch waited several months to add his name onto the website to avoid backlash.
While KRDO has tremendous employees and is somewhat open to creative control, this is not a good place to work.
Mike has single handedly ruined the legacy of this station. Pikes Peak Television needs to get rid of its village idiot.”
News Director: Morgan Schaab
Experience described as: “Hard working, passionate, fun”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Love this station. Love the newsroom. I feel though the newsroom has their shit together but other departments and management are ten steps behind. Morgan practically runs the station and works hard to make sure the other departments negative leadership don’t affect her newsroom.”
News Director: Kevin King
“Kevin King is an extremely disorganized news director who plays favorites in his newsroom. You can be a hard worker and a great storyteller and it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t like you.”
While working for KSFY this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“This place is a complete dumpster fire. There were several people making the work environment poor who recently left, but it starts with management.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Do not work for this station. You might enticed by the number of open positions, but that’s because people are jumping ship.
The news director, GM and assistant news director all play favorites and if you’re not their favorite, don’t expect to be treated fairly. When people in the newsroom who are their favorites feel threatened by you, you can expect to pay the price.
This newsroom is incredibly disorganized and understaffed. Don’t be fooled by a brand new shiny building and new gear, the managers don’t care about you or your safety.
If you voice concerns or suggestions, they act like you’re being dramatic. You will rarely work with a photographer since there are only four for the entire station and you can expect to shoot your own liveshots.
Jim Berman and Kevin King will bill this place as a great place to work and live, and that they’ll help you grow and learn as a reporter, but unless you’re embarrassing them on air, they stop giving you feedback after about six months — unless you’re gossiping in the newsroom, call out sick a few times or you’re a couple minutes late to work. Then you’ll hear about it. Favorites in the newsroom can get away with murder — showing up late, speaking badly about others, taking hours-long dinner breaks because they feel they’re “owed” that by the company — and will never be reprimanded —but you will.
If you suffer any sort of mental health issue whatsoever, depression, anxiety, ADHD, etc. don’t work here because they will not care or respect your needs at all.
Also, they pay peanuts and will hound you for overtime, even during sweeps and football season. If you want to do something special that requires travel, you better hope they’re feeling generous, because they will always send salaried employees first.”
News Director: N/A
While working for KAAL this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management claims to have an open door policy, but when you bring forth an issue they dismiss it and you as a “complainer.” With new management, this place could improve drastically.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The station is in a state of disarray and has been for as long as I’ve worked here. The News Director was shown the door in December (which was hardly a loss), but months later no replacement has even been interviewed. We’re missing an assignment editor, sports director, reporter and digital marketing/web person. When people do come in, they’re usually the ones the other stations have passed up and it shows. Management (especially the former ND) constantly berated the people doing the most work and busting their butts for the station while rewarding those who copied/pasted the rundowns for their newscasts or never came to the table with story pitches. The station is owned by Hubbard, but despite their deep pockets everything is run on the cheap. We had to bring our own food to our company holiday party!
Overall, a good place to learn if you are lazy and incompetent, but if you have any drive or intuition, you’re better served staying far, far away.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Terrible”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“This is probably one of the most unprofessional newsrooms I have ever worked with. Employees are great, but Mike Rausch is a fool, and not to be trusted.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Our new Executive Producer was fired from his previous job as News Director of WKRN for abusing his employees and showing them pornography on station computers.”
News Director: Rick Jacobs
“He’s a duplicitous jerk”
While working for KGW this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“No one can trust the ND. He’s a jerk who changes his mind all the time and you can’t trust him. He’s nice to you one moment but turns on you the next. He isn’t genuine and you can’t trust what comes out of his mouth. He’s a phony. This used to be a great place to work. Not anymore.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Some love it here. Most are afraid and won’t say anything. Boss plays favorites and talks down to people. He isn’t a visionary. He’s a hack. Why is he still here?”
News Director: Ashley Hall
“Condescending, unrealistic, takes the fun out of the job completely”
While working for KDRV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The ND doesn’t care about the safety or wellbeing of her employees. Works against us, not with us.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Not a single person here likes the management. ND will lie and say anything/promise to get you in the door and working here. Don’t do it.”
News Director: Morgan Schaab
Experience described as: “Good”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I’m not sure why no one has mentioned this, so I will. This is a sales driven station. The douchebag in charge of sales wants to be the General Manager will do everything he can to get the job. I don’t know this for a fact but I believe that’s a big reason we’ve lost a couple News Directors. One was great and the other wasn’t so good. Morgan is good, too. The GSM doesn’t care about journalistic ethics. He’d sell it if he could. He marches hus clients on every chance he gets. It’s a good place to learn and the news guys are solid. But the GSM needs to be held in check. Just IMHO.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The new Executive Producer at KRDO, Matthew Zelkind, was fired from WKRN in Nashville for abusive management practices and for showing pornography to station employees.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This is the best KRDO can do?? The fact that KRDO didn’t do a proper background investigation on Mr. Zelkind before his hiring shows how desperate they were to hire someone. Very unprofessional and absolutely disgusting!”
News Director: John Dearing
“Smart news guy but pretty aloof and not very caring. Reporters don’t always feel heard.”
While working for WBOC this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Reporters were never heard, morale was low, I was asked to do some questionable things as a reporter there. A couple of them even bordered on unethical. They like you to know you’re their lackey and it’s very difficult to manage up here. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing station for a small market, but they’re very very very full of themselves as news managers as a result.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
News Director: Mitch Davis
“Terrifying. I have thick skin and he cut through it. He treats main anchors well but reporters are expendable. You’ll never get even close to a set schedule & that includes your days off & what shifts you work. Plus, you get your schedule a week out so forget about making plans. That’s just one example about how he could care less that you’re a human being and that your life isn’t working 24/7. Also, if you are looking for someone who will give you feedback and help you grow, forget it. He just tears you down. Save yourself the mental breakdowns that all reporters have under him.”
While working for WKBN this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“He truly creates drama within the news room. He pitts people against each other and creates fights and hatred. People who’ve worked there for 30 years say this is the lowest they’ve ever seen morale.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Greg Shepperd
Experience described as: “Terrible.”
While working for KOAT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“How many times can the previous complaints be echoed. It seems like Hearst doesn’t seem to care.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you’re looking for a station where you’re over worked, unhappy, and want bosses who enjoy seeing you hate life, then come on down! You’re the next contestant on KOAT.
Grand Prize is making it the length of your contract without quitting because of the toxicity that is Greg Shepperd.”
News Director: Kelly Frank
“Micromanaged to the point you can’t be creative or successful.”
While working for WTSP this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Only men are hired as managers by the ND. Created an environment where the “me” is more important than the “we”. Anyone who is there prior to the new management is thought to be incompetent.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“They hire young and inexperienced so then everyone has to be micromanaged instead of allowing veteran journalists set the tone for expectations.”
News Director: Dan Delgado
While applying to work for KCAU this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The current news director and their assistant news director (Andrew “Andy” Bottger) accused me, a job seeker of declining an entry-level news producer position due to financial compensation in November 2017 under the former news director at KCAU. Yes, I did applied for a news producer position and given a first-round interview in November 2017, but there was actually no verbal offer or written offer at all. I did not receive anything from KCAU at all and Andy neither interviewed me for the position nor the former news director never mentioned that Andy was present in the interview. The former news director said that he does not allow entry-level producers to be television news reporters saying “I don’t think it will happen” when informing him of my career aspirations, that he was still interviewing other candidates, and will get back to other candidates for the next step in the hiring process. I sent the station in November 2017 a follow-up/thank you note for the phone interview and heard nothing from them. Even on the previous incarnation of the Nexstar career’s website, the job status was “application received” or “applied” and the job status never changed on the website.
Dan and Andy simply gang up on me and told me you cannot apply and be consider for any news jobs, including another news producer position I recently applied to at KCAU because of something that never even happened. It is already significantly very difficult for job seekers and college graduates like myself to find employment in this industry. KCAU could still try to deny me from applying for other television news jobs at other Nexstar local network station affiliates. Sioux City, IA and Siouxland would have been a nice place to live, but not at KCAU.
For job seekers applying to KCAU or any other starter market station (or even a medium or large market station), do your research, keep all correspondences of the conversations you had with news directors, assistant news directors, executive producers, and all newsroom management personnel, get everything in writing, especially job offers and defend yourself if you come across a television news station falsely accusing you, the job seeker of something that you never did and/or never even happened.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Jesse Fray
“He’s a nice guy who cared most of the time for what the reporters went through. He was reporter in the past, so he really pushes the reporters to be the best they can. He was new to being a news director and it showed when he first started, but towards the end of my time he became better. I liked how he scheduled meetings with each employee to talk about anything.”
While working for KSNT/KTKA/KTMJ this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I’m sure many people will say working in a small town with nothing to do is toxic. Some of the employees didn’t have lives and cared what what happening in yours instead. The company is through Nexstar and that company is just a headache just thinking about it. They require on air talent to do too much volunteering during their free time.
The workload increased once we became Nexstar. It was PKG, 2 VOSOTs over that PKG and a separate VOSOT different from that story which could be an hour or more out of the way.
I’ll say I signed with Media General when they were a thing. Nexstar paid the employees about 21 to $23,000. So a couple thousand less than older reporters on a different contract.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“You’ll learn more than you ever expected. That’s the best part. Yes, you’ll be miserable living in Topeka and you may even want to quit like several other reporters did I worked with back then, but looking back it was all worth it.
Would I recommend: yikes…idk. Yes, but I wouldn’t put myself through that again even if someone paid me $1M an hour.”
News Director: Janet Hundley
“She just started a few months ago. Rachel Bonilla is the AND. Janet is fabulous so far! She has great ideas and is much more focused on creativity and growth. Rachel’s only priority is weather. She’s a pleasant person but she has favorites and isn’t afraid to show it. I’ve heard she might be on the way out, but if she’s still there, I wouldn’t apply unless you have a weather focus.”
