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News Director: Rick Boone
“Rick is a good ND, but can be timid or too neutral at times. Has a lot of gusto but it can be inadvertently misplaced, given the day of the week and whether or not his health is bad.”
While working for WHNT this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Definitely an awesome place to work, have been here for almost a decade and have never been turned away from any training opportunities! Finding the right people to befriend and the right (seasoned) folks offers a very family-like atmosphere.”
News Director: Mike Rosen
Experience described as: “HORRIBLE”
While working for WJCL this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“DON’T WORK HERE. I got paid 26,000 a year to work harder than I’ve ever worked in my entire life. (Even at my higher paying job in a better market now)
They sold me (tricked me) on the job by saying all the management was new and they were going to turn it around… but it’s all lies. It’s the worst station in the market for a reason. The place is rotten and toxic and it stems from the top down. Racism and bullying in the newsroom made the work culture unbearable. I was sexually harassed daily by the photographer and a m a in the sales department.
One employee tried to physically fight me over breaking news.
HR IS TERRIBLE ZERO STARS!!!! They got mad at me for getting Covid… when they were forcing us all to keep working in-person during lockdown.
Lockwood is a terrible company to work for!! The gear is crap, you have to share it and people steal.
Their benefits suck and they don’t match 401k so you can’t even save for retirement. They have zero problem taking your life and soul and making you feel guilty for not doing enough when you devote all your time and energy to them. Is HORRIBLE!!!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
News Director: Jenna Huff
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control
News Director: Rob Cartwright
“Rob is a very chill news director. If you have a problem he will always hear you out but it’s a different story when something needs to be addressed. He’s active in the day-to-day newsroom operations and genuinely wants to see the station succeed”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“CBS Austin (KEYE) is one of those stations where you just have to keep your head down and get your work done. The station lacks organization and it was always depending on what the other stations were doing for stories. There doesn’t seem to be a want-to-win culture at this station. CBS Austin is a revolving door right now. It’s so hard for the station to keep talent, producers, assignment editors, and photographers. They’ve resorted to hiring people straight out of college or people with no news experience. Every department was always understaffed. The work/life balance here was hard because you’d always have to fill in on someone elses shift. I felt like we were always doing the same stories over and over and there was never any opportunity to tell good people stories. It was always news of day and talking to officials. Characters were always found through MOS. The station has GA reporters and MMJs. I do not recommend MMJing here. MMJs here are time fillers in the C Block and never get to do bigger stories. Those are always left for the reporters. As the weekend reporter/MMJ if you get a big story over the weekend, it was always passed to a reporter during the week. MMJs don’t even get live shots most of the time or even studio time. It was mainly straight PKGs and an added Anchor VOSOT here and there. I was always begging for a live shot. If you want to grow to get to your next market, it’s going to be hard to put together a reel unless you fight for those live shots. I’m in top 25 now and the workload is more than I can handle because I wasn’t prepared, even though I get a photographer every day now. There aren’t enough photographers usually to get a live shot. Your mental health will be tested at times. One reporter even had to take a leave of absence. The assistant news director was promoted from EP. She’s still figuring out the role and will talk behind people’s back. She’s been caught a few times but nothing ever happens. Reporters/MMJs are also required to get Spanish sound for Telemundo when they can because Telemundo reporters just redo PKGs shot from the CBS side. Last but not least, the pay is awful. Austin is too expensive of a city to live in. 3-4 photographers quit around the same time because the station doesn’t pay enough and they don’t like to pay overtime. Positions have been cut to give other departments raises. I wouldn’t label the station as toxic but there are a lot of organizational issues and it could be negative at times. Working here was described as “embarrassing” by some. Managers think the new set will change how people view the station, but good luck. You might be happier at another station in the market.”
News Director: Jessica Bobula
“Fucking terrible. She’s a corporate kiss-ass who doesn’t care about her employees. She hires inexperienced morons and expects everyone to cover for them.”
While working for KOLD this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“It’s a stressful job with terrible pay. Mid-market station that has high market expectations with low market resources.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Everyone is miserable because nobody feels valued. Management treats everyone as replaceable and does not care if their star employees leave. I’ve lost track of the number of people who have come here and burned out of the business entirely.”
News Director: Richard Washington III
“Richard Washington III is a grossly incompetent news director. He has poor news judgement and runs a newsroom purely on favoritism.”
While working for WTIC this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“This is where your career will go to die. A backwards mentality that enjoys its mediocrity. You will get no constructive feedback or opportunities to advance your career.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Easily the lowest paying station in the market and a distant fourth place in the ratings. Would only recommend for someone straight out of college. It is beneath many news stations in smaller markets in terms of news quality and management support. This place is a revolving door that cannot retain talent.”
News Director: Kim Wyatt
Experience described as: “Chaotic, crazy, means well but unpredictable”
While working for WEAR this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Asst ND is afraid of ND. Won’t take your side if you’re correct. The EP is a lunatic fights and yells. All women management. HR won’t help you. Valerie Massey”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Very low pay. Many have left, quit, or been fired. High turnover. Story choices are poor. Very little support especially if they don’t like you. Staff afraid of ND. Sinclair is a poor company to work for. They are cutting back in many areas”
News Director: Terry Wood
Experience described as: “Terrible”
While working for KMID this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Terry Wood is the worst human being on earth. He tries to come across as nice but openly talks s*** about employees behind their back, TO OTHER EMPLOYEES. There was a MASSIVE group of people leaving because of how miserable Terry is. Nobody wants to work for him. He’s SO FAKE. He drains the life out of you. He doesn’t care about you. People are afraid of Terry and will do what he says…which is completely understandable. He holds their livelihood in his hands, and he works off of people’s fears. He is a tyrant, a bully, and honestly, a sad loser who takes it out on employees that he has no life. But he thinks he’s hot s*** because he came from being an executive producer in LA. He has no trace of a personality. Blank walls in his office, and nobody is allowed to decorate their desks because of “corporate rules.” That’s an outright lie, he just hates anything that shows you’re not a mindless drone. He doesn’t care at all about the feelings of his employees, he demeans and demotes, he does whatever he wants to fit his agenda. He has talked s*** and told lies to other Nexstar directors for some people who have tried to transfer to other stations, causing them to not get the job. Why? Because he’s a nasty person and can’t come up with genuine reasons, so he has to stay they’re hard to work with in order to stop them from moving forward in their career. If you give him an inch he will take a mile. Yes it’s news and these things can happen, but he makes it a habit. He doesn’t care about training new people, and relies on people with more experience to take pity and train them. It’s a terrible place to get your start. The fresh out of college kids are set up for failure because they don’t know what to do and he works them to the bone without making sure they know what they’re doing. It’s not their fault, it’s his.
Mark is no better. He would weirdly flirt with some employees, and made it a point to touch the shoulders of some of the staff, particularly the female staff. He does not care about you, your health, your anything. He care about profits and making himself look good. He won’t take responsibility for the terrible ND he hired.
HR is a joke. All Cindy cares about is getting her nails done and spreading gossip. She would definitely tell Terry & Mark whatever you say. You can’t trust her at all.
And for the record, the person who put they make $65K was an anchor who was there for a few years and negotiated her contract for that high salary, just to leave a few months later for a job in Denver. That salary was an exception to the norm. And since Terry was obsessed with her, it was fine that she left her job. It was a Nexstar station, but they planned a lot around her being the big star of the evening shows. Outside of that one anchor, if you do ANYTHING that Terry doesn’t like, you’re on his s*** list and he will live to make your life a living hell.
If you’re there now, keep your head down low, get your experience, learn who you can trust and who you can’t talk to, and GET OUT. There are better stations, better NDs, better environments. It’s a tough industry but I promise you, you don’t deserve this flat out abuse. Your well being is more important than being on the good side of that mouth breather.
I would say Nexstar should do an internal investigation, but the company doesn’t care. CEO Perry Sook isn’t a great guy either. Look him up. He’s awful.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t work here. Don’t work here. Don’t work here.”
News Director: Terry Wood
“Absolutely horrendous. Petty, manipulative, controlling, two-faced. Plays favorites openly, talks bad about people behind their back (including who he can’t wait to fire). Honestly, just a terrible person.”
While working for KMID this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I’ve worked in several newsrooms to this point in my career. My time at KMID was by far the WORST experience I’ve had in the industry. The newsroom morale was the lowest i’ve ever seen anywhere.
Terry came in thinking he’s hot stuff because he’s worked in LA which makes him god’s gift to the Earth. In reality, his lack of small-market experience meant he’s never learned how to allocate resources or develop talent.
He constantly micromanages producers (calls control room DURING THE SHOW to nitpick), couldn’t care less about developing talent. Just expects you to be HIS version of perfect and bickers when you mess something up. Threatened to write people up for saying “over’ instead of “more than”. Also, makes up fake “corporate rules” which are really just his rules. Basically, it’s a game of put up with my crap or I’ll fire you.
He also tries to pit people against each other. He will tell a producer WORD FOR WORD what to tell a reporter instead of just doing it himself. So you’re never mad at him, just the producer.
Trashes you behind your back but won’t say anything to your face about it. Instead of trying to mentor/help you, he’d rather write you off as a failure that should be tossed out with the trash.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Station is breaking laws re: overtime pay. Reporters have been told to count hour-long drives back from shoots as dinner breaks. Terry sends emails that say “unapproved OT will not be approved” – if you work OT and clock it, there have been times ND will change your time sheet and take it off.
GM Mark Garcia is a mixed bag. Probably a chill dude if you didn’t work with him but brutally ‘business-minded’ and cheap as a boss. He’s a sales guy, so he basically defers all news content decisions to Terry. Carries himself as the “good cop” to Terry’s “bad cop”. Can’t tell if he knows how miserable it is to work for Terry or if he knows and thinks you should put up with it.
TL;DR: The people working there are good, hard-working people trying their best. Morale between co-workers is good but management (ND especially) is MISERABLE to work for. Everyone is just trying to keep their head above water.”