While working for WVIT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The management team, specifically the AND and Managing Editor are completely dysfunctional. There is almost zero communication with staff on major issues. We’ve had several people go on maternity leave over the last few months and their replacements weren’t told until days before. Producers are salaries and not given overtime, but consistently forced to work 10-12 hour days with no compensation. Reporters are often asked to stay late and cover other shows but they are unionised and paid hourly. Serious advice: if you do not have a weather focus, *do not* apply. You will not be happy. Very little enterprise reporting done here, stories are basically weather related, minor “breaking news” (ie. car crash, small fire) or a copy of what the competition or local paper did a few days ago. New ideas or suggestions are generally shot down. Assignment desk (managing editor) and AND make *all* of the story decisions, reporters don’t pitch and are discouraged from weighing in, they just show up and are assigned a story. Please be cautious accepting a job here. The only reason it’s worth it is because it’s an O&O and typically pays more than the competition.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“There’s a reason this station suffers in the ratings and is constantly understaffed.”
News Director: Lisa Chavez
“She’s a web aficionado Made news director. Web is thriving while TV is floundering. She’s indecisive and plays favorites. Unless you’re from Idaho or planning on living in Idaho forever, you will be ostracized from the inner sanctum.”
While working for KTVB this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management hangs in a clique because they’ve been working with each other for 20 years. So, unless you’re in their in-crowd, you won’t get the good stories, or access to station resources. Retaliation is also common in this newsroom for personal issues.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Again, unless you plan on staying. Boise forever, it’s not worth uprooting your life. There is better experience elsewhere.”
News Director: Ashley Talley
Experience described as: “Constructive, educational”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“I was surprised to read the other review about this station. I believe Ashley is a great leader and she’s very open to feedback from her staff. This is the perfect market if it’s your first stop and you’re looking to get your foot in the door. It’s also a great opportunity to grow as a leader in a newsroom if you’re looking to get into management. You’re encouraged to be creative and try new things no matter what position you’re in. There are a lot of people who come in with a two year contract and end up signing extensions, which wouldn’t happen if it was toxic. Ashley’s also helpful if you want to move on to a bigger market. She seems to want what’s best for her employees. I don’t know who wrote that other review, but I don’t think it was accurate at all.”
News Director: Morgan Schaab
Experience described as: “Good, was better under Vogel”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“I love this station, but Aaron Vogel turned this shop around! He is the best thing that’s happened to WAND!”
News Director: Callie Starnes
“Great News Judgement, little tempermental. There is a method to her choices and she is great at managing talent.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“This station, is organized chaos. Not in a bad way, but there is always room for improvement. This station will break you down, and build you back up again even stronger. Although at times this newsroom can be messy, it’s one of the best newsrooms I have seen in a while. The news director is great at managing and cultivating talent if she takes an interest in you. Although you do have to stay on her, about critiques. She is harsh, but for her to be so young, she is wiser beyond her years. Stand your ground in petty squabbles and you’ll do fine here. It’s not a place for newcomers, you definitely need experience, but people at this station jump high and for good reason. Great newsroom to work and grow as a reporter. Plenty of opportunities to succeed and grow, you just have to earn it.”
News Director: Andy Paras
“Really great. Andy is a great leader to the newsroom. He takes on a sort of fatherly figure (NOT in a weird way). He is so supportive of what we want to cover and really listens to us. I’ve grown a lot in my year here with his support and critiques.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“I’m so glad that I chose WGFL as my first job. It is a really positive work environment where all of the reporters support, critique and volunteer to help each other. We are owned by Sinclair, but since we are small, they don’t really try to control us. But also what comes with that is lack of money. The equipment isn’t that great, but we find ways to make it work. Andy is always a great advocate for us to higher management and to tries to better our opportunities in any way he can. In the long run, I’d take a small market with not-so-great resources any day over a toxic newsroom. I decided to stay and finish out my 2 year contract because I am extremely comfortable here.”
News Director: Jenny Martinez
“News director hardly shows up to work to give you feedback on your on air talent and she always lies to your face. Do not believe a word she says.”
While working for KRGV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Jenny will sweet talk you into joining the company but she lies about everything. She will tell you that you can grow and become an anchor but once you sign the contract they do what they please. They tell you that they will have you do Spanish stories “AS NEEDED” but it’s an everyday thing doing double work for English and spanish stories. One of the female producers is always yelling and talking trash behind your back. Do not work here. The assistant news director is very unorganized and just sits in his office and watches wrestling. He is very clueless and makes a news story more difficult than what it should be and you can’t miss him from a mile away.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Jenny the news director is always gone for months and shows up for a few weeks then leaves again for a few more months. You never get feedback from her about your on air talent. And she always lies to your face.”
News Director: Morgan Schaab
“I’ve worked with several news directors and Morgan is by far the best. She knows her stuff and is a team player and roots for everyone’s success.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Postive, Fun
News Director: Jana Gray
Experience described as: “Good”
While working for KNDU this person experienced:
“I will say this, everyones experience is different. While this station has its flaws like every newsroom does, I had an overall positive time at KNDU. For the most part I was able to get along easily with the other employees including other reporters, anchors, and management. Although there were some people who were at times tough to work with, some are no longer there. I will say I wish I had gotten more feedback from my News Director. There were a lot of times where I could have really used some direction and constructive criticism, and it just wasn’t there. There needs to be just as much positive feedback as telling someone what they did wrong. Scheduling could get a bit wonky here and there as well, but it often would get figured out in the end.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Despite the flaws, I look back on my time at my starter market as a positive one. I got along well with the other reporters and we would all hang out outside of work. There is no competitiveness between reporters either. Everyone is always willing to help each other. Tracci Dial, the main anchor, acted like a mentor to me. She would always stop what she was doing to go over my scripts and helped me become a stronger writer. She was the main source of the positive feedback on your stories in the newsroom. I think your time at this market is what you make it. You need to be a self-starter and motivated because no one is really going to hold your hand. KNDU has had some strong newsrooms in the past with hard working reporters so it can easily have that again if you’re willing to be a team player. You’ll also want to be willing to learn more than one position as you will often be trained to do weather or fill-in anchor. Jana Gray (news director) is also incredibly understanding about personal situations. And when I approached her near the end of my contract to let her know I was searching for my next job, she was incredibly supportive. Jana respects the hardworking reporters so as long as you show her you’re ready to work and put in the time, you won’t have a problem with her. So even though the other reviews on here state that it is an incredibly toxic newsroom, I didn’t have that experience. It does have its flaws (no newsroom is perfect) but from research while moving onto my next market, there are far worse newsrooms out there. My advice, take each review with a grain of salt because everyone has a different experience. Maybe some of the people who wrote the negative reviews didn’t have a good experience because they weren’t the best of employees…..Something to consider.”
News Director: Ashley Hall
“She is a toxic, negative, manipulative, and fake.”
While working for KRDV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Ashley is not suited as an ND. This station has a lot of new stuff, and will give you loads of experience, but be prepared to work in a hostile, negative environment where you are not valued whatsoever.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
News Director: Amie Hudspeth
“An utter nightmare. No leadership or organizational skills. No productive criticism. Yeller, screamer with no purpose. Really has no newsroom skills and tries to cover through a berating and condescending attitude. A fourth grader would be an upgrade.”
While working for KAVU this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“If I were a minority or female, I might’ve had a chance, but the black female news director has a serious chip on her shoulder regarding white men.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The GM has no desire to change things. First-timers beware. Don’t just jump at the first opportunity. Do research.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Problematic”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I enjoyed my time on the air at this station, but it was also very difficult off the air due to the toxic work environment. Mike Rausch pins employees against one another and it seemed to me over the course of the three years working for him that he was intentionally making things tense.
Why? I think he is obsessed with being the center of attention and he makes that very evident in the way he treats other employees. Futhermore, he ran out other workers that he did not personally bring on, giving him absolute power over everyone.
I do not recommend working here.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“It is trash.”
News Director: Dan Fabrizio
“He’s great, intimidating at first and somewhat rude… Just stay on his good side.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Positive, Fun
News Director: Angela Green
While working for WFXG this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Kyle Fobe
“Over sensationalizes, lacks people skills, poor time management, and questionable news judgement”
While working for WTAJ this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The scheduling of employees is consistantly an issue. They’re often surprised when they’re short-staffed because of multiple vacation/holiday requests, which were okay’ed, but not kept track of. That creates additional stress on other employees.
There’s a lot of turnover within the newsroom, which is normal at this sized market.
The news director comes from Las Vegas and often over sensationalizes stories. The station has come under fire by the viewers for his handling of certain breaking news stories and it’s led to many of the anchors, reporters, and photographers questioning his decision making. There’s poor communication with his employees, which leads him to make last minute changes on shows, stories, and coverage plans, adding to additional strain in the newsroom. He lacks people skills. Conversations/Communications with him often leave newsroom coworkers/viewers with a bad taste in their mouths. Often times he comes off as immature when he talks about newsroom employees behind their backs, rather than providing critiques or constructive criticism to the employees.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“It is a Nexstar station. Anyone in management sides with the higher-ups, so there’s no feeling of support within the newsroom. What you pay for (or lack there of) is what you get. It’s become a station that hires students right out of college and throws them on air, whether they feel prepared or not.
The lack of leadership often means that more duties fall on the anchors, who do try their best to mentor and give feedback to young reporters, but that puts even more on the anchors plates, which is already full.
They’ve low-balled talent and what’s told to new-hires, as far as job responsibilities, isn’t always the truth. I’m told that one reporter quit after a day because they were misled during the hiring process and other producers have said that what was told to them while interviewing was not the case.”
News Director: Rick Jacobs
Experience described as: “Ok”
While working for KGW this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I personally don’t have any troubles with management but have observed people come and go. I’ve witnessed blatant ageism, sexism, and bullying, though. HR must be aware of this. Management (general term – I’m only writing about one guy) is very condescending and rude to people he doesn’t like and repeatedly sets them up for failure, even if they are good employees and good people. It really doesn’t matter how good they are at their jobs. I’ve seen good people pushed out and horrible people saved. The guy at top is a horrible, spiteful person who appears friendly but really is a first class jerk. I’m surprised several former employees haven’t sued. I’m on management’s good side right now and trying to stay off the radar. But I’m writing this because enough is enough.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This was once a great station. But managers have no idea what works and are throwing everything at the wall to see what will stick.”
News Director: Eric Walters
Experience described as: “Negative, Toxic, disrespectful,”
While working for WBTW this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The overall feel for this newsroom is toxic. If you work in the bureau, you are expected to do a lot more with very little resources, and absolutely no help. In less than two years, five reporters have either quit or been fired and four of them were in the bureau. The Assistant News Director quit in October, and two bureau reporters quit for the same reason in November. There is documented evidence of unequal treatment, disregard for safety, and discrepancies in policies. The one photographer in the bureau does not work with the reporters. The News Director created a position for a night-side photographer in Myrtle Beach, but did not do that for the bureau. There is currently one person working in the bureau (MMJ) and there’s a reason. I would suggest doing research and reaching out to the former bureau reporters before accepting ANYTHING. The General Manager, News Director, Assignment Manager, Executive Producer, and EVEN HR are NOT on your side. HR is not a safe space, and does not document anything, but will rather take the side of WBTW. The managers do not know anything about the bureau, and often times stories go un-reported because they don’t think the news important. The bureau will always come second, and I was told this by managers. Overall, it’s an UNHEALTHY work space.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: David Lowell
“He may have the experience on paper, but he doesn’t use it in this newsroom. He’s just waiting for his time to retire, and the newsroom struggles. It’s like having no news director.”
While working for KMID/KPEJ this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“People will argue with you and try to manipulate you. No one has your best interests in mind. You will be over worked. I worked 12 hour shifts for 6 weeks and was expected to produce 3 hours of content every day. During that time I was covering a vacant position and saw zero compensation. Nexstar pays next to nothing and never let me sign up for health insurance. No one wants to be there. Both general managers say they’ll fix problems, and never do anything about it. The news director doesn’t direct the newsroom. We had zero plans for election night until our web editor got tired of waiting and made one himself. The production staff is trained poorly, and shows constantly get messed up. The production manager has no relevant experience and has a bad temper. You’ll rip your hair out working here.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Odessa/Midland is a very expensive area to live in because of oil, and KMID/KPEJ doesn’t pay a living wage. If you don’t work in oil, you’re screwed. Over 2/3 of my income went to rent each month, leaving me nothing for other expenses. I went broke working there.”
News Director: David Lowell
“All of management is terrible. Mike Lee is a babbling idiot, Dave German is a creep, David Lowell is lazy, Doug Faltus does terrible things about his employees and has caused many production assistance to quit because he lets the production manager bully people.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Warren Korff
Experience described as: “Okay. Not the best ND but not the worst. Understanding of situations and give reporters a lot of freedom.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
Additional comments:
“Decent gig for someone straight out of college. Not the worst, but not the best. Very gossipy. Management doesn’t have much experience in their roles which can sometimes cause a problem.”
News Director: Bryan Queen
“HORRIFIC. Has no human decency, lacks basic communication skills, sets team up for failure, is in no way a positive leader and creates a toxic work environment.”
While working for WHP this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management is completely unprofessional and lacks all leadership skills. The stations turnover rate is incredible and constant.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Rod Jackson
“He acts as if he is bipolar. Behaves very bizarrely. Not a good manager and embarrasses people in the newsroom”
While working for WBRE this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Multiple complaints were filed against the GM (Bob Bee) who is now in Harrisburg. A part-time camera operated sexually harassed a half dozen women before getting fired. He tried to take photos of women in the stages of dressing and undressing.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Nexstar is buying tribune and the #1 station WNEP is tribune. Many are worried what this will mean for WBRE”
News Director: Jim Lemon
Experience described as: “Below average”
While working for KEYT KCOY KKFX this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Hard to advance and everyone hates being there”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Do not recommend to people just starting out in the business – many of my fellow coworkers have now quit the business because of the experience at this station. Better for someone who knows the behavior is not normal!”
News Director: Mike Rausch
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
“I was a job candidate. I read the reviews on here and was wary to work at KRDO. I know someone at another station who told me not to work there and after how I was spoken too on the phone in a condescending matter treating me as an option saying to me they are waiting for the other candidate to get back to with and then criticized my demo reel, I said “F” these people.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
News Director: Amy Adams
Experience described as: “Repugnant”
While working for WOWT this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“No one was treated fairly. She would work you until your absolute breaking point with zero compassion for any personal life outside of work. You will work mornings, middays, evenings, overnights in the same week. “you’re young you can handle it””
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I would like to start by first congratulating Vic (GM) and Amy (ND) for running that station into the ground and shoveling viewers over to the competition. Every decision made was opposite of what it should be. Every employee was left scratching their heads and turning to booze to cope with them. The environment was so toxic that 20+ employees quick within mere months. No one was hired to replace them either. All that responsibility fell onto others and all Amy did was send out unprofessional emails with the attitude of the a 7th grader to those who remained. Go to HR? HA! She is useless and would just tell you to go to corporate. HR was part of the power pack and helped the ND and GM screw people out of holiday time off and solutions to legitimate problems. Such as sexual discrimination and sexual harassment on top of not following Gray’s own policies. Until that station has a complete turn over on who runs it you need to run and hide from this sinking ship.”
News Director: Janis Harper
“The company doesn’t care about their employees. Upper management doesn’t empower the news team and allows toxic employee support to run free, making the station a horrible place to work. ND doesn’t know how to lead and the top-heavy management structure doesn’t foster respect. No room for growth, as it’s the only station in the company’s portfolio. Beautiful place to live but you’ll hate your job.”
While working for KTVA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The company doesn’t care about their employees. Upper management doesn’t empower the news team and allows toxic employee support to run free, making the station a horrible place to work. ND doesn’t know how to lead and the top-heavy management structure doesn’t foster respect. No room for growth, as it’s the only station in the company’s portfolio. Beautiful place to live but you’ll hate your job.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you value your job here, don’t express an opinion that differs from the management team.”
News Director: Eric Walters
“Doesn’t pay attention, doesn’t give feedback, shows favoritism”
While working for WBTW this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Racial discrimination. All of the black/Hispanic/and most of the dark haired white people get placed in the bureau. All of the blondes are at the beach. In the past year, FIVE bureau reporters quit/were fired. And between September and November 2018, two beach reporters, the assistant news director, and two bureau reporters left all for similar reasons: blatant disregard for safety and lack of support in the field. You’ll be sent to notoriously dangerous places by yourself and you’ll be questioned when you tell management that you don’t feel safe. If you work in the bureau, assume you’ll never work with the photographer. And on the RARE occasion that he’s assigned to work with you (I was assigned to work with him fewer than 20 times during my time at News13), he’ll make excuses as to why he can’t show up. He’d rather cover trick-or-treating events than court hearings. You’ll never get adequate training. Training periods (at least a few weeks of training before you’re thrown into the fire) are not a thing here. Managers just want people on-air as quickly as possible because they keep losing people so rapidly. They’ll tell you how much they care about your success here but their actions and constant disregard for your concerns prove otherwise. Management is full of liars. They’ll set up meetings with you and when you show up on time, they’ll tell the boss that you were hours late. Keep ALL emails. You’ll need them to defend yourself when management decides to lie on you. And trust me, they will.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t work here. I would recommend this station to my worst enemy or the devil himself.”
News Director: Allison Gibson, Shane Moreland prior to her.
Experience described as: “Good”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational
Additional comments:
“Shane Moreland was a wonderful news director who takes chances on new reporters and works with them to help them grow. He is very straight forward and for those willing to listen instead of getting defensive, it paid off for them as reporters. When Shane left Allison Gibson came in. She is very kind and willing to listen and hear you out if you ever have concerns. There are a lot of great people at the station including the main anchor Ron Steele who has been there for more than 40 years. I look back on my time at KWWL with good memories and am thankful to have had the experience.”
News Director: David Lowell
“David Lowell is a really nice guy and I truly believe he knows the business. However, management at the station is essentially non-existent. When problems arise, management (especially the general manager) is quick to dismiss them.”
While working for KMID/KPEJ this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Every department is toxic. No matter where you go in this station, there are people out for one another. People claim that it’s “constructive criticism” when they tell you what you’re doing wrong. But in reality, KMID/KPEJ is a station full of big egos and small minds. Everyone wants you to do things their way. And if it is not done their way, they will tell you it’s wrong.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I appreciate the skills and experience I have gained during my time at the station. But at the end of the day, the job does not pay anyone well enough to deal with the everyday stress. If you are looking for a starter’s market. I would recommend anywhere but KMID/KPEJ.”
News Director: Allison Gibson, shortly before her Shane Moreland
“This year alone (2018) a number of on-air talent left the station, most of them finding ways to leave their contracts. It really says something about a station when they lose a met, an anchor, and several reporters in a short amount of time. I think many quit after the former ND Shane Moreland left because they had gone through so much belittling, verbal abuse, and disrespect from him. They finally felt liberated. The current ND Allison Gibson somewhat got a bad situation having to deal with all of this, but she really didn’t make things better like some people had hoped. Not sure what’s going on, but management has yet to fill most of those positions, although it’s been months. The station likes to put on a front like it’s a welcoming, friendly, ‘Iowa nice’ environment. A few people were kind, but there were some very negative, miserable ones behind the scenes who had nothing better to do than to plot against others. You’d think the focus would be the news, right?”
While working for KWWL this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Phillip Ohnemus
“I worked under Alan Wagmeister. He was a nice guy, but a know it all. Always wanted to be the smartest person in the room. Talked about all his accomplishments as a producer. He’s now out of the business, probably doing communications.”
While working for KULR this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“While I was there, the main male anchor made his female counterpart so uncomfortable. It put the newsroom in a weird position because he would literally not talk to her, even if she talked to him. He did this in front of everyone and was never reprimanded. She was eventually pushed out the door.
They never let any reporters anchor a newscast while I was there. If they’re going to pay you $10.10 an hour, they should at least let you on the desk. They opted several times to have the sports reporter anchor newscast over people in the news department.
There was also a hometown hero who worked there that thought he knew how to do everything. A lot of the locals who work there view people from out of state as outsiders. They show it in not so subtle ways. Smile in your face, but definitely talk behind your back in Facebook messages. They aren’t the brightest lot. Left the messages up.
They hired some crazy woman to weekend anchor who could barely put a camera on a tripod. She was useless as a reporter unless she was going live and had a photographer. The station only had two.
They also launched a statewide morning show while I was there and poured a lot of resources into it. A former anchor in the market, who was a beauty queen at one point, came to anchor it. She was catty and treated the main female evening anchor poorly. Talked about her clothes and a sponsorship she had at a local store.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I’m sure not much has changed besides the managers. Main male anchor is still there and he seems to have hit it off nicely with the new female anchor that moved from the morning show to evenings.
Get your start there, then leave. Don’t stay within the company and go to KHQ in Spokane. I hear it’s not much better despite the nice market jump. Terrible pay for MMJ’s.
Leave Cowles Company.”
News Director: Tom Henderson
“Nice guy and seems super attentive when you first start, but stays in his office a lot and doesn’t know what’s going on his newsroom.”