News Director: Vladimir Araya
“Bad experience. He used retaliation and intimidation tactics to keep employees “in line”.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
Additional comments:
“The overall newsroom was an ok environment. Excluding the ND, the rest of the employees were cordial, talented, and worked as a team. However, the station is extremely under resourced (boasts #1 ratings but had the smallest team in the market and fewer newscasts), and nobody had a set schedule (it changed every week).”
News Director: Vladimir Araya
“He is incompetent and takes things personally”
While working for Univision 21 this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“He intimidated reporters with threats of final warnings over minuscule infractions like being late 15 minutes one day.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t work here unless you’re desperate. This station likes to position itself as the news leader in the Central Valley, but really it had no resources (only station in town that had no photogs for reporters) and always copies the Fresno Bee and ABC30.”
News Director: Jay Quaintance
While working for WJHL this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Jay perpetuates a negative environment. Quick to lose his temper on honest mistakes and little to no praise ever.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Jay thinks because you’ve signed a contract you’re a slave. Doesn’t hesitate to make you do a job you never signed up for and put you on ungodly hours against your will.
The station is too cheap to invest in working equipment or cars. Like at this point it’s a major safety concern. There was a reporter who had a car explode into flames one day and no e-mail was sent out to the newsroom acknowledging the incident or promising to actually MAINTAIN the cars. TN doesn’t have car inspections.
Not a lot of concern for safety when out on stories either.
Don’t get me wrong the market itself is interesting and big and you can learn a lot. There are some great people here! There are also some toxic ones. It may not be a mistake to come here if you’re a newbie, but just know these are the risks.”
News Director: Vicki Bradley
Experience described as: “Meh”
While working for WTXL this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I’ve been away from WTXL for a few years now and from what I hear from people I still talk to, it’s the same as it was when I left— horrible. Not enough people for the workload. When COVID hit, no one knew what to do, so I can give a little grace for that. But having to turn the amount of stories we were told to do, with at least one of them being a looklive pkg, was insane to me. I like to think every person was trying their best to make the best of that situation, but when I think back on my experience, I think it was more of “quantity over quality.” I was salary and being made to work 14 hour days because they knew they didn’t have to pay me OT. That’s when I realized I couldn’t stay anymore and started keeping track of all the OT hours I was working. I left halfway through a 2 year contract and never looked back. Most of the employees were great, but management? Not so much. I was even told in an email to be “crowd control” during protests… basically don’t let the reporter get attacked or something. Completely insane to ask anyone to do something like this who isn’t trained in being a security or body guard.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
News Director: Tonya Estes
Experience described as: “Terrible”
While working for WCBD this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Beyond toxic. Catty and middle school work managers who gossip for hours and then will scream at you in front of everyone in the newsroom.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Not just saying this to get on here and complain, that place is scary for what it is. Workers who made their careers there for decades left under the new management. HR contributes to the toxicity. Overall a very scary environment and I am so grateful I chose not to resign. I would choose 4/5 over 2 if considering Charleston.”
News Director: Kyle Brinkman
Experience described as: “Easy”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“I love it here. I’m about to be on my fourth year and comparing this station to my previous newsrooms is a walk in the park. Management can be slightly disorganized but our AND is on it. To be honest you get what you give. I’m a hard worker and I have never had an issue here. I just wish I got more feedback willingly, but have never run into an issue of receiving it when asked.”
News Director: Kristen Palestina
Experience described as: “Horrible”
While working for WVUE this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I’d urge caution to anyone seriously considering a job here. Emphasis is placed on local talent from NOLA and the investigative unit solely. Most everything else falls by the wayside except the occasional special project. No support, broken promises, and management exercises favoritism towards whoever is in the clique. Multiple poor workers and managers are known to fail upwards.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“For those interested in investigative reporting- they’ll promise you mentorship and growth, but they’re empty promises.”
News Director: Lisa Burger
Experience described as: “Toxic”
While working for KSEE this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The newsroom staff was overall fine, but Lisa Burger created a toxic work environment. The favoritism is unreal, she also lacks mentorship skills but excels at gaslighting, insulting, and making you feel less than. She likes setting people up for failure. She is incredibly fake and also racist.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Run the other way”
News Director: Stacey Roberts
“She was an awful news director.”
While working for KSTU this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I was set up to fail from day one at that station. There is nothing in the form of support from management, let alone other employees. I was forced to sign a contract before I started which I found odd considering I was not an on-air personality, nor had I the ability to be an on-air personality or do anything else outside of what the contract allowed. But that’s actually not the worst of it. There is nothing but EGO from the reporters, anchors, and pretty much anyone in management, including executive producers, news editors, assistants, photographers, and assignment desk managers. I was talked down to, passive-aggressively dismissed, and blown off by others. I got in trouble for standing up for myself, especially after the head nighttime anchor kept yelling at me from the studio and the news desk manager told me to go away. The news editor completely dismissed my concerns and provided no other support to resolve an issue. The HR representative used mentally abusive tactics to get me to comply. The station manager failed to acknowledge me, my experience, and what I was going through at the station. It was only after I got a lawyer and told them what’s up that I was able to leave.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you are looking for a supportive, fun, and creative environment to work in news, STAY AWAY FROM THIS STATION. During my time there and slightly after, a total of 10 people have left, some of them for the same reason I left. Do yourself a favor and AVOID Fox 13 at all costs if you want to keep your mental health and your career intact.”
News Director: Dutch Terry
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“owned by morris multimedia
cbs station
newscasts
weekdays:
5-7am
10-10:30am(mondays-thursdays only)
12-12:30pm
5:30-6:30pm
7-7:30pm
11-11:35pm
Weekends:
11-11:35pm
we have chattanooga’s only 7pm news
1st tv station in chattanooga”
News Director: Mike Friedrich
“Spoke to him once. Worst ND I’ve ever worked for. Couldn’t be more out of touch, or less concerned with what is happening in the newsroom.”
While working for KUTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Kyle Brinkman
Experience described as: “Uncomfortable”
While working for WSPA this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Literally the worst work experience I’ve ever had in my entire life and I’ve worked in retail and restaurants. The newsroom is completely unorganized, news cars are disgusting and there’s not enough equipment or photogs for the amount of reporters they hire. I wasn’t set up to succeed at all when I was hired and felt racially discriminated against. When I first got to the station, I had a traditional news camera but management made me give it up to a newer white reporter and forced me to cover stories on my PHONE. Not only did they expect me to produce the same quality of work as the other reporters with cameras, they expected me to meet the same deadlines WITHOUT a station laptop to edit in the field. This negatively impacted the quality of my work and my overall morale. So imagine the stress I endured trying to meet deadline with NONE of the tools other reporters were equipped with. Halfway through my contract I realized I was severely underpaid for the market size and cost of living. There were several occasions where I felt unwelcome and at times uncomfortable at this station due to my experience level. The more experienced reporters clicked up and offered little to no encouragement. I never got feedback on my work from management while working here except for the occasional “nice story on xyz” in passing. I never really felt like I was a part of the “team”. If they ask you to sign a contract at this station I’d advise you to run. Fast. Several seasoned and passionate people have left over the past few years due to poor management.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Management in its entirety needs an upgrade. Turnover is high for a reason.”
News Director: Aaron Williams
“News director is laid back. No confrontation whatsoever ever but no push to be the best.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational
Additional comments:
“Station is somewhat organized. They assign reporters 3 to 4 stories to turn in each day. Most are fluffy stories of ribbon cuttings so that sales can get ads from them later. Rarely ever any hard news. Whenever something big does come up the reporters aren’t allowed to touch it. The producer will just call the police station for a few bullet points then write a reader on it. A great place to start out right out of college but the only people that stay their have intense life problems. Nexstar just bumped up minimum pay to $15 an hour so that’s what the new people get. Down side is the schedule is never consistent. You can work 10 days in a row. The schedule also only comes out 2 days before the last one is over … meaning you come in on Friday and don’t actually know if you’re working Monday because the schedules not out yet. Not bad …. But not a place i could be at for more than 2 years.”
News Director: Joe Schlaerth
“Joe is the absolute worst news director I’ve ever come across. I would do your own research before working for him. Just Google his name and you will see stories on his firing in Buffalo. He does not, by any means, like when women have voices and very obviously doesn’t like when women speak up. He says inappropriate things to young female reporters and disguises the comments as ‘constructive feedback’ about performance. He will say things about future opportunities and then pretend the conversations never happened. He is the most toxic ‘boss.'”
While working for WFIE this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The news director doesn’t favor women well. Of course, you’ll see women on the TV screens but the way he treats them off the screens, is repulsive. Outside of that, he makes inappropriate comments about how they look when you do your 1-on-1s with him. His odd smile and your drive for the career helps mask his further intentions. In terms of toxic work enviornments, you very rarely ever have a lunch break, you will get pulled off of MMJ’ing at any time to produce, you never get photog help unless you’re a favorite, you are expected to turn two stories a day sometimes adding another VO SOT into that mix. Your ideas are never heard or executed. No one is ever celebrated, you will only ever hear what you did wrong instead of what you did right. The moral is so low coming from all of the employees who work there, no one is happy. Under Joe as news dorector, they have recently lost over 10 on air employees, including two main anchors. The amount of people who left the industry because of him is repulsive. Joe also enjoys making inappropriate comments to people when no one else is around so he can’t be held accountable. Their reporters have worked over 60 hours in one week with that being the expectation. As anchors, if you’re new, you’re expected to also turn stories on top of anchoring and producing your shows. The list goes on. Management at that station as a whole, is terrible. The General Manager isn’t out of the loop on all this too. On top of that, they are unable to ‘diversify’ their newsroom. The amount of disturbing comments made about why they can’t do that… is awful.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I highly reccomend talking to people who left that station. You will be talked into thinking the station is the best of the best and you will have all these opportunities but none will ever come to you. Also, three years is outrageous, stick with a two year deal if you can. Until Joe leaves, there will be no change. Do yourself a favor and don’t even think about working there. It’s an overall bad place where you can’t / won’t grow. Find a better station. Literally anywhere else.”