While working for NewsChannel 9 this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Managing editor is extremely condescending. She and a lower employee gossip about other employees where they can be heard. Also, she and assignment manager pick favorites and not everyone gets equal opportunities. For example, a “favorite” will get all breaking news stories, best photographer, etc.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The news director favors the managing editor, Latricia, and even though 15+ employees have left citing her as the problem for a toxic workplace the problem is ignored. I wouldn’t let my worst enemy work there.”
News Director: Lena Sadiwskyj
Experience described as: “Horrible she is a disgusting human being.”
While working for WTVY this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“This work environment has to be the most unpleasant place I have ever worked before. Management is so dysfunctional, unprofessional and very racist especially towards African American woman. Reginald Jones is the Assistant ND and he is a black coon that does not stick up for anyone or anything and shows extreme favoritism.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This is a market for many that want to get their foot in the door also known as a starter market. However if you can go anywhere else GO. You will repeat stories daily there was a case where four different reporters did the same exact story. Management thinks if your young that they can speak to you any type of way which is unacceptable and unprofessional. The newsroom is a big high school and they don’t care about the employees. We have no rain gear, cold gear etc. This place is piss poor. Overall I don’t understand how this place is still functioning.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Unprofessional”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“KRDO is not a good place to work. I have had the honor and pleasure of working with many great people in this industry and out of all of them, Mike Rausch is single-handedly the cockiest of them all, a self-described professional who claims to be one of the nation’s most successful TV news executives. If you are talking about multiple ethics and FAA violations, then Rausch is your guy.
If you want to be in a newsroom that is free of gossip and all that other crap that prevents a newsroom from getting work done, I would suggest finding another place to work. The Assistant N.D. is a yes man to him, so she won’t be much of a help to you, either. There’s a reason why there are so many job openings here — no one wants to stay.
Be careful before you agree to a contract. That’s all I have to tell you. But don’t get me wrong, there are amazing people here. But if you want to make friends, there’s an APP for that. There’s no reason for you to waste your time.
Also, if you apply for an Associate Producer position…just be aware that it’s not a permanent position — you will likely get laid off. They won’t tell you that during the interview, so just be aware.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I hear the radio end is much more organized and professional, but the television side is a mess. Please do not waste your time. I have seen so many diligent, hard-working employees come to work crying because they are so sick and tired of being belittled at work by Rausch. A line has been crossed if your workers don’t even want to get out of bed in the morning.
The news meetings in the morning help in some ways, but ultimately they are kind of a waste of time, because Rausch is going to do what he wants anyway.”
News Director: Chad Hypes
Experience described as: “Nice. But super disorganized.”
While working for KTVL this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Everyone wants to leave. There’s only a few that have been there longer than a year. It takes a couple of months for reporters and producers to see how unorganized the place is. The pay is low, and it’s unprofessional. The people that have been there for a long time don’t really care. And the newbies get tired quickly. No constructive criticism. You are basically on your own.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
Additional comments:
“What makes it good is the other reporters that understand what you are going through.”
News Director: Rick Jacobs
“He is the worst kind of an asshole. He makes a bunch of promises, lies all the time, he harasses people he doesn’t like until they quit. He hands out “free days off” like they’re candy and forgets he gave them to you. He blames others for his shortcomings .”
While working for KGW this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“He constantly talks negatively about women. He claims to be honest but he often uses other opinions to justify his own . But if you ask the employees who allegedly gave him the information they will swear upon their mothers grave Jacobs is making shit up. He is a piss poor communicator and a kiss ass.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“People are great. You will learn a lot. But beware of the wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
News Director: Stan Sanders
Experience described as: “An asshole”
While working for WBBJ this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Stan would make me feel like nothing I did mattered. He would try to blame me for things that weren’t my fault. He would scream at me in front of other employees. It’s hard to work for someone who’s extremely negative and always has a smart comment to say. Surprised nobody decked him in the face.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t work there as long as he is the news director. He is an asshole who needs to be fired from his job.”
News Director: Marybeth Jacobi
“Overall negative, however this news director was tasked with taking over a newsroom ran by a fired news director on accusations of sexual harassment”
While working for WVLT this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“A horrible work environment. Toxic and downright miserable. There is a high turnover in the newsroom. Management is inexperienced and will sell you on promises of OT or whatever will get you to sign the contract. They are consistently under staffed. They pay is very low. Management does not value the employees. This list could go on and on, but I felt compelled to write this review to warn any young out of college kids looking for their first or second gig. Stay away from here and apply for the NBC affiliate in town.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I worked multiple jobs at this station for several years including producing and reporting. There are good people here, but management and the pay makes everyone miserable. It’s a bully type of environment. You’ll get run right through the mud and will not be given proper resources to do your work. They don’t care about quality, you’re just filling time between the commercials. The previous news director was extremely inappropriate with the girls and if they chose to speak out they could work up a big lawsuit. This note is not from a “disgruntled” employee, but as someone who got away from a sinking ship and wants to warn others before they sign the dotted line. I gave my all to this place. It was my dream job, they ruined it. You could give 110% or 50% and you would be treated the same exact way, day in and day out, like dirt. Management is only looking out for themselves and the entire newsroom is extremely ego driven. The egos think they are in New York when they are in mid market Tennessee where most the viewers don’t even know their names. Sad situation for young people looking to get into the business, it doesn’t have to be that way and it’s not at other stations in this market. I would suggest applying to the NBC affiliate.”
News Director: Marybeth Jacobsy
Experience described as: “Toxic”
While working for WVLT this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Honestly, this was BY FAR the worst job I have ever had and pray to never have another one like it. Employee morale and management is a HUGE issue and will always be until they gut the place from the top up and start over. I never thought I’d be saying this about a company as it should never be able to get to this point, but it’s the absolute truth. Those in charge have been for a while and I am convinced do not have any reasonable or genuine sort of leadership or compassion for their employees. They are going to do what they want to do regardless of who they lie to and hurt to get there. I read reviews similar to this before taking the job and wished I would have taken them seriously. I thought there was no way a place could be so immoral. While at WVLT, I was left with a bunch of unfulfilled promises and taken full advantage of. Please AVOID at all costs. No job is worth your happiness. I have moved on from this place and have finally found how a true newsroom should operate and what true leadership and support feels like. No job is perfect (not even this new position) but WVLT runs a whole different environment that I personally do not feel should be acceptable.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Please consider finding real guidance and a strong team of motivators. A bad leader can take a good staff and destroy it, causing even the best employees to flee and the remainder to lose all motivation.”
News Director: Tom Davis
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
News Director: Roger Seay
Experience described as: “Not bad to work for”
While working for KFVS this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control
News Director: Tim Ryan
Experience described as: “He is ok”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Awful”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The co-workers are great here, but Mike Rausch is a piece of garbage.
Morale is so low that some reporters became physically ill because they didn’t want to come to work. A line has been crossed.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t work here. We haven’t even been able to bring on a new EP despite the fact our previous one left months ago. Avoid this storm. Find somewhere that’s sunnier.”
News Director: Rick Jacobs
“His employees don’t respect him. We think he is knowledgeable but he talks down to us and regularly throws people under the bus.”
While working for KGW this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Women are skeptical of the ND and they often take notes on what he says. He plays favorites and doesn’t try to hide it.
He talks down to people all the time.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Kimberly Wyatt
“Kimberly Wyatt is by far the worse ND I have ever worked for. I understand every station has its problems, but this is different. I want to spare others from going through the same thing. Our jobs are hard enough.”
While working for WEAR this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management is not respected or trusted because they have no news or ethical judgment. The news director, Kimberly Wyatt, is scatterbrained, unprofessional, and lacks basic leadership skills. The newsroom is always in a state of chaos. The newsroom is run by an inexperienced staff and operates like a small market. The producers and reporters are very green. They’re never given any guidance, direction or supervision. Their work is never adequately checked before it hits air. There’s no emphasis on real journalism, accuracy or enterprise storytelling. Content is driven by “clicks” and it’s a Sinclair station, which comes with its own set of problems.
The toxic environment is further strained by an understaffed newsroom, and what little staff they do have is constantly walking on egg shells around the New Director. That’s why most everyone is miserable and frustrated all the time. Hence, the almost constant mass exodus of employees since Kimberly Wyatt’s arrival. There’s also a lot of petty gossip, backstabbing and retaliation in the newsroom. It’s something that is encourage and cultivated from the top down.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Kimberly Wyatt sees what she wants to see and won’t hesitate to turn on you. She will lie and manipulate a situation so that the staff and individual employees take the fall for her screw ups or look like the “problem” when her superiors come down on her; which is often because she has absolutely no clue what she’s doing. She feels threatened and challenged by anyone who knows more than her, so she resorts to attacking, belittling and berating employees on a near daily basis. She always has something to prove and is constantly in a power struggle with the station’s longtime anchors, who are trying to keep the station afloat.”
News Director: Mikel Lauber
Experience described as: “Nice, but anchors run the newsroom”
While working for KOLN/KGIN this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Anchors scream and cuss at you. I cried constantly.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“They made me send in photos of what I was wearing before I came into work, because they said the clothes I was wearing didn’t “flatter the shape of my body.” No one finishes there contract. Everyone quits or pays money so they can get out of their contract.”
News Director: Mikel Lauber
Experience described as: “Nice, but anchors control station”
While working for KOLN/KGIN this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Anchors scream at everyone. Made me cry constantly.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“No one stays more than a year. Most reporters break there contracts and pay lots of $ just so they can leave.”
News Director: Josh Morgan
“I’ve had a positive experience working for my current ND. He’s willing to work with young reporters to help them grow into more seasoned journalists.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“I think this is a great station for reporters just out of college. The newsroom at WREX really pushes you to become a better reporter. We are required to enterprise original content, develop sources in our community and vet stories everyday. Highly recommend.”
News Director: Jeff Houston
“He is the worst person I have ever worked for. Clearly unorganized, major OCD about minor things. Completely incapable of communicating effectively with staff. He’s the kid that was bullied in middle school and now takes it out on others because he has some power.”
While working for WBMA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management consisted of bullies. The GM, The ND, and HR all team up to bully you. HR here is a joke. She will only take the station side no matter what. Even if you go to her first, she turns it around and blames you.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Avoid at all costs. I worked here in production several years ago under different management. I loved it then. I came back as a producer and it wasn’t the same station. Everyone is miserable. Everyone! I’m the 4th producer to quit in the last 2 months. The other 4 are looking to quit as soon as they can.”
News Director: Jana Gray
Experience described as: “Negative, Toxic”
While working for KNDU this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“KNDU went from being a pleasant, educational starter market station to a toxic place when Jana Gray took over as News Director. There are moles in the newsroom who report to her. Adult newsroom veterans regularly berate young reporters, insult them, call them names, and curse at them. Do not trust anybody in this newsroom besides Tracci Dial and the kids fresh out of college. Especially management. Watch your back.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Just stay away. There are so many better stations and locations to get your career started in the Northwest: Medford, Eugene, Spokane, Boise, Missoula. Just stay away from KNDU.”
News Director: Jana Gray
Experience described as: “Negative, toxic”
While working for KNDU this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“KNDU went from a good Starter Market station to a truly negative place when Jana Gray took over as News Director. Older newsroom folks regularly berated young reporters, called them names, swore at them. Don’t trust anybody in the newsroom except the kids fresh out of college, especially management.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
News Director: Chad Mahoney
Experience described as: “Tough yet fair & ethical”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“You don’t do breaking news or live shots alone, if photographers are gone you front from in the studio, safety is a big deal. Small market (family owned), best situation for an mmj. It’s very structured and they won’t allow you to just toss anything on air. ND Chad was once a reporter/anchor and if you ask around people say the same thing, you’ll learn a lot and grown as a journalist. Cost of living is cheap in area so I don’t have to worry money with the salary. No station is perfect but Id recommend working here to reporters in a heartbeat!”
News Director: Dave Busiek
“One of the best in the business. Unfortunately retiring soon.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“KCCI has long been top dog in the market and it shows. The station goes all out when there’s breaking news or a big story and the product is much better than the market size would indicate. It’s on par with some of the bigger-market stations in the Hearst chain.
Reporters do not shoot. There is an excellent veteran photographer staff plus some great younger photogs.
Newsroom culture is relaxed but people take their jobs seriously.
If you’re a reporter, you will be live a lot, and that’s what you make of it. For some, it’s a hassle. For others, it’s an opportunity to be creative or practice.”
News Director: Victoria Spechko
Experience described as: “Wonderful and educational”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“If you want to hit the ground running, this station is for you. Victoria is an excellent news director and the best I have ever worked for. She’s tough, but for good reasons. She allows you to take on extra roles if she feels you’re capable and is always willing to offer help and advice. The newsroom itself is very friendly and everyone works together—like a family. We bicker sometimes, but what family doesn’t? If you get offered a position here, take it. I have no negative comments.”
News Director: Morgan Schaab
Experience described as: “Wonderful, team player”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Positive, Fun
While working for KNDU this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Morgan Ashley was aggressive and would constantly tell you how incompetent you were, that you were an idiot, etc. Management didn’t want to hear concerns and turned a blind eye.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Horrible. EP was crazy and acted like she was in a bigger market. Berated everyone and harassed people in the workplace. Avoid at all costs.”
News Director: Tom Lewis
“His nickname is Tom Lucifer for a reason. He screams at everyone but especially reporters. I tried to avoid him as much as possible. The man is downright scary. He also has zero clue how to run a news station. He does not watch a single newscast, never gives feedback, yells if you make a mistake. Guy would force reporters to do stories when his friends when they open a new business or store. Their pandering and relationship with the police is disgusting. They have a weekly segment praising a police officer just for doing their job. I honestly felt I was becoming a worse journalist there and only served to fix mistakes. Avoid at all costs this toxic shit station. Also if you are a male reporter don’t even bother applying. He only hires hot girls.”
While working for WMBB this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I want to make it clear that is was not me who received the sexual harassment, but I witnessed it. The Super old meteorologist Jerry Tabbott would take a lap around the newsroom and force every single woman to hug him during the day. Nobody would speak up but they all felt uncomfortable. They just let it happen. He is no longer there but just know, Tom Lewis will NOT hire a male reporter. He will only hire attractive female reporters. There hasn’t been a male reporter in years.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This place is the worst. Do NOT move here just because it’s the beach or the weather. It’s not worth it, because this station is so horrible. Nexstar is a bad company they pay the least compared to anyone else. They can barely afford working equipment and when they do get money it is wasted horribly. I honestly wonder if it’s just a money laundering scheme that’s how bad it is. I saw like 5 people break their contracts in the time that I was there. The news director literally hired his friends kid to be the evening news producer because she needed a job. She had no news qualifications.”
News Director: Greg Shepperd
“Absolutely the worst. Fake attitude, fake personality.”
While working for KOAT this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Greg Shepperd and Melissa Williams (Assistant ND) are who of the worst and stupidest managers I have ever worked for. They constantly berate staff unnecessarily for the absolute smallest things. They constantly make the work environment hostile that people don’t want to come into work.
You can never do good or do anything right for these two. It’s a “damned if you do/damned if you don’t” type of newsroom. They micromanage everything to such a degree that we almost have to detail everytime we take a breath.
They don’t talk to each other, and Melissa and Greg each tell us opposing orders and they each get mad if you do what either says.
It seems that they treat those of minority worse than others as they always seem to be more in trouble than anyone else.
We can’t work on any investigative stories because Greg and Melissa are afraid of lawsuits. Neither of them know what investigative journalism is. They think that a public record request about crime numbers is investigative.
These two seem to have made Hearst believe they are the best thing since sliced bread. Well, they aren’t these two shouldn’t be in the positions they are in. Greg and Melissa need to be gone.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t let Greg and Melissa trick you into coming here. I realized my interview was all smoke and mirrors when I started. They flat out lied to me about many things to get me to come here. I regret it every day.
Steer clear of KOAT until Greg Shepperd is gone.”
News Director: Morgan Schaab
“Watch out! She plays favorites and regularly talks smack about people. She’s capable, but not trustable.”
While working for WAND this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“This is a gossipy station and the chief gossip became news director. She plays favorites and regularly throws people under the bus. Run !”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Too much turnover for a reason”
News Director: Morgan Schaab
Experience described as: “Horrible”
While working for WAND this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Can’t catch a break – disorganized as hell, favorites always played”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Run!!!”
News Director: Linda Miele
“Probably one of the worst station managers to work with. Makes a big deal about small stories, demands graphics work on a skeleton crew, and nit picks over every single detail.”
While working for WHDH this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I worked at WHDH for only 8 months and it was the most miserable experience I’ve ever had. I can’t speak for everyone’s boss, but mine was the worst. My supervisor was probably one of the most bad tempered, and foul mouthed person I’ve ever met. He would berate, swear, and shame me if I made a mistake. Calling me things like, “inadequate,” “useless”, and “worthless.” The whole place was a mess, not just with the department I worked in; the head Director was married to the station manager, part time employees were hardly given any extra hours, sexual harassment was a huge problem (not that I experienced any of it, but heard stories from coworkers and saw it with my own eyes). The place was and is a mess, when your head morning weekday anchor leaves to another station, you know WHDH isn’t going to last long.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“It is a total mess. It’s outdated and barely functioning and holding onto old ways. It’s full of yes men, and corrupt politics. I would avoid working at WHDH like the plague, it’s stressful no matter what department you work in.”
News Director: Tom Lewis
“If you like your sanity, DO NOT work for Tom Lewis. He constantly puts people down, gossips and creates rumors/drama about the reporters. He’s constantly in a bad mood on the edge of losing it on people. Extremely hostile work environment, with daily verbal harassment, but people who work under him are too scared to speak up because the retaliation would be way worse. More then 5 people left their contracts early in two years under him.”
While working for WMBB this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“News director pits reporters against each other. Thrives off drama. You won’t hear from him unless you make a mistake and you definitely won’t get feedback. But you will get made fun of to other reporters.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Everyone else at the station is mostly great to work with, people will have your back when it comes down to it. A small market and good to start your career in.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Mike’s OK”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational
Additional comments:
“I was reading some of the comments and what a bunch of crock, sounds like sour grapes to me. There is a toxic gossipy click that thinks working gets in the way of their gossip and tearing others down. If you are lucky enough to avoid this group it’s a good job. For goodness sake put some elbow grease, do some work and you wouldn’t complain about Mike Rausch or anyone, there wouldn’t be enough time, IT’S A NEWS ROOM! My advice for the complainers is grow up!
I learned a lot here, and based on my experience I was able to move up to a bigger station. Cindy, Natalie and other members were helpful in their advice.”
News Director: David Lowell
“I’ve had a pretty good experience working for this news station so far. Management is struggling to fill open positions because of the current economy”
While working for KMID/KPEJ this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“There’s a lot of pettiness in the newsroom. A lot of gossip, people talking behind each other’s back instead of addressing issues in person. Not many people can handle criticism when it comes to script writing. It’s interesting to see how many people think they have the industry figured out when they’ve only been in it for a year or less. There are people who are nice and work hard but of course there are also people who are just mean, to be mean.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This is a great starting market and because the contracts are typically 2-3 years here, new people will be joining the team soon and others who are coming up on their contracts will rotate out, that’s how it goes!”
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Good.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational
Additional comments:
“There are some employee that complain and gossip all the time and very immature. It’s like high school around them and this gets tiring. If you ignore this, then its a grate place to work. some of your co-workers are great and you help each other out. some of the season veterans give you tips on how to do things better.
Sometimes it gets chaotic but what newsroom isn’t. I like the place, it has good benefits, a good News Director, and amazingly a good Human Resources lady that cares. so all in all I recommend KRDO. It is better than most station.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Meh”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Just unprofessional. That’s the management side. Everything else is fine, but Mike Rausch and Cindy Dixon are very condescending and detrimental to the team.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t come here until Mike and Cindy are booted.”
News Director: Kimberly Wyatt
“Chaos, very hostile. Workers who fail to meet expectation are given special treatment while workers who exceed expectations are shunned for questioning decisions. She makes it feel more like a circus than a newsroom. New potentials applicants should think twice.”
While working for WEAR this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Employees that share the same race as News Director are given special treatment. For instance, 4pm producer does not carry enough experience to work in mid-level market, and makes constant mistakes. But is never disciplined for on-air mistakes. While another employee that works hard, makes few mistakes was written up for not going to a meeting before their shift. Gay employees are mocked to their faces. New Director hit an employee during a meeting for yawning.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“It’s bad enough that Sinclair owns this station, but to have to deal with the constant stress of this station is excruciating. Anyone looking for a job here should find somewhere else.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Waste of time”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“It was tough working here. I am an individual of few words, so I’ll make this quick. The newsroom is incredibly divided. Mike has created a hostile work environment since he took over a few years back. I honestly don’t even know why Cindy is even there other than to serve as Mike’s sidekick.