While working for KGPE this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I was targeted by various newsroom personnel over my sexual orientation and other factors not covered by current laws. There is a cabal of bullies in the newsroom and they will do things behind your back.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“There are some kind people in the newsroom, but overall, I would not have gone to this station if I had to choose again. I was lucky enough to get rescued from the station by my current boss.”
News Director: Megan Roberta
Experience described as: “Inconsistent”
While working for WRCB this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The managers are absent and only invest in the producers. Reporters are taken advantage of. Photographers are not important.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This station ruined news for me. The management situation is childish. They cater to certain people and belittle others. They show favorites and let certain people say and do whatever they want. No consequences for inappropriate and rude behavior. I have seen many producers cuss people out and say horrible things with no consequences. Overall, it’s a terrible work environment unless you’re a producer.”
News Director: Jill Manuel
Experience described as: “SOUL CRUSHING”
While working for KXTV this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“- In a public critique, ND (Jill Manuel) once said she knew she would no longer get useful information and could clean her cat’s litter box when (reporter) came on tv. Yes, this reporter was on the call when she said it. No, she did not apologize.
– ND frequently tells assignment editors and reporters during editorial meetings she is “tired of their bullshit pitches.”
– ND has referred to the LGBTQIA+ community as the “alphabet mafia” in multiple meetings. When told this was offensive, she said she’s a member and it’s okay.
– When auditing content for “diversity,” ND will ask “what’s the Black story for today?”
– Subjected Black employees (and Black employees only) to quotes from Tyler Perry’s Madea movies after she saw it for the first time.
– Excluded a Latina reporter candidate from hiring because the reporter “did not look Latina and if we’re going to hire Latinas we need to get credit.”
– Allows White employees to call BIPOC employees “tolken hires,” even when employees tell her it is offensive.
– Approved a new set design for 2 anchors even though the morning broadcast has 3 anchors. She then proceeded to berate a team of morning producers for not having a plan for how to produce a 3 anchor show.
– ND will never allow you to complete a sentence in a meeting or just regular conversation.
– Regularly yells at belittles employee to their faces, in meetings and behind their backs to other employees.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you are a BIPOC in the newsroom (which largely excluded the “Originals” team), you will not have an easy time. Jill Manuel is ignorant when it comes to issues of DEI, how to act professionally and how to treat people with respect. She uses stereotypes to make “informed” decisions and is not open to any sort of feedback. Be prepared to go before a one-woman firing squad should you decide to share your feedback with her. HR and corporate knows this is an issue and has done nothing about it. Multiple people have made multiple complaints to no avail. Good luck if you decide to work here.”
News Director: Matt Griffin
Experience described as: “Okay….don’t really deal with him alone in my position.”
While working for KXII this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Lots of backfiring, gossip, general bleak atmosphere.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Its the poorest run station I have worked out. This is my fourth. The overall management team is clueless and not involved.”
While working for WKTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“At the start of my term, WKTV had a news director who soon quit due to the hostility of a seasoned anchor and a general manager who was more reactive than proactive.
The newsroom is dangerously short-staffed and although the pandemic did shift the way a newsroom functions, WKTV had always been running on fumes even before the pandemic according to staff that had been there for 10+ years.
I doubled as a weekend anchor/reporter/ producer but my job entailed more. There were times when I was writing and posting digital content, turning packages while producing and anchoring, and handling breaking news (buffalo shooting) without the assistance or help of any other staff. Weekends in any newsroom are usually short-staffed, but for the evening news, I only had a photographer for 8 hours, leaving me to pick and choose what events I could cover without missing out on breaking news.
As a reporter, you will always have to choose between quality and content.
Due to there not being a news director, and a bare-bones newsroom; there is always a lack of planning and a lot of micromanaging.
Jason Powles is not a great person to work with and is known for having the most critiques but doing the least amount of work. Overall, he contributes to the toxicity of the newsroom.
I ultimately broke my contract to get out of there because this is a station that will not provide you the resources to succeed, operates in chaos, and shows no leadership in management so no solutions to your problem regarding other staff or your career will be provided,
If you’re new to this industry– stay away from this newsroom!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“New reporters should really stay away from this station.”
News Director: Lauri Martin
“Lauri is rarely around, and when she was there, she was too scattered to be actually present.”
While working for KKTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The amount of favoritism at this station is incredible (the news director is married to the chief meteorologist if that tells you anything). It is also insane how unorganized it is, and the errors and mis-planning of management always fall on the little guys. The anchors constantly talk about reporters and producers behind their backs in the newsroom. Producers and reporters don’t get feedback or tips on how to improve. If reporters ever said they were uncomfortable doing a story or a live shot, they were forced to do it anyways. The station thrives on “breaking news” and “shocking video” but doesn’t actually care who it affects.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Run, don’t walk from KKTV. This is the place where journalists’ careers go to die. In the past year, the station has lost 13 on-air people alone–many of them leaving TV News and Journalism altogether. They do not care about you here–they just want to be first with breaking news. You will never get a raise because there is an apparent never-ending “pay freeze” but they will sting you along for months. Reporters rarely do more than a VOSOT, because KKTV is too busy using them as photojournalists (because they can’t hire anyone for pennies). I’ve never worked in a more dysfunctional, toxic, horrible work environment. Management hires people on false promises (so if you are told something, get it in writing). You will be used here, and when you ask for a better schedule, circumstances, or god forbid an extra dollar an hour–you will be told a BS answer as to how it isn’t possible and then asked to go shoot video of a car accident. It’s shocking and sad how many good journalists have left the business after working here. I am writing this to hopefully save others from this station as there are not any recent reviews. I also chose intern to protect my identity–the station didn’t have interns when I was there.”
News Director: Chuck Maulden
“Chuck was great when he hired me. He was kind and seemed to care about journalism. However, he became hostile toward me when I turned down a promotion, which ultimately led to him completely ignoring me during the final months of my contract.”
While working for KOTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“News On 6 is the dominant station in the market, which is both a good and bad thing. It’s good in the fact that there’s a lot of resources and content for producers and anchors. However, there’s too many reporters on staff (at least 20), which means many of them often cover stories that are better left as pacers.
My experience started off positive since I had the best of both worlds getting to anchor and report. That all changed when I turned down a promotion in the middle of my contract. I turned it down to be closer to family and to grow my career, but it felt like the news director took it personally, which led to a hostile environment in my final months.
Todd Spessard, who essentially runs Griffin Media, told me I could sit at my desk for all he cares and that he’d still pay me until he didn’t have to anymore. When I told my news director this he laughed in my face and said, “It’s not that big of a deal.”
Todd and the other managers are known to lie to the on-air talent regarding newsroom opportunities and private matters that shouldn’t be discussed. The constant lies, hostility, and lack of sympathy weren’t things just dished out to me, but to my colleagues as well. At least three of my coworkers, who were all reliable and passionate journalists who planned on being in the market long-term, were let go or told to leave within two months of my contract ending.
When we brought these and other issues to HR’s attention, nothing happened, except that we were all blocked on social media by HR.
Griffin Media (which owns KOTV and KWTV in Oklahoma City) prides itself on being a “family company.” However, that couldn’t be further from the truth in how most of the newsroom employees are treated. I’m thankful for my time at the company as it allowed me to be closer to home and to report on special projects important to me, but the treatment I received in the newsroom made me question my future in this industry.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Chuck Maulden
“Chuck Maulden is a nice guy, unfortunately he sits back while managers run wild in his newsroom. A leader takes responsibility for all employees, reels in managers, and works to create a healthy environment for employees. Chuck Maulden does none of these things.”
While working for KOTV this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The level of toxicity in the newsroom runs from the top down. KOTV loves having too many managers, resulting in having two assistant news directors. One assistant news director is sexist toward women and the other is an abusive bully. KOTV managers need to feel important in an “us against them” environment. Your mental health will suffer from the daily berating and verbal abuse from Kristie Webb, (one of the assistant news directors). But if you are one of her favorites, you’ll avoid the daily misery! It is only a matter of time before the management abuse results in catastrophic damage to someone.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Run. Griffin Communications owns KWTV in Oklahoma City and KOTV in Tulsa. The company prides itself on being a “family business” and “treating employees like family”. That was true at one point. That time is long gone. Griffin Communications cares about image, not news stories or employees. And be prepared for terrible health insurance. During the pandemic, Griffin changed their health insurance policy. They *lowered* what the company was willing to pay for doctor visits, specifically for females. So if you are a woman, be prepared to pay more for basic female health insurance.
*Dozens* of producers, photographers, mmjs, and even main anchors left within the last two years, for a reason. It’s unfortunate because Tulsa is a wonderful place to live with great opportunities to grow as a journalist.
Your saving grace at KOTV will be your peers. They are incredibly supportive and genuinely good people.”
News Director: Matt Griffin
Experience described as: “Terrible manager. Rude, homophobic, racist and much more.”
While working for KXII this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I worked there for three years and can not figure out how the news director still has a job. The man has used slurs in the newsroom as jokes. He had to go through anger management and sensitivity training which he made fun of. He has been reported several times, but nothing is ever done.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“All feedback is negative and is never constructive. You will feel like you are worthless and terrible every day your work there. Everyone says you need to start somewhere in this career, but if you can, start anywhere but here.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized
Additional comments:
“Overall the photography team itself was pretty good. Heads of the department were helpful. Sometimes we were understaffed or under equipped, but that always felt like it stemmed from the company using the photog department as an easy area to cut costs/milk a little extra labor value out of. (especially after the transfer of ownership when new management always tries to put as good a first few quarters on the books as possible.)
Biggest problem for me was management double talk regarding field crews.
Rarely does anyone in management TELL you to go put yourself in precarious situations for shots, but the pressure from the news room in the moment and the environment of the workplace in general pushed not only you individually, but the entire field staff to do it “of their own volition” hoping to prove themselves valuable. It’s hard to stick to your concerns over the safety of a field situation when not going into the situation would mean abandoning the reporter who’s DESPERATE to earn brownie points with the bosses. And that sort of mentality was definitely cultivated in the field staff.
Nobody ever TELLS you to speed to get to the breaking news, and in fact they tell you not to. But they sure make it seem like it’s a problem YOU’RE responsible for if you don’t get on scene before the other stations.
Overtime on a shift is the rule rather than the exception. I worked on all the shifts for all the news teams and there were rarely shifts that didn’t call for overtime except on Sunday night side. If you want extra cash it’s a good thing, but it can sure get grating, especially when management keeps trying to convince you that it should just be a given because “The news never sleeps” so shut up about it.
Another big personal issue that you readers may not be concerned as much about; it always bugged me how much the station focused on crime, drug panic, and tragic death stuff. On the one hand it makes sense from a business perspective, the easiest thing to find and get coverage of that attracts eyeballs is stuff that makes people afraid.
On the other hand it doesn’t make you feel particularly good to constantly be putting together packages you know only serve to make everyone watching them feel MORE isolated, afraid, judgmental, and hostile toward the people around them. Especially when story ideas that are more optimistic or supportive of communal involvement tend to get shot down/minimized because the station doesn’t want to look like they’re advocating for any sort of social message, as if spending hours fishing for more reactionary or critical sound from people who weren’t even on the scene or involved in the events because it plays better isn’t itself a social message.
In the sense of creativity encouraged in the work, there’s some of that, at least verbally, but so often there is little actual time to put creativity into the work as you try to beat the submission deadline for the 10th fear of crime story you’ve put together this week. I can count on one hand the number of shifts where I was given the time and the story that let me feel really satisfied with and proud of the work I’d done that day.
On a positive note, I did enjoy the days when I was assigned solo breaking news photog. The desk staff were usually pretty good about letting me alone if they didn’t need anything, so long as I answered quick when they did and got them all the coverage they asked for. Although I’m pretty sure management was always trying to crack down on them for it. God bless chill assignment desk staffers.
Overall I’d say that what KOKI FOX23 does best is normalize and incentivize “voluntary” behavior that would broadly be seen as exploitative/abusive if it came in the form of ORDERS from the top management, while passive aggressively (and when it comes from bosses it can’t actually be passive) shaming staff who don’t meet those same “totally not requirements”.
I suppose in the relative sense that’s not as big of a deal as being aggressively, openly toxic or abusive, but really only aesthetically. I guess it’s all pretty standard corporate America.
Also, I didn’t experience it personally so didn’t check the boxes in the above questions, but there were definitely staff who were treated hostilely if they didn’t meet the unspoken expectations of management.
PS – I don’t know how MMJs managed to do their job at all. It was usually a close enough call for to get both packages in and be up for “active” Lives when reporters were assigned efficient photogs, so I always marveled at how MMJs got the same amount of work done and STILL regularly caught shit for not providing good enough content.”
News Director: Dionne Young
Experience described as: “Toxic, unappreciative, kiss-ass”
While working for KBAK/KBFX this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The news staff at KBAK have created a perpetually toxic work environment where harassment will be overlooked, unprofessional behavior is justified, and hatred bubbles in its self-contained cauldron of toxicity.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Save yourself the time and energy. Apply elsewhere, somewhere that will appreciate you.”
News Director: Ron Kriselevic
Experience described as: “Decent”
While working for WBOC this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Lewd jokes all the time. You management pushing their work onto you when you’re already extremely busy”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Save time and heartache by not working here”
News Director: Jerry Goodman
Experience described as: “TOXIC”
While working for WALB this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“If you are a female news reporter, run far away from this station. Jerry Goodman is not qualified for this position and lacks strong news judgment. Will pit employees against each other and lie about the workplace environment for his own benefit. If you are a new grad looking for your first job please do not come here you will lose your excitement and zest for the industry.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Management was of no help when reporting negative behavior and they will turn on you and say their actions are your fault. There is also a lack of organization and camaraderie in the news room ever since new management started. Candace McHan the Assistant News Director is extremely unqualified for her position and somehow has found time to be on air while she’s supposed to help run the newsroom but offers little to no assistance. She runs through HR meetings more than anything and has a problem with almost every employee of color. They will make a lot of false promises to get you in the job but you will be overworked and gaslit if you ever express concern about it. Very toxic work environment.”
News Director: Kennan Oliphant
Experience described as: “great”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“It’s great if you are in a union.”
News Director: Melissa Hendrix Beach
Experience described as: “Good but some bad days”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“good experience but the management hiring phase is questionable. I lost count how many times I had to fill in for someone because management can’t fill positions on time. No one will get hired if their name is similar to someone else, if they have an accent, but candidates need to be hired on their quality. You will probably work overtime but it’s because they need the stories and someone to shoot them”
News Director: Autumn Jones
“Never communicated with me. Very odd character. Never gave reviews or critics on your work.”
While working for WFTX this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I was hired in right as two POC (an anchor and an On Air Wx Person ) were being let go. They then let go another Wx person who’d been with the station for many years and an Anchor who was with the station for just shy of 20 years! I was warned , being older they would look for reasons to terminate my employment….and they were right. This station is #4 for a reason…..it’s poor leadership and management. Parent Company Scripps already changed staff once in the last year (New GM and then every management position down to Chief Photogh ….even all the engineering staff left!) and I can see them doing it again .Very Toxic environment. Very politically slanted in the oposite direction for a Fox station (because its owned by Scripps…) ND and AsstND both very liberal and it shows. Reporters all complain about the rewrites by the RT Assignment desk and the ND/AND .(All reporters try to get on of the anchors to do the script reads because they are the only true journalist there) The lack of journalism ethics is unreal for a station this size. Apparently happy to be #4 , no effort to move up.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This station is a ‘look for someone doing something wrong’ stations. No one will ever complement you or ‘look to catch you doing something right’…About the most unprofessional news room I have ever seen as to everyone trying to point a finger at everyone else….no one wants to take responsibility. If you are thinking of working there….I’d wait a few more months until Scripps cleans house again. This station has a lock on being #4 until it get rid of the toxic management there now. (actually lack of management…just research the ND….they snagged her from a police station job…she was out of News for a reason….) Oh…one other thing if you like meetings this is your station… they are always in meetings. Its the biggest reason there is no communications at this station…you can never get ahold of anyone because everyones in a meeting. This station also hires people with no journalism background and that shows up (go online and see all the misspellings and grammerical errors. and check out how often a live mic is on when it should be off and vice versa……dead air/go to black (unintentionally) all the time. For examples on how not to do a news cast….this is it. They are desperate but cant get good people to stay because of the toxic environment. dont just walk past their job openings….RUN!!!”
News Director: Tim Klutsarits
Experience described as: “Okay overall”
While working for WBBH this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management fosters competition between employees for promotions or consideration, only to end up hiring in someone new to fill a spot. There are a LOT of people leaving because of low pay, double shifts without compensation, and overall burnout.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“There are good people here, your reel will look amazing by the time you finish your contract here and the station has a history of sending people to other amazing opportunities in news. But they burn people out even more. People are leaving faster than they’re coming in. The station doesn’t pay enough to keep up with the high cost of living. If you get an offer, just be careful.”
News Director: Brandon Long
Experience described as: “Overall nice, not always the easiest to talk to”
While working for WMGT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“At the time that I worked there, the executive producer was very toxic but she has since left. Brandon Long, the news director, seems to really care about the community and that station and he goes a long way to pour in and offer guidance to reporters….even if it’s not in the kindest way. The biggest issue with WMGT/41 NBC is lack of funding and resources. They just don’t have the resources to compete in the market and the constantly struggle to hire people.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
Additional comments:
“Not a lot to do in Macon and not a lot going on at that station. A good place to get started and move on.”
News Director: Bob Noonan
“Bob Noonan plays the “nice guy” role but he really doesn’t care about any of his employees….specifically employees that are not young, white, and blonde.”
While working for WPMI this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Bob Noonan favors certain employees, is not open for new ideas, and the newsroom is a sinking ship. It’s really no surprise the station is bottom in the market. For younger people who aren’t from the area, keep your head down, build your reel, and get out.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Some of the staples at the station (main anchors like Kym, Darwin) and certain meteorologists are wonderful and extremely helpful and Mobile isn’t a bad place to live. I just wouldn’t recommend this station, if you had a choice.”
News Director: Tracy Davis
“Ineffective , Cold”
While working for WVIT this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I recently left after the morning ep and managing editor (who are married) consistently assigned certain stories to white reporters and other stories for black or brown reporters. Same thing with their news coverage.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The EP has been fired for his actions but the Managing Editor is still employed, for now. Steer clear of that place they keep bad employees a long time.”
News Director: Kyle Brinckman
“He picks favorites. Those favorites will move up very quickly into better shifts and high salaries. If you aren’t a favorite, he won’t help you grow”
While working for WSPA this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The ND and GM pick favorites.
There is a weird sexual divide in the newsroom. Almost all producers are female, all reporters are female (except for one) and all photographers are male (except for one).
There has also been a few instances of racial discrimination. Towards mainly Hispanics and African Americans.
They have claimed to be “the most diverse station in the market” at a meeting, but that is highly inaccurate.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“60 people have left in the 3 years Kyle has been News director.
We’ve lost people who have been here for decades that gave up.
Overall, management are nice people, but it’s very disorganized. Some days you have to become management your self and do the things they are supposed to do.
Managers are prone to take 2-3 hour lunch breaks (are unreachable while at lunch), come in late or leave early.
Overall, your day to day coworkers are great, but it’s an extremely stressful environment.