A lot of the employees are brought to tears by the way Mike treats them and if you do any basic research, he has a long history of treating his people like dirt.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I have worked for several news stations, some good, some bad. This is the worst. It has nothing to do with the quality of personnel, but morale is down, and for a reason. Management treats you like you are replaceable. That’s a recipe for failure.
We should be encouraging people to be better, not discouraging them. That creates a domino effect.”
News Director: Nic Moye
Experience described as: “Unhelpful, frustrating, disappointing”
While working for KTVZ this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The managers at the station don’t know how to manage. On top of that, they are nit picky about how certain employees do their job or make judgments about what employees are eating. I have worked 21 hours straight in a 36 hour period without a thank you. The General Manager and News Director would have meetings about my performance without me being part of the meeting. This created a hostile work environment for me. I didn’t want to come to work and feel like people were talking behind my back. It was very stressful and I couldn’t enjoy my work. When I asked how I could improve the News Director would say, “I don’t know how to help you”.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If this is your first job, don’t go here. If you struggle, management can’t help you. Instead, they will talk behind your back. Find a job where you don’t have to worry about being bullied by management. Find a job you are encouraged to grow. I am no longer in the news business and don’t know if I will ever return, because of this experience.”
News Director: Kathryn Bonfield
“Best experience I’ve ever had. Kathryn is fair, laid back, experienced, level headed and “one of the guys.””
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This station is a DOMINATE number one. It tops the ratings of all the other stations in the market COMBINED. There is a sense of camaraderie and pride. The folks I worked with were smart, dependable, assuring, laid-back and everybody had a sense of humor. Laughing is what the best part of the job was. The same can be said about a number of the departments in the building. I was sad to leave it behind but had to to advance my career. A shout out to Bob Ellis (GM), Kathryn Bonfield (ND), John Gaughan (Chief meteorologist) and Keira Barnard (the funniest, most caring, open and respected HR lady I’ve ever met and probably the only one that should be TURN HERSELF INTO HR) for being the best in the business.”
News Director: Cathy Hobbs
“Positive. She is passionate and knowledgeable, but often stretched thin trying to meet corporate demands, which often her out of a newsroom leadership role.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“In the past it has been toxic, but most of the bad apples have either moved on or been let go. It’s unorganized at times, causing the station to play catch-up on some stories, but that’s mostly due to understaffing. Good overall.”
News Director: Jeff Klotzman
Experience described as: “Cares about each employee, strong news judgement, experienced”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“The atmosphere is positive overall. It is like a family and you will grow as a storyteller and writer. Live shot capabilities are limited aside from the morning show.”
News Director: Tom doerr
“He was dishonest, condescending and did not provide good leadership.”
While working for WINK this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Jay Quaintance
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Management was hard to work for, but my experience with the anchors and journalists was very positive.”
News Director: Marybeth Jacoby
Experience described as: “Negative”
While working for WVLT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Extremely unorganized. Management is out of touch.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Mike Rausch
“Mike is fair and has good ideas, if you are willing to work hard then he will develop your talent.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“I had a good working experience. If you put in the work you get fair treatment. There is no discrimination, you are just required to do your job. I liked working here, I learned enough to help me move to a larger market.
Like any job, you get out of it what you put into it. This business is not for the week of heart. Mike is a good mentor and allowed me to have the opportunity to learn and move forward in my career goals.”
News Director: Jenna Huff
Experience described as: “Like working with an angry bulldog”
While working for WGXA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Jenna pits people against each other and pushes out good talent. You’ll volunteer to help and get stuck with a crappy shift or no days off for months at a time.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Jenna her her pet Mallory Huff have the same last name but they’re not related. They’re two incompetent bitchy peas in a pod. The GM is toxic as well. Stay away unless you like getting your job threatened every day and making peanuts for years to get your “experience”.”
News Director: Bob Walters
Experience described as: “Awful, as I was overused and underappreciated.”
While working for KWTX this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“ND simply does not care about if you’re overworked. You better be able to cover five different things in a day AND turn one of them into a PKG if possible. If you’re a weekend producer, you better also be able to photog because the ND will NOT hire more reporters for you and set you up to fail. Digital at this station fell to one person, who also had to revert back to photogging and not getting to follow his real strengths in news. He finally left just after over two years, which just pissed off the ND because this poor man did four jobs (digital, weekend associate producer, photog, weekend assignment manage) and of course was still getting paid his starting pay. Photogs, reporters, and sports personnel have left under him, so we all knew the bosses up at Gray TV aren’t happy he can’t hold a crew. On top of that, gossip pervades the newsroom and managers simply do not check in with field crews on status for breaking stories unless they want lots of live hits for anything. Sister station KBTX has less staff, but appears to have better culture. Some of us envied for them despite our nicer set and larger facilities. Management also refuses to buy things like generators and newer laptops for field crews, whereas station #3 in the market has all of those PLUS a better editing software.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“KWTX may be #1 in newscasts, but in a digital age they suffer and morale is rock-bottom. Newsroom management is at best shoddy, at worst dysfunctional. The current ND may be a seasoned veteran, but he’s catty and prissy. He demands respect but never offers it back. You can bust your butt all day in the field and rarely hear a compliment from him. He will screw over staff with less experience by forcing them to work terrible hours and juggle more responsibilities. Simply put, the top station in DMA 87 is behaving like its sister KXII in Sherman, a mere 3 hours north. This is supposedly the crown jewel in Hilton Howell Jr.’s crown. It could use some shine and something else to fix the cracks.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Unfortunate”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I always felt that Mike never had my back. Moreover, Cindy, the assistant news director, and Mike, would intentionally create a hostile environment, turning co-workers against each other.
It is very unfortunate because the people that work at KRDO are amazing, exceptional people. But the management is so poor, it’s honestly not worth it.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t work here until the entire management team is replaced.”
News Director: Greg Shepperd
Experience described as: “One of the worst.”
While working for KOAT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Greg Shepperd and Melissa Williams both are the two worst people I have ever worked for. They constantly make poor and terrible decisions that end up putting the newsroom behind the competition. They freak out over the smallest thing that doesn’t matter on a story.
They have pitched stories that have already run weeks after they’ve originally run, because they don’t pay attention to their own news.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This is a very toxic work environment, I can’t describe how bad it is here. When people joke about “today may be the day Greg and Melissa make me Quit” you know it’s bad. The turnover is astonishing, people don’t want to work here. Those two think they are the best in the world when that is just completely the opposite. They are judgemental and treat their staff like scum. They also micromanage so much that things won’t get done or get done twice because they want their hand in everything, making staff feel in trusted and unwarranted.
Yo, Hearst Television, wake up and get rid of these two, they’ve driven a station’s morale and respect to the ground. It’s the absolute worst place to work, I wish things were better.”
News Director: Roger Seay
“An excellent boss. The NEW GM is great too!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational
Additional comments:
“Roger has excellent news judgement and wants to help you succeed. I wish I could have him as my boss here in my current job.”
News Director: Ally Berger
Experience described as: “Pleasant ND to work with”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Open to Creative Control
News Director: Andy Paras
“Andy definitely cares about his reporters. He usually has an agenda on what he wants to cover, but definitely leaves room for creative ideas.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Unorganized, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“I’ve had a great experience here. The people are awesome BUT resources aren’t always so good. That is the only thing this station is lacking. We get great first job experience, open to be creative, and the staff gets along AMAZINGLY. There are only three reporters and a sports reporter when fully staffed. For the lack of resources, we really get the job done though and our work is extremely competitive, if not better than other competitors in our market with better resources.
There’s no studio. Our anchors are at a satellite station in Arkansas. BUT no one in the community actually knows that because we pull it off.
I think that hard work to pull off a good product in this small market can drive staff together because we are proud of what we’ve created with little.
All in all, I’ve loved my experience here, but definitely am eager to move up.”
News Director: Eric Gaylord
Experience described as: “Stagnant”
While working for KRTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“My intention is not to bash this station because overall the people that work there are “nice” and it is a stepping stone to move on to bigger and better things but when it comes to the work environment it is an extremely toxic environment. Absolutely no direction in anything when asked. No critiques when asked, always put to the side and don’t even get me started on the cliquish groups there. The news director has his favorites and it shows. He will attack you verbally when one of his favorites come to him complaining about you. He’ll never sit you down in his office like a manager should and hear your side and try to diffuse the situation. All the managers need to be trained on how to handle issues in a work place. It’s unfortunate that everyone is not treated the same. But a good thing is that the news director is understanding most of the time so if you need to leave early or need the day off he will give it to you.
Now when it comes to vacations others get priority due to being the favorite. There is absolutely no leadership there. The GM isn’t any better either. You could never go to him with any problems because he will find a way to make it sound that you are blowing it out of proportion. He has his favorites as well. Back to the news director same story. He never solves anything he just says that he will and the same problem always continues. Not the best place to learn, after awhile the workflow becomes stagnant. But as i said before overall people are “nice”. If you want to get ahead in the business you have take it upon yourself and learn, don’t expect any feedback. But for the favorites they get all the help and advice making others feel excluded and unmotivated. It is very discouraging especially to those new to the business and right out of college. Also side note everything is a secret. Communication there is absolutely horrible. When a new employee is hired it is so hush hush. So weird. The station is for sale and the current employees found out from another local news outlet instead of the general manager growing some and telling his employees. If you’re wanting to start your career in a smaller market beware of this station, you’ll get no help.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Marlene Speas
“I worked at the bureau so I worked for the Assistant News Director Andy Grove. He lets you do your own thing, if that works for you it’s a good situation.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“There are times where things are dysfunctional here but largely it is what you make it.”
News Director: Eric Walters
“Eric Walters as a leader left much to be desired. He didn’t seem to have the news judgement to make the calls necessary to lead a local newsroom to success. I saw him often dive after stories that would make the front page of Reader’s Digest and scoff at stories that were incredibly important to the community.”