I would avoid this station until they get a new news director and general manager”
News Director: Leon Hendrix
“He seemed to care and offer constructive criticism from time to time. How every he has been a Photog and assistant news director for 30 years. He has never been a reporter, performed a live shot, or had reporting day turns so the “coaching” was vague. He has been news director less than a year.”
While working for WEEK this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Leadership very unprofessional. One was politely demoted to “content manager” she worked 30 years at a college and had no tv broadcast experience so often gives horrible direction. The photogs were asked to go out on stories very last minute due to her negligence.
The producers are huge gossipers and will drag you through the mud about a shot yet most of them do not know how to turn a camera on.
The anchors offer no leadership/mentorship and try to get out of any duties beyond reading through the show, which mean waiting for writing approvals when you’re on a strict deadline.
Very nasty attitudes I was actually made fun of for being so polite.
High stress little pay or growth.
High turn over.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Run do not work for 25 News I wish I was warned.
Thankfully I’m at a complexly different station. But, it’s expensive to bounce around so I don’t recommend risking spending your savings to try Peoria-Bloomington market.”
News Director: James Plazter
Experience described as: “Negative.”
While working for WJAC this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“James Plazter makes up lies and gives false promises related to pay raises and job opportunities. He did not allow overtime after Sinclair allowed overtime to occur during the pandemic.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Everyone hates Plazter. He makes sexist comments about female staff and yells at people who ask for anything. He gaslights female staff during contract negotiations and will scream at those who turn in their two week notice.”
News Director: Tracy Davis
“Talks a good game but makes no decisions – does’t communicate anything to staff except sugar coating thinfs”
While working for WVIT this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination
“The AM EP is racist. One aided stories on black and brown people. When he was called out for not wanting to cover a story about a black person shot but gave team cvg to a shooting in an affluent town he admitted it was a poor decision and told two brown producers to “watch out for this” all the while defending his decisions”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Both the morning EP and Managing editor are married. They both are not qualified for their positions but The ND keeps them
In place as placeholders. They have her ear because she herself has little experience as news director. The whole place is seeing a mass exodus of qualified people because the inexperienced are running the show and it has gotten to be a very sad place to work.”
News Director: Jay Quaintance
“Do. Not. Work. For. This. Man! Working for Jay Quaintance has been, by far, the worst mistake of my professional career. He is exceedingly rude and mean to all staff members, saying they’re sub-par when they’re filling-in and doing the station a favor and/or scolding staff members for asking that he respond to emails, when he consistently ignores all requests for help or opinions. This is an extremely toxic work environment and I would not recommend anyone work with or for Jay Quaintance.”
While working for WJHL this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Time and time again Jay Quaintance shows that he thinks he is better than all women in the newsroom. He talks down and thinks that serious offenses are petty drama, telling staff to “handle it among themselves” when they approach him with serious concerns. If you are a woman working for Jay, expect to never be taken seriously & to consistently be ignored.
As for racial discrimination, he makes that extremely obvious by his employee choice to cover certain race-centered topics.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This is the most toxic workplace I have ever been involved with. I waited months to post this review after I left because it took so much mental power to escape the toxic mindset that came from working for a man like Jay.
However, he’s not the only one to blame. General Manager Paula Jackson has been well aware of these issues with Jay for YEARS (see previous reviews), however she allows this behavior to continue, causing multiple journalists, including myself, to leave the station and leave the news industry permanently.
If you have any love for news and the news industry, do NOT work for WJHL, Jay Quaintance or Paula Jackson, they will completely crush your love for the industry.”
News Director: Unsure
While working for KOAA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I worked overnights and was frequently told I’d be moving dayside and never did. I was also told I’d be moving to the Springs station from Pueblo and that never happened.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Reading these reviews of my old station made me kind of sad. I really can’t believe that Elaine is still there. She brings the most toxicity to the newsroom. She is so rude especially to newcomers. I think she expects them to have the same knowledge of the area that she does even though she’s been there her whole life. She craps all over their ideas even if they are good and on brand. It’s horrible for journalists who take their jobs seriously. It’s not New York. Let people learn, they are still young and eager. Just bc she is so miserable and not going anywhere doesn’t mean she has to make others feel the same way.
On the other hand, this station has usually hired great talent. Main anchor Rob has been there awhile and is great. He has a certain dry sense of humor but that’s appreciated in most newsrooms. He’s very knowledgeable about the area and what’s important. From my time there he was patient with younger reporters and producers especially if he could tell they were serious about news and doing it right.”
News Director: Jon Levy
“Never had a direct issue with Jon but solving conflicts were a bit awkward at times. He genuinely listened and wanted to come to a solution when there were issues.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational
Additional comments:
“There’s a few anchors/reporters that were really snooty and acted like they were above others or a certain level of work. A not-so-secret relationship really tampered with the workplace and made many people uncomfortable for several months, but it took awhile for management to notice/do something. To my knowledge that has since ended, but there are a few long-term employees that are VERY two-faced and will talk badly about others behind their back before showing a bright, unassuming smile to the GM/ND. However, most of the staff is helpful, kind, and accepting. I learned a lot at about the industry at TV20, but it unfortunately came with a few toxic personalities that hinder a truly cohesive environment. Besides that, the pay is AWFUL when you compare it to the cost of living in Gainesville. Most of the employees relied on their roommates, partners or parents to eat/live comfortably. Overall, not a bad place to start if you have another form of income or financial help from others.”
News Director: Mike Truett
“Lashes out with unnecessary power trips and sloppy management.Can’t control his temper and leaves other managers who are spiteful to lead.”
While working for WICS this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Don’t come here.Almost everyone is battling mentally and they use it as an excuse to be passive aggressive.The current management is being watched by Sinclair because so many people have quit.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Save yourself the misery.”
News Director:
“It was Kelly Frank until recently. She was awful. Had favorites in the newsroom. She would give them all the opportunities and they could do no wrong. Everyone else would get called out for making mistakes. Didn’t hold people to the same accountability”
While working for WTSP this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“It was everything I put above. She loved running the newsroom with fear. The other managers wouldn’t speak up or blamed everything on the producers bc they were afraid of her. Now without her there they don’t make any decisions bc they don’t know how to. They have no clue what’s going on.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Constant changes in on-air talent. Constant changes in brand. Viewers are always wondering where people went. They have people straight out of college producing coveted shows like the 6pm! No joke.”
News Director: Robin Whitmeyer
“Lacks leadership qualities.”
While working for KDFW this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Severely understaffed and underpaid. Producers and on-air talent leaving in droves, even for smaller markets. Egos run rampant, especially in the weather department.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Multiple sources have mentioned the chief met cheating on his wife for years and management helping with the cover up.”
News Director: Bruce Moore
Experience described as: “Positive, encouraging, approachable”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“I came from a long contract in TX, where the station was (and continues) to go downhill. Coming to WREG has been a breath of fresh air! I have been challenged by other producers, management, and anchors/reporters to become a better producer. I’m so happy I have been able to work for WREG!”
News Director: Melissa Beach
Experience described as: “Wasn’t the best”
While working for KWES this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Leave if you can. Management is never there for you. GM is never there. AND and EP are non existent. You will not get positive feedback when you put blood, sweat and tears into a product. If you spent days and weeks on it, you’ll get negative feedback guaranteed. The employees who make the transfers to leave are frowned upon even when they are told they are not good. The station has money. Management doesn’t want to pay you well. Only the well-liked get paid well.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Not an ideal starting market if you’re trying to get started. Expectations are high so you will receive “training” but you’re not getting trained.”
News Director: ?
“Management terrible”
While working for WEAU this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Terry Hughes is the GM and has chased off great talent. Why is he still there? I understand this is a small market…and people move on, but I’ve never seen a micromanager at GM like him. Our morning team won an Emmy back in late 2019 during a winter storm. The one and only Emmy by the station ever. Not one is still there today. I went through 2 News Directors in less than 2 years. Eau Claire’s a great starter market and really a great city, but just be prepared.”
News Director: Scott Nichols
“I worked for Bill Foy, who was a great guy and terrific news director. After he left, it all went downhill. I worked for interim ND Len Steven’s for a while but he was kind of a bully along with the rest of the two main producers in the newsroom.”
While working for WSET this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Late 2012 to July 2014. After Bill Foy left, Randy Smith also left. They both were fine people to work for. More than that, really. Sinclair was coming in and I think they wanted out. I was hired as a web producer but with the understanding that I was a meteorologist at heart and was just wanting to get my foot back in the door until it came time for an opening in weather. Some of this was my fault, mind you. But not long after starting work there, I was asked to fill in on weather some already which I loved. The other 90% of the time I was hired to publish and edit news stories, converting them to newspaper type writing and getting the stories published to the web site. I was trained a specific way, they had a very very specific way of what to publish and how to do it. After a year the digital.manager left and a new one was hired. During the 4 months it took to.hire a new digital manager I alone kept the site up and running the way I was trained. But when the new digital content manager was finally hired, she completely changed the way things were done. But without any communication. So I witnessed someone coming in and suddenly experimenting with their own ideas of what our jobs entailed. I would get berated in the past for not publishing a VOSOT as a web story or publishing a packaged story in time. When I asked the new digital manager what was going on, she bit my head odd, yelling “IM MAKING AN EXECUTIVE DECISION!” Fair enough, but with the old ND gone no one really understood that she was throwing out the entire playbook and I was… well confused. I got in trouble when I didn’t do things the way they originally trained me but I was also being yelled at for doing things the old correct way. There was no communication of the new ways or ideas we were bringing to the web. But I was the scapegoat. I had made weather a huge part of our website and helped bridge the gap between the newsroom and the weather center. During severe weather events we got record high views and clicks. That didn’t stop the anti-weather crew the EP and assistant EP from going to the ND behind my back and complaining that I wasn’t doing my job. The old news director told me about it the first time it happened and told me he showed them the record traffic live on our site and all of it weather related. He was so happy with it. But as soon as he left there was an effort to punish any attempt of doing any sort of weather without stepping on the other meteorologists’ toes… to the point that any post I made on my own social media had to be pre approved by the chief met which was humiliating. For the record there were several storms and events that ended up warranting the attention I tried to give them but were instead shot down bc my style was too dramatic. (The thing is, the weather is somewhat dramatic at times. ) Was told to publish a graphic titled “Derecho Not Likely” days before a derecho hit, causing one of our production members to come in crying from dodging downed trees and debris from the “no big deal ” derecho. Even the amateur weather folks on my page called me out and knew what it was before it hit. The chief had some fear and would have fits of anger when bad weather actually verified and hit the area. The newsroom reminded me of high school. We had the two popular kids… and they were kids, 10 years younger than me, constantly talking bad about every employee who wasn’t around to hear them and laughing at each other’s quips. No one else could speak up and if you did you knew they were probably talking about you as well when you weren’t around. The chief met did try to help me by giving me air time and sending a weather center schedule out to the newsroom weeks ahead of time. This served to let the newsroom know that on weekends I would not be able to work the web days ideas bc I would be coming in to do the nightside shift weather for the 6 and 11. One Saturday I was getting myself ready to come in at 2:30 p.m. for my weather anchoring duties per the schedule sent out and approved weeks earlier like always. I got a VERY hostile phone call from the new interim ND asking where I was and why I wasn’t on the web. I remained calm and politely explained I had been scheduled for weather over a month ago. “WELL I DIDNT SEE THE SCHEDULE” his tone never changed and he never apologized for him not checking the schedule. There was another night I was put in the 11 to talk about a minor tropical system near the Carolina coast with minimal impacts. It already seemed odd bc the station obviously took a “play it safe, no hype” approach to weather. But I said okay I’ll front the fact that the system is out there and answer any questions in a chat on our site during a 30 second hit in the 11. It was already out of place and I thought, “well maybe they’ve decided to help me out now.” Then something weird happened. When production came back after their dinner break I felt this extreme burning in my eyes. It honestly was unlike anything I had experienced before. 30 minutes before shoe time and my eyes were red and watery and felt like fire. It was as if someone pepper sprayed my keyboard or something. I’m a recovering addict with a large following in the market. I had been into opiates and admitted it sought help and returned to air across the street 7 years prior. My return to the market st WSET was part of a comeback story to me, my family and the viewers. Never once did I smoke anything, it simply wasn’t what I did even when I was using 7 years prior. But sure enough after my forced live hit in the newsroom to talk about this weak little storm I was reprimanded for having red watery eyes on air. They wanted me gone. And I didn’t want to be there either. Finally I had the courage to quit in July of 2014.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I sought out HR several times to make sure the bullying in the newsroom and the unfair treatment from being scolded for not doing things the old way but also being in trouble for listening to my new boss was recorded. There was also a reporter/producer who berated me after my show, on a day I was assigned to do weather who frequently was cold passive aggressive and that night more aggressive-aggressive, yelling at me for having an “agenda” in front of everyone. I went to HR about her too. I knew with my past I could easily be seen as a problem due to prejudice. The HR head slammed her pen and paper down as I asked her for help saying WHAT NOW??? THAT’S NOT HOSTILE, huffing and puffing just making things even worse. It was a great place to start worming for in late 2012 but turned very toxic once the good leaders left and Sinclair came in. My latest run in came from a viewer/followers of my social media after I had left who was asking the station on their Facebook page why their forecast didn’t match mine. She sent me their response “he’s not even a degreed meteorologist, goodbye”. Only I was and am. I wrote the station on Facebook correcting their libelous mistake with the screenshot attached. Pretty bad when your own former employer doesn’t even know your credentials. I knew who had responded, it was yet another bully who got the web part of my job after I quit. I let it go. But not after letting her know that I was considering pressing charges for libel. A false statement meant to discredit me out of relatiation from our run-ins at work. Lots of folks there I still love and I’m thankful for the opportunity to return to TV after my past but the TV biz had changed since 2006. Even in 2014 I knew something wasn’t right and I needed to GET OUT FAST.”
News Director: Warren Stewart
While working for WEVV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The end seems to be near. The attitudes in the newsroom are just out of control everyday, in all positions. And management/corporate doesn’t seem to be able to control it. Plus they’ve made it clear that spending money to get proper working equipment purchased or repaired is just not a priority. There have been quiet conversations about just shutting down the news department (again) to save money. Don’t come here, there are better choices out there for you.”
News Director: Wes Armstead
Experience described as: “Below average”
While working for WVVA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Where do I begin? This entire station is a chaotic mess at all times. There is an overall feeling of misery the second you walk in the building everyday. Management is completely clueless and incompetent. I’ve seen multiple people walk out of meetings with management in tears, including anchors. Yet they’re baffled that nobody wants to work here. Very few people actually have a decent understanding of what their job is in the newsroom and people talk about quitting all the time. People from other departments are outright rude and condescending, yet nothing is ever done. We rarely cover any interesting news. All the technology is outdated.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Unless gray takes a serious look into this place, I feel there’s zero hope for any improvement. I would avoid this place like the plague. There are some in the newsroom that are wonderful people, but it seems even their patience has run out.”
News Director: CJ Hoyt
Experience described as: “Cold and bitter. Has no time for his employees.”
While working for WTTV this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Not allowed to be sick.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Such a disappointment after working so hard to get to this market. Everyone in this building is miserable. The anchors on both sides can be so toxic. Not a place you’ll find any growth. So many people leaving the business after working here. Be warned.”
News Director: Tiaira Schultz
Experience described as: “Awful. Plays favorites. Screams at employees until they cry…or quit. Nasty personality.”
While working for WVEC this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Toxic, toxic, toxic. Its all managers. Most employees cry, if not at work, after work.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I’m not sure how i even survived 2.5 years. Most people quit fast, or if they’re contracted they transfer to another tegna station for “a promotion” or “to be closer to family” which is a lie. They all just want to get out of this station. Managers are all toxic & manipulative and treat their employees bad. They’ve had to go with people just graduating college or people still in college because they can’t keep people with experience. This is a top 50 market.
On anvhors, sales, and managers love their jobs.
On the flip side, technical staff, producers and reporters are miserable.
ALWAYS UNDERSTAFFED.
If yoy question anything the typical manager response is “thats just the way it is.”
Production manager wants staff to be available 24/7 and tells them they need to request their normal days off if they actually “need” it off.
They choose the greenest producers to screw making them work all 3 different shifts in 1 week.
I’ve had employees cry to me because they were scheduled late night and then early morning back to back…which I’m pretty sure is illegal if its less than 8 hours between.
The news director trapped me during cut ins one day in the control room (my last 1.5 week working there before I moved on) and she screamed at me so hard she was shaking. It made me uncomfortable and bawl my eyes out…but I had to stay because we had cut ins. She did this on and off for an entire hour, I had to leave in the middle of my shift with how uncomfortable I was. No manager should act like that. Its truthfully disgusting.
It definitely trickles from corporate– they literally just want to maximize money, and minimize pay to employees.
This station handled coronavirus AWFULLY. They had people who tested positive come to work, they would question you if you said you were waiting on results or needed to quarantine.
Many many employees who have worked here or still work there have had to get on depression/anxiety medication SOLELY from working at this station
Words id use to describe this station: Awful. Toxic. Trauma. Verbal abuse. Bullies. Inappropriate. Unprofessional.
Please don’t take my warning lightly. I have worked at 7 tv stations and this is by far the worst & most toxic.
I suffered a great deal of trauma here and I am a strong person and q hard worker no matter what. Always gave 110% even when I was CRYING while directing. I’ve had so much mental clarity since I left. Do yourself a favor and pass this place up. Tegna being bought out will not change the awful management this place has.”
News Director: Natalie Hughes
“She is a master gaslighter”
While working for KFOR this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“First the good. You’re paired with a photog everyday. They’re some of the best in the business and they do excellent work. The other reporters are excellent, they work hard and this is oftentimes their second or third market. The two main weekday evening anchors are excellent and they’re kind. There are just a few on the talent side who are gossipy. If you are a hard news reporter, this is the station for you. If you’re not on the mornings, it’s all hard news all the time. Politics and crime, baby. For some, that’s great. For others, it gets tiresome. Now the not so good. You have to learn how to work with the producers, who reign supreme here. They often have unrealistic expectations of reporters and are sometimes inconsistent on what they consider newsworthy. I never worked on the weekends, but they make the weekend reporter (there’s only one main reporter for the weekends) do two stories per day, and they have to be hard news. TWO! That’s almost impossible when there’s nothing going on and no one is available to talk to you. And God forbid they do a feature story, they get reprimanded. The weekend reporter in my experience gets burned out very quickly and leaves at the first possible chance. And then gets badmouthed for “not being resilient” or whatever. I remember when one reporter left and a lot of people were badmouthing them for leaving. Like how dare they do something in their best interest! The producers will occasionally let their political biases slip when deciding what’s a story and what’s not. They are also a slightly gossipy group. But if you know what each individual producer likes and what their style is and how to “sell” your story to them you should be fine. Now the bad. The news director — watch out for that one. A former coworker called her an ultimate gaslighter and I would say that’s very accurate. Some of the things that she has said to some of the reporters/producers is horrid and heartless, and it does no good to repeat. But to others she is fairly pleasant. She is also ultimately the stooge of the company. Sorry I can’t give you a raise, it’s the company. Sorry I can’t do this or that, it’s the company. Don’t blame me! Some of that is understandable, but after a while you get the impression that she’s playing dumb.That’s another thing. This station is so deathly afraid of any blowback from Nexstar corporate that they will do anything, throw anyone under the bus, anything, to make sure they’re in good standing with the big boys at HQ. Some of the issues at this station are caused by Nexstar being run by idiots. Some of it is because of station-specific problems. I’ve heard it’s just as toxic on the sales side. The final thing I will say is in about a year timeframe, 12 people left on the news side. More than half of those were reporters. They all had their reasons, some of them left just for a better opportunity. The point is, it’s a revolving door. Read between the lines. A good handful of people there are still trying to get out. They just can’t buy out their contract. They also have the “re-sign with us or get out” mentality. Not very compassionate. Strictly business. Sorry — it’s not us, it’s corporate!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“It’s ok if you’re trying to add another top 50 market to your resume. Get your year in and get out. Nothing more. You’ll learn a lot, get plenty of quality live reps and get good hard news for your demo reel. But will your mental health suffer because of it?”