While working for WBTW this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Walters delegates decisions regularly to an additional cast of managers who in the year since the Nexstar purchase have only grown more and more hostile to less-than-traditional newsgathering and journalism. This would usually manifest in many solid pitches being torn apart for lack of irrelevant details, or because the management/producers didnt know enough about the story/region to offer an opinion at all. Communication was terrible. Reprimands were given often. Emotional/career support or praise, hardly ever. Just a negative place to try and get a start in an already difficult industry.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I shook my head as I checked the box marked “Educational,” because I learned here that there will always be people who think they know best, and sometimes those people are your bosses. I saw/heard some colleagues berated for their story choices, watched producers break informational stories down into “gotcha” tales, searching in vain for controversy where there was none, and alienating reporters sources, just because they wanted clicks on social media. Management is negative and unorganized and here is why– WBTW is more than 60 years old. They are trying to do the “serious” old-school news in Myrtle Beach, and are falling further into the crack they made themselves.”
News Director: Susan D’astoli
Experience described as: “Ignorant, unappreciative”
While working for News 13 this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“News management has absolutely ZERO regard for family life. My wife and I had a young son with medical issues which required a few impromptu call-ins to get him necessary medical attention. I was told after missing 2-3 days due to these issues that “WE need you to be HERE” when discussing my missed days.
They also changed my contract from hourly to salary. And started working me 65-70 hours per week, up from the 40-45 I worked when I was hourly, thus lowering my pay.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“God forbid, if you have a young family, you may rarely see them. For a 24 hour LOCAL station, they send crews all over the state and out of state consistently for story coverage (a couple have warranted this, like the parkland school shooting) but nothing as to the amount of time you will spend away from your family.) “Favorites” among the news staff are definitely a factor when it comes to news management, and is reflected in preferable or unpreferable schedule changes and certain privileges.”
News Director: Greg Shepperd
Experience described as: “Toxic, condescending, two-faced, liar”
While working for KOAT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I don’t know why I’m writing this, Hearst Television Corporate doesn’t seem to care about these. But,
Greg Shepperd is one of the worst people I have ever worked for. His attitude, and the way he treats people is absolutely terrible. He treats us in production like we are scum. Always yelling at us and trying to micromanage a department he isn’t even in charge of. During news events he’s always yelling at us in the booth to do something different when a shot isn’t ready. He treats his news staff even worse. He’s constantly making bad decisions. I’ve seen the same stories on tv for weeks, it seems like he is scared to do any reporting other than who was in court or arrested today, or, “what story from last month can we follow up on even though there isn’t anything new or to update?””
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Jack Acosta
“He has a short attention span but is generally nice.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Pretty fun and family environment overall, but we do need to work on organization across the board.”
News Director: Bruce Barkley
“Awful experience – was the worst boss I’ve had. He threatened to sue me for pursuing other options.”
While working for WYFF this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“An executive producer racially and sexually discriminated against me. It was an awful work environment. I wanted to desperately to get out and I would advise anyone I cared about NOT to sign with WYFF. It’s one of those stations that makes nice people mean.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Very toxic work environment. Also there is no work-life balance. I’ve worked at other TV stations and this was by far the worst!”
News Director: Susan D’Astoli
Experience described as: “A nightmare.”
While working for News 13 this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Every black person at the station worked overnight and weekends. No matter if they had seniority. Definitely could see white producers/reporters were favored more. The morale is super low and management seems to only do things to keep that morale down. A very toxic environment.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This station pays the least in the market. It’s on a 24 hour cycle, which means they are on all day and will work you like a Hebrew slave for pennies with no regard for your outside life.”
News Director: Steve Simon
While working for KDAF/CW33 this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Horrible place.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
News Director: Jeff Lenk
“He’s great. Sinclair, not so much.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Positive, Fun
News Director: Philip bruce
“Amazing news director. Really cares about making a great newscast, and his field crews.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Positive, Fun
News Director: David Lowell
“Really nice guy, but he’s lazy and rarely watches the newscast or gives constructive criticism.”
While working for KMID/KPEJ this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“There’s so much gossip. People who don’t work hard get rewarded and those who care get overworked. People drop like flies. The station is always understaffed. Management doesn’t take issues seriously.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Odessa/Midland is really expensive because of the oil field. Unless you’re making $50,000+, you’ll be BROKE.”
News Director: Jon Janes
“He yells and can be very harsh. He creates a stressful environment and sometimes you will hate yourself. But he does truly care about the news and want the best so it will force you to become better at what you do.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Photogs are really good here, good staff
The only thing not positive is the ND. Jon Janes is very conservative and not open to creative ideas or ideas outside the box. He does watch the news and care about little mistakes which is good. It can be very stressful environment but you will learn a lot.”
News Director: Melissa Luck
“Prior ND (Jerry) was passive. Melissa walked all over him. She can be very direct, sometimes mean.”
While working for KXLY this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Morale is very low here. Extremely unorganized. Station has been in last place for more than a decade. Newsroom is cliquey.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“ND claims to not like “overly ambitious” people. People gossip and are very passive instead of addressing issues face to face. New director never watches the newscasts. This is a backwards move, will hurt your career.”
News Director: Bob Walters
While working for KWTX this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Is it the #1 station in Waco? Yes. Is it easIer to get interviews and have exposure/perks because you are the community leader? Yes. Does the station win awards and special recognitions? Also yes. But trust me, this place can be toxic. Newsroom gossip is bad here. Some of the employees are genuinely mean spirited, and difficult to work with. Management has overwhelming expectations compared to the short staff and resources. There is a very high turnover rate. If you’re an MMJ, they will overwork you and get mad at you if you work overtime. I don’t have an axe to grind. I genuinely don’t want anyone to go through what I did. I needed therapy after I left that place. None of the friends I made there work for them anymore either. In fact, this job made some of them quit the news industry all together.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“It may be market 87, but it’s really like a 133+ in disguise. There is NO NEWS. You will go crazy trying to find a story here, and often sell your soul covering garbage vosots and chasing accidents just to fill content. You will learn and get better at this station…not because you get feedback or mentorship, but just because you do it alone repeatedly everyday.”
News Director: Mark Ferrel
“Awful! He will try to manipulate and screw you out of every opportunity for growth.”
While working for KTEN this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I felt that no matter what I did, they did not value my work. They changed my schedule around all the time, i could be mornings then go do an evening show.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This station is not good for those looking to grow and get feedback on their stories. They invest zero money into their reporters and offer zero feedback. Their news anchors are redneck and unprofessional, and one of them is extremely biased towards conservative. Stay away from this station.”
News Director: Austin Kellerman
“Great station and staff! Encourages storytelling, teamwork”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“Station needs more diversity.”
News Director: Chris Best
Experience described as: “Terrible/Awful”
While working for WKRG this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Chris Best is just simply a terrible news director. He does not care about his employees at all. He also has terrible news judgement. He cares nothing about your life outside of work and he will call you any time any day. He also has no people skills. We all wonder how he got into this position in the first place. He absolutely terrible and hopefully he’s not here for good.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Just don’t come here. If you have any choice work at the other stations in the market. Avoid Chris Best and his assistant ND at all costs.”
News Director: Greg Dawson
Experience described as: “Great”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Poor”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Mike Rausch and Cindy Dixon need to be fired. Mike will take credit for every great story that you do, but will also blame and chastise you when viewers leave us nasty comments. Cindy is incredibly two-faced and will smile to your face, but will tear you down in closed door conversations. They have a horrible problem at being direct and lack the initiative to make KRDO a great station.
On Mike’s LinkedIn profile, he claims to be “One of the Nation’s Most Successful TV News Executives,” but a News Director is not an executive position, and being the ND of a mid-market station is not exactly top notch. I have never met a man in my life who has that big of an ego, and really has nothing to back up his talk.
The producers hate him. His reporters hate him. The anchors can’t stand him. The entire station can’t stand him. Mike has a history of being a terrible people person, but has never been held accountable for the careers he has ruined.
If you make even the slightest mistake, be prepared to hear slander, lies, and outright untrue things said about you around the grapevine. And, we all know who is behind it.
If you want to work for a child and a yes man… work for KRDO and the team of Mike Rausch and Cindy Dixon.
But you would be wise to save your career and avoid this sh**hole.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This place ruined my love for an industry I once adored.”
While working for KTMF this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“They over work, under pay and under appreciate their employees. You will never get a photog, a chance to anchor or be able to take care of yourself. They are known for working their reporters to the bone. Compared to the NBC and CBS affiliates in the state you will have to turn 3/4 stories a day, NBC and CBS are usually required to do 1.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“You will burn out so fast working at this station.”
News Director: Greg Shepperd
Experience described as: “Egotistical, confused, bad news judgement, two-faced”
While working for KOAT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Greg Shepperd and Assistant News Director Melissa Williams are both terrible managers. They make awful decisions that come back terribly and ruin plans. They both talk down to us and try to baby us with their micromanagement. If a good decision is made by a subordinate, the two managers get angry because the decision wasn’t theirs and counter it with their own (even worse) decision.
If they both make a bad decision, they try to pin it on others other than themslves so they can say they “have a clean slate.” Melissa Williams is one of the dumbest people I’ve met, she constantly throws others under the bus when she can’t understand something, and pushes stories that viewers do care about. Only to find stuff out that ONLY she cares about because she doesn’t want to do research. She sends photographers on wild goose chases that result in nothing not lost pkgs and time in a show.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Hearst Television needs to rid the company of Melissa Williams and Greg Shepperd. Greg has a proven record of ruining stations he goes to. He ruined KHBS/KHOG. He’s ruining KOAT. Melissa Williams is helping him sink the ship.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Not Good”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Morale is very low and it has affected our product across the board. Mike tries, but he can’t help himself because he is a very terrible people person. He thinks his words mean well, but they bring people down.
However, he has a history of this at other stations, and hasn’t been held accountable.
The station, meanwhile continues to suffer.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“It felt like Mike never had my back…regardless of the situation. I finally got sick and tired of it. Mike has also belittled some of our other employees to the point of tears.
This is not how you lead a station. Mike has to go.”
News Director: Greg Shepperd
Experience described as: “Terrible, egotistical, rude, harassing, dumb”
While working for KOAT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Greg Shepperd is one terrible news director. My experience in production with him was terrible. He would always talk down to us making the atmosphere unprofessional. He would borderline call us stupid without outright saying it. He would blame others for his mistakes just so he would have a clean slate. He kisses corporate’s butt and throws a fake smoke screen to make it appear that everything here is fine. It isn’t, everything here is terrible.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Corporate needs to wake up and get rid of this man. His micromanagement, abusive, fake attitude has made the place a joke to work at.”