News Director: Jessie Williams
“SHE IS THE WORST”
While working for WSYM this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The most toxic and unorganized newsroom I’ve ever worked in. Jessie Williams should never have been allowed control. She favors certain reporters and producers and only cares about their success. She actively sabotages employees she doesn’t like.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Stay away, there are plenty of mid-markets better than this one.”
News Director: Crysty Vaughan
“This person also anchors newscast and wants to be an anchor so badly. She doesn’t give all reporters chances to anchor, she rather step in. She doesn’t really know what’s she’s doing. Very laid back”
While working for WOLO this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“Let’s start with the good, you’re always paired with a photographer. And you can cover basically any story you want because no one cares.
That’s about it. This station is usually number 3 or 4 in the market. Very understaffed. You have to be self motivated if you want to get out of there. Most of the people who work there are depressed and complain all the time. They barely have the ability to put on a newscast. Sometimes they watch other stations to get inspiration. Being in the building could drain your energy and your knowledge. Also if you have to work with the morning “weatherman” be careful. He says the most sexiest things and make women uncomfortable. I would never recommend working here.”
News Director: Robert Cartwright
Experience described as: “The worst”
While working for KEYE this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Worse place I ever worked, extremely toxic and don’t even say about the poor employees from Telemundo they’re treated like a second class workers and that’s why most people leave the station otherwise just check the lawsuit they had in Federal Court for wrongful termination and discrimination and also the several complaints with the EEOC. The apples doesn’t fall far from the tree, the GM Amy Villarreal accused a former producer of terrorist and sent the Special Intelligence Unit to his house (more an attempt of murder after making a false police report) the ND is the maid and a puppet, also Lisa Hagle the HR always covered the crap from the company to use against employees who complaint of the toxicity and rotten environment, and the list continue That’s why they transfer the former producer Ana María Llamas Brouhard to KOMO in Seattle after all the complaints against her and also using her laser to benefit her BFF the anchor from Telemundo Pedro Daniel Morales, this both are who sent the former producer Franklin Leal to the hospital 🏥 and the guy was fired … all that has been exposed in a federal lawsuit in Austin and was publicly in some media. They have a lot of dirt of them if you want to experience hell this is the place”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“People is abused and fired after they complaint, management and supervisors Plot against people to have bad reviews and put the other employees against the person complaining so they can have “reasons” to not renew your contract or simply fired you but if you leave the station os the best thing that can happen to anybody. I mean is own but Sinclair Broadcast Group known for mistreated employees and for being a propaganda right wing machine”
News Director: Dan Firnbach
Experience described as: “Terrible. Extremely unprofessional and immature.”
While working for WWTV this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Where do I even start? If you value your mental and physical health, don’t work here. This is the most unorganized, toxic work environment I’ve ever been in. First, let me start off by saying that there are a lot of wonderful people that work here. Most of them hate it just as much, and are solely there just for the grind (to get their experience and dip). When it comes to upper management and the anchors that have been there the longest, prepare to feel like you’re back in high school. They are *mostly* all bullies. All they do is put down the new people and talk badly about them behind their backs. They seem to forget that it’s market 120. I guess that’s why none of them have ever left. When it comes to Dan Firnbach, the ND, he has no idea what he’s doing. He’s extremely socially-awkward and is the total opposite of a leader. I’ve never had a more immature boss. He will constantly talk about newsroom employees in front of the entire newsroom to Bill Froehlich (Assistant ND) and the EP. Dan has even admitted to his newsroom employees that he doesn’t have any guts. He’s a puppet to upper management. He micro-manages and harps about communication, but doesn’t know how to communicate himself. Oh, and he’s also sexist. If you’re a man, you’re set. But if you’re a female, steer clear. If you plan on working there, don’t ever tell him your personal business, either. He’ll spread it around to other co-workers, so everyone knows. When it comes to Bill, I’ve never met anyone more incompetent. Honestly, I don’t understand how he hasn’t been fired. He has no idea what he’s doing. He gets schedules messed up weekly, can’t keep track of what stories are being published, and he’s extremely creepy towards woman. Oh, and HR. It’s one woman, Leslie Nowlin. Have you ever worked for a company that has ONE HR person? Not to mention she’s been heard saying the “N” and “R” word. I also have recordings of her and Dan talking extremely badly about co-workers. There’s also word that she’s having an affair with the COO, Josh Trust. They also have plans on adding an event venue and farm to the news station property…what a joke. Not to mention, the farmer makes $75K a year. Newsroom employees make peanuts. There’s also a big discrepancy in starting wages. Some get paid $27,000, others get paid $35,000. For the same job. Overall, if you want to learn the job of news, it’s a great stepping stone. However, you will be miserable for your duration of your time here, so be prepared. Lastly, don’t believe any of these positive reviews. They’ve all been written by Dan himself. Pathetic right?”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Nope.”
News Director: Jon Janes
“It’s his way of the highway. Jon Janes creates a negative work environment for everyone around him. His inability to u derstand basic concepts, his old-fashioned views, and his temper make WIBW one of the worst places I have ever worked at.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“WIBW offers a lot of great opportunities for a starter market. You get to work with politicians in the state capital and work along some veterans of the industry who have been at the station for years. Unfortunately, WIBW has a massive communication problem. The news director creates a work environment that can be compared to a dictatorship. He never listens to your ideas and if you don’t do exactly what he wants he will ridicule you in front of everyone. He is one of the most negative people I have ever had the displeasure to meet.”
News Director: Melissa Hendrix beach
“DONT PISS HER OFF OR SHE WILL RETALIATE!!!!!!! DONT TALK TO GM BECAUSE HE WILL TELL HER EVERYTHING YOU TOLD HIM!!!!!”
While working for KWES this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“WHERE DO I START……STATION LOVED TO BE AGAINST ALL FUNDAMENTALS OF JOURNALISM…..EVEN BY THE COMPANY THAT LITERALLY OWNS THEM……PRODUCERS….REPORTERS….ANCHORS……DONT EXPECT TO TELL BOTH SIDES OF A STORY…..INSTEAD……TELL A STORY TO WHAT THE AUDIENCE ONLY WANTS TO HEAR….. ITS AN OIL AND GAS TOWN AND THAT STATION WONT COVER ANYTHING RELATED TO IT IF IT WILL “ANNOY” THE VIEWERS….. ALSO….DONT COME IN WITH CREATIVE IDEAS…….ALL MANAGEMENT WANTS IS THE SAME COOKIE CUTTER THING…… FAVORITISM IS ALSO A BIG THING THERE. EVEN IF YOU WERE HIRED BEFORE A NEW PERSON……TOO BAD…….. THE NEW FAVORITE HIRE GETS ALL THE TIME OFF THEY CHOOSE AND YOURE LEFT IN THE DUST…….IF THERES A TOXIC PERSON WHO HAS BEEN REPORTED TO HR…….,THEY WONT BE FIRED……..PEOPLE FROM EVERY DEPARTMENT WILL BREAK THEIR CONTRACTS BECAUSE OF THE UNPROFESSIONALISM…..YOUR SCHEDULE WILL CHANGE WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE…….. SO I HIGHLY RECOMMEND TO APPLY SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“THEY WILL TRICK YOU ONCE YOU SIGN A CONTRACT…… THEY WILL GIVE YOU PROMISES AND NOT KEEP THEM……. YOU WILL WORK YOUR ENTIRE CONTRACT WITH HOPES OF DOING WHAT YOU WANT…..WELL ITS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!”
News Director: Melissa Hendrix beach
“You have to be fake if you don’t like agree with her. If you disagree with her, she will find a way to retaliate against you”
While working for KWES this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“One time I disagreed with melissa Hendrix beach and she made me do 2 somtimes 3 packages a day so I have to rush alot. Made me do live shots no photog, at lots of locations ten minutes a part when the locations were 20 mins away from each other. No photographer At all. She gives no feedback unless she wants to tell you everything your doing wrong. She is Republican married to oil husband so anything that is aired needs to cater to republicans. She does not believe in reporting truth and facts if it does not cater to Republican party. She will yell at you if you do anything that tells the community what an oil company is doing wrong even if the community needs to know. Good Luck because this is oil central of US so most stories is Oil. She is good at story pitch shaming so she will always give you negative feedback if you pitch a story that doesn’t “cater to viewers.” Hires very unprofessional management who are inexperienced and Not Aggressive. Avoid this station at all cost.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“You will question every thing about News life. I thought this was Somthing I wanted to do but She made me hate every thing about it that I broke my contract. She bad mouthed me because I was not happy there”
News Director: Greg Deffenbaugh
Experience described as: “Unorganized and unprofessional.”
While working for WREX this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Everyone is over worked and told to do more with less”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“It is a challenging work environment but you will learn a lot”
News Director: Jeff Schlesser
Experience described as: “Certainly approachable. The most understanding ND!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“This station is in the process of organization and staffing. I want to use this platform to try and make some good out of previous negative posts about it, and negative experiences. I can only speak for myself, but I honestly do feel like Jeff isn’t as bad as some claim. Just be yourself, and be honest. Honesty feedback is everything in this business. If something upsets you, YOU have the power to make change. This is a station where you manifest your own destiny. I have grown as a journalist here. Because the station lacks resources, it encourages creativity and forces you to think outside the box. Sarasota is great place to start or continue your TV news career. Yes, it is a little disorganized but, YOU WILL GROW here. Besides, the best journalists do not need a manager or producer or news director to create their career paths for them. As Kim Kardashian once said, “Get your (blank) a** up and work!” You got this!”