News Director: Tim Maestas
“A Has Been who use to be in the market a long time ago.
He is new so you have to kiss his butt.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“KOB-TV A.K.A “Kids on Broadcast TV” Lot of kids with little experience that makes us look like a glamours community access channel or a low 200 market station. With that said, of course the pay is not commensurate to the market size with the excuse the area’s low cost of living. More obvious how people dress and have no money or sense aesthetics. There is a new sheriff in town (cough) News Director so everyone is on edge when he starts swinging the blade.
This is not a great station as it seems where you can craft enterprising impactful stories that make a difference and provide real viewer benefit. Good luck building on the station’s history of providing viewers with the best local news in New Mexico. LOL. Not with this news crew. The daily content is stupid. It is the same crap of stupid breaking news of shootings, car thefts, and car wrecks or Mexicans and liberals playing the victim role about illegals coming over at the border and other mindless video to fill a show.
Overall not a good market to make a career move unless you are from here. Outside the city are someone pretty places to visit, however, an unsafe poor quality of life with high crime that will make you mark daily a “X” on your calendar when your contract ends.”
News Director: Chuck Maulden
“Best news director I’ve worked with. Always available to chat, answer questions, in person or via phone. Feedback when necessary and when asked. ETHICS is his number one priority. Truly cares about his employees.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“The desk is a little disorganized. We’ve missed a couple events and sometimes you don’t find out you are working on your normal day off until a couple days before.
Overall, a great place to work. The newsroom feels like family. Chuck, the producers and the desk are very helpful and collaborative. Ethics is a priority – Chuck always asks “does the public have a right to know?” He runs the newsroom as best as possible, always putting employees and our safety first, and great content on air. You’ll never run a live shot by yourself. MMJ occasionally. Enterprise over death & destruction. Chuck for President.”
News Director: Mike Gonzalez
Experience described as: “Amazing”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
News Director: Roger Seay
“They are unable to retain employees because they claim they can’t afford to.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational
Additional comments:
“Do your two years and go. Avoid taking on any extra duties because they will not pay you extra for it.”
News Director: Jessica Laszweski
Experience described as: “Negative”
While working for WMTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“This station is constantly trying to do more with less and it is hurting the quality of news they create. Promises and expectations are made for reporters when they start and nothing is followed through on. People will leave positions and management just decides not to fill them. Everyone is constantly stressed and there is no leadership. Jess has good intentions but has no vision and is inconsistent. Sometimes you’ll get an email back about some obscure, while you may never get a reply for something actually important. She thinks communication solves everything, but no amount of constant and thorough communication can compensate for NO RESOURCES. Expectations are high, but unclear- and no solutions are offered for how to achieve them. Gray is running yet another station further into the ground. It is embarrassing to work here- especially when you go to stories and leaders feel bad for you and look down on you and your station when the other stations are consistently kicking butt and never miss a beat because they have resources.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Poor”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“For the last two years, we have been understaffed to the point that producers like myself have been extremely overworked to the point that some are producing as many as 16 shows a week.
On top of that, we are treated like slaves by the management team of Mike Rausch and Cindy Dixon.
During news meetings, Mike spends most of his time talking about himself instead of putting forward enterprise stories.
When he was the News Director for WFTV, ratings declined 39 percent. KRDO has also suffered under Rausch’s tutelage.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The people that work at KRDO are tremendous, but management is extremely lackluster. Do not work for KRDO until Mike and his associates are given the boot.
Mike is also very disrespectful to women in the workplace. Don’t make the same mistake many others have. Work elsewhere.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Wasted a good amount of time here.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t work here until Mike and Cindy are no longer employed.”
News Director: Sam Eaton
“Sam was nice, but the first ND, Matt Rist, was a nightmare”
While working for KOSA this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Was sexually harassed by a photog.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Horrible company (Gray TV), horrible station, always short on budget, management changed time cards and actually deleted hours of overtime worked by employees, some members of management participated in talking negatively behind emoloyees’ backs and gossiping. This place was the worst year and a half of my life. I saw so many young, talented, passionate journalists be abused and overworked to the point they quit the station and the business altogether. I had never been so miserable and depressed at a station in my life. Do not, I repeat DO NOT go to KOSA CBS 7 News.”
News Director: Lena Sadiwskyj
“Lena was great to work with. If she gets upset about something, she knows when to drop it. She’s funny but can also be very serious at the same time. She’s worked in larger markets and likes to treat Dothan like one.”
While working for WTVY this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I would only work here if you’re from here. They take contracts way too seriously and give you a hard time about getting out. And the buy-out is ridiculous for what you’re paid.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Micro managed, lack of communication, if you’re good at what you do, a lot of the work falls on you. Lazy employees seem to get rewarded for being lazy.”
News Director: Jeff Fitzgerald
“Generally good, he lied a bit to get me to interview for the scheduling slot he most needed filled and again to make the working relationships between people seem more positive.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Overall, it is a very good learning station. Most of the people here are team players but unfortunately there are always a few bad eggs who are difficult to work with and don’t put much effort forth to begin with, and management is unable or unwillingly to deal with it. News and sales are given priority above other departments. Money is not great and apartments are not cheap, or if they are, they aren’t very good places to live. Equipment is not always in the best state but work requests go through quickly. Stories are fluff. We’re basically a visual community calendar but it is a great place to make mistakes and grow. Overtime for news staff is not super frequent but when it happens is not typically an issue with management.”
News Director: Ashley Hall
Experience described as: “Negative, condescending, and passive aggressive leadership style.”
While working for KDRV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“So unfortunate, because this is a WONDERFUL area! If they treated their people with respect and payed a living wage, people would stay longer. Overall, employees are overworked, taken advantage of, and constantly put into unsafe situations. MMJ’s rarely (or never) get photogs, even at night, in unsafe areas, when they’ve expressed they do not feel comfortable. The news director and general manager are both extremely passive aggressive, and lack basic leadership skills and understanding of what their employees do and what is realistic. Extremely hard to want to come to work here.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Extremely unorganized newsroom. They struggle with keeping people because they are treated so poorly. Many people choose to leave the TV business completely after working here. Expectations as far as daily workload are completely unrealistic, and they put an emphasis on quantity vs. quality. In my time, it became normal to work as an MMJ turning two packages on two different topics per day, and live for each without a photographer. The quality of work has suffered greatly because of these expectations. It also makes it difficult to feel like employees are doing a good job because of this workload. If you’re new to the business, I’d encourage you to look for employment elsewhere if you plan to stay in the tv biz, because this place will make you want to change career path as soon as possible.”
News Director: Stew Hirsch
“Awful. I have no respect for him, and he is severely underqualified for his position.”
While working for WFFT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Salary is poor, and despite the overall good camaraderie in the newsroom, our News Director and General Manager do nothing to want to foster a positive working experience. Retention rate is low, therefore turnover happens at the end of nearly every contract. The bosses care more about the bottom line and money rather than putting together a good product.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Positive, Fun, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“There are zero photographers here, and we have one show a day. The bosses claim to be working towards advancement, more shows, higher ratings and more staff, but will not spend the money necessary to put these changes in to effect. Our cameras are outdated to the point where they cannot get replacement parts. Video would look better coming from your cell phone. If any equipment needs to be fixed, they’ll look to the cheapest route possible rather than try to actually fix the problem. They use the “band-aid” method in hopes the problem heals itself. Zero promotions are done to promote our staff, we can’t even get a printer that works and our technology lacks in every department.”
News Director: Stew Hirsch
“Has health problems that inhibit his ability to do his job”
While working for WFFT this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Former producer made inappropriate sexual jokes
Only hires female anchors and was told that “females suit the job better” when applied for position
Very unorganized management, no communication and a lack of resources”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Jess Laszewski
Experience described as: “Relaxed”
While working for WMTV this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination
“There are managers who make comments assuming young women/reporters are incompetent or naive.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Jess took over a news room in crisis and she is doing the best she can. She is a strong woman with high expectations but is willing to listen and make a plan if you need help or want to change something. She has vision and is trying to make it an innovative station on all platforms, but is quite unorganized. Employees were once signed to 1 year contracts under the old ND. Jess requires a 3 year.
Other managers are horrible and often negative. They will roll eyes if you ask questions and do not understand what working in the field is like. AM, Chief PJ, and EP have clear biases and are often discouraging.
Anchors are experienced, knowledgable, helpful, and give awesome feedback to producers and reporters.
Pay is low, especially compared to competing stations. A great starting market for someone out of college who has strong experience from internships or college work (dayturns, liveshots, policy & court knowledge). The pay is far too low for a second market job. Many people like the city, station, and coworkers but leave because they just won’t fork over the cash to keep them.
Madison is a fantastic city and market. Overall, if you have a good attitude and work hard and can deal with some BS, you will love the city, the station, and your coworkers (except managers).”
News Director: Curtis Jackson
“He is a nice guy. However, poor leadership and management skills. Not very helpful and somewhat absent from the newsroom.”
While working for KIFI/KIDK this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The news director is supposed to be the leader but he’s very absent. Too many people trying to be in charge. Very poor decision making also. Decisions are usually made last minute and not communicated through the newsroom (which is inexcusable because it’s small).
Reporters aren’t treated well and thought of as less important if we aren’t Mormon or if we don’t have kids and families.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
Additional comments:
“There are some good things: getting a photog for live shots, photogs and the promotion department are willing to go out with you if you need them. There are some very helpful people it’s just unfortunate that the overall environment is toxic due to lack of leadership and a “real boss.”
News Director: Crysty Vaughan
Experience described as: “Deceitful”
While working for WOLO this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“AVOID”
News Director: Janis Harper
Experience described as: “Nothing special”
While working for KTVA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Main female anchor is difficult to work with, a bully, and very condescending. New desk person is very rude and makes people feel bad. The women who work there gossip and do not support each other.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Work somewhere else.”
News Director: Mike Rausch
Experience described as: “Bad — much like a prison”
While working for KRDO this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Mike Rausch is an experienced news director and has good ideas, but the way he presents himself is very arrogant, misogynistic, demeaning, and snobbish.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Some days were good, others were disastrous. Turnover has been extremely high lately because employees are treated so poorly.
Many departments have gone understaffed for years because management does not know how to treat people, nor have they made any attempts to change their demeanor.
However, this has gone on for so long, that any change would not seem genuine. Don’t work here.”