News Director: Jon Janes
“Working for Jon can be compared to a dictatorship. It truly is his way or the highway. He does not let reporters pitch stories or get creative. His communication skills are lackluster. He is abrasive in his comments and he is rude to everyone who crosses his path.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“On the surface, WIBW may look like a nice place to work. It has longtime veterans of the industry, it’s in the state capital, but I can’t warn against this station enough. The MMJ equipment is literally falling apart, It’s being held together by zip-ties and scotch tape. The communication is awful. Often you are thrown into stories/interviews with little time to prepare.”
News Director: Bill Shull
“Very disappointing. At first you think he is really supportive and kind but you learn that is kind of a façade. Later I learned he freaked out for any reason. Very chicken little at times and he is a first time ND.”
While working for WRDE this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“It’s toxic because of the people. Bill pretends to offer you so much but Draper has overly high standards and even he admitted they are high to obtain. Doesn’t help WBOC is the favorite and it shows in most ways. Bill is afraid of them and never wants to mess with a toxic leader.
Most staff on air and off is very fake, too many pretend to be your friend but will stab you in the back at the first sign of trouble.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“There’s so much to tell you. I produced mornings and dayside at WRDE. There are only two producers total for the 5am to 7am morning newscast and the 5:30pm to 6:30pm newscasts. Anchors produce weekend evenings, 11 am and 11 pm. Producers work out of WBOC in Salisbury, MD. Why you may ask? Because Draper never built a control room or edit bays in Milton DE. It was also to save money and share directors with WBOC. Anchors, reporters, photographers, managers, and meteorologists for WRDE are in Milton, but producers, editors, along with sports talent and directors (which are shared) are in Salisbury.
As a producer get ready to have anchors an hour away with a two second delay and reporters with up to a four second delay. On top of that deal with prompting a show daily, no exceptions besides breaking news and going to the bathroom. There is a foot pedal but it doesn’t work properly and they won’t fix it. So you are prompting a show after you did one, that’s it right? Wrong! You also need to time the newscast, write, start and stop the live feed, hit the space bar, cue the reporter(s), check the TVU(s) and communicate with your anchors! It’s a lot.
If you are working the morning show, two anchors, one met, a producer (maybe you), an editor, a reporter, a photog and a director. Dayside is the same but add on about five reporters. Along with up to three photogs.
Anchor wise it really varies. Matt is fine at night, a bit stiff but works hard and will write new content (co-anchors 5:30pm and produce and anchor the 11pm), though you need to shorten his copy for reuse. A great reporter. Maddie is disappointing. she’s a decent anchor and a great reporter. But she can be temperamental. She’s supportive and like a best friend but then turns and acts too boss like at a drop of a coin. She’s a really good producer and a decent Assistant ND.
The reporters and the photogs are all talented but not very kind or genuine if they stop liking you. The mets are all easy to deal with.
As for morning anchors, Mal is a great reporter and a decent anchor. She will do extra work, a pkg and or VOSOT regularly, but don’t ask her to write anymore than that or she will get annoyed. The expectation for all producers is to get all the show done yourself, don’t ask for much help or you will look foolish, all the anchors produce close to daily but still get annoyed by that at times. Charlie will take all the credit for the morning show, but he doesn’t do much besides complain, rewrite a CNBC business report as his own and remind you he can do sports. He used to be a sports anchor but it is helpful when you aren’t given one in the morning from the Delmarva Sports Network.
But the biggest problem is WBOC and Draper. They try to make it two completely separate stations but that doesn’t fully work, master control, IT, HR, sports, newscast directors and the helicopter are still shared.
Craig the president of the company made me feel uncomfortable on my first day. He has a lot of power and said “if you ever lie to me, I’ll fire you on the spot.” Nice guy right.
John Dearing is the WBOC ND, he is very cold, very aloof and tries to pretend you work for him. You have to do their four week training perfectly and they will teach you their way even if it doesn’t apply to you. When you mess up in the training there is hell to pay for later.
Ron the Assistant ND at WBOC is nice though, the EP Bill, not so much be careful.
If you work overnight you will have no help or support from 11pm to 3am so be ready to change parts of a fully ready show, trust me it’s hell, but at least it’s not distracting. Dayside is the most support but very tiring to work in. Plus you may get flipped between overnights and dayside, it’s as tiring as it sounds.
Milton is a great place to visit, love that town. But the drive from Salisbury is long and unless you take a company vehicle they won’t reimburse you for the gas and you may be there up to two weeks going back and forth daily.
As for reporters, mornings a vosot live and a vosot or pkg later. Dayside a PKG and sometimes a vosot too. There is no nightside reporter, and when there is a weekend reporter, a pkg and sometimes a vosot. The station is also a Telemundo affiliate and many staffers are bilingual.
Overall in my experience, don’t go there. They pay well but the expectations are sky high and you work with little in house support or guidance. They will make you cry, take advantage of you mentally and unless you are really good at kissing butt they won’t really like you.
Salisbury is a great little city but the stations aren’t great. Really only come here if you have few other options and if you have any extra experience get ready to be worked to the bone. So happy I don’t work there anymore and I wouldn’t recommend it to others.”
News Director: Aaron Vogel
“Awful. Micromanager. He’ll overwork you. Its encouraged to work overtime and go without a lunch break. Impossible to compromise. Take everything the ND says as if its from the mouth of God. If you disagree he will scream and yell. It was 2 years of hell and I am glad its behind me. Literally every single person at the station shit talks about the news director when he is not around. Several tild me they would have renewed contracts and stayed if it weren’t for him.”
While working for KHSL this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The job position I listed is incorrect. I wish to stay anonymous. I was on-air talent.”
News Director: Andy Miller
“He’s very cold and intense. One minute he’s a fun guy but the next cold as ice. Strong news judgment but not as supportive to producers as he needed to be”
While working for WCIA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“It was toxic because of the managers and some senior on air talent. They were really hard on producers but gave them very little help. It didn’t help the revolving door had been bad because the previous ND and GM were fired over this: https://www.lawofficer.com/cbs-affiliate-angel/
Part of that was the crazy understaffing the newsroom had at times, which got so bad this happened: https://twitter.com/i/status/1518991043076796416
They’ve lost so many people they have to make hiring videos, such a laugh.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“During my time at WCIA I produced at one point or another every weekday show, but was early evenings for the most part (no weekend producers). The station is number one but sort of rests on legacy not because they try the hardest. Instead the market includes Decatur (WAND), 40 miles away, and Springfield (WICS) 70 miles away it’s a really fragmented market for ratings.
Almost everybody on air besides Jen and Jess (evening anchors) are new to the market or the business and are under 30. Why they can’t keep talent is management and cheap ass Nexstar. I was offered a raise while there for 52 cents which was taken away by a 14 percent rise in company health insurance but it was still better than the 25 cent raise others were given.
The GM is new and he is unreliable so be very careful, shockingly HR is great, I loved Christina, she is kind and helpful and because some people aren’t nice to her she goes out of her to way to be nice if you are kind back and take the time to respect her.
Now for the good stuff. Andy is a great ND in news judgment and producing, but pretends that WCIA is a great place to work and a kind and supportive one, which is a joke. He really could be nicer and more understanding.
Maggie the Assistant ND can be best described by this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2q1AlByuNc
But otherwise mean and whiny. If she had to produce, you never stopped hearing her complain about it. Great at running the assignment desk when she wasn’t off or actually answered the phones. Also was really good at insulting me and making me feel bad.
Scott the EP (who produced the 6pm) is a great producer but wasn’t the most understanding person to work with. He was the longest tenured manager but just was disappointing.
Most of the sports people are good, and so are two of the mets, the other two are total nightmares.
Karina is a stand out anchor, she is really good and does try to help when you ask. Matt is a good reporter not a great anchor but does try. The morning show despite being four hours is an afterthought. No reporter for over a year and had one anchor (Karina) for mornings and noon for a few months. Also they once asked one person to produce all four hours of the morning show solo! Even weekends had more reporters, and the weekend morning show, have fun anchoring, producing, editing and doing digital for it, that’s why nobody wants it and a met had to anchor it.
Weekday evenings are the main shows, 5, 6, 9 and 10. The strongest anchors and the few reporters left. Renee is the best reporter there, she can anchor, report, edit, produce, MMJ and be a one woman investigative department, she’s the best. The reporters do work hard but have a lot on their plates. They do get a photog on weekdays (most of the time) but rarely on weekends. So a lot more MMJ there at times. Expect as a reporter to turn a PKG and a separate VOSOT but sometimes the same story on the same day.
Now back to producing there, have fun reading your whole rundown in the afternoon meeting, so stressful and if you don’t know it perfectly they will get angry.
Be careful of the Regina George in sheep’s clothing, Cassandra, the digital EP. She smiles to your face but tells you how to do your job and if you challenge her she will go to management. She’s a former producer who fills in. She is a good producer but she interferes so much and is really mean.
WCIA has pretty much given up on producers with experience along with reporters, now they resort to hiring local university of Illinois recent graduates. That’s all they can get.
Now for the evening anchors, Jess is really talented, she can anchor multiple shows and produce one in the same day without breaking a sweat, not a big fan of her personally but I respect her. Mac (Macleod), just as talented as Jess but used to make me feel guilty if I asked for help and tried to take credit for my shows. Jennifer is the market legend, I learned a lot from her, she is really talented but could be a diva and sometimes so harsh, but I still respect her.
Now for the worse part, if they don’t like you at WCIA don’t get your hopes for moving up. The 9 and 10pm shows opened up twice and I was passed over both times (despite a year of experience). They want a kiss ass for those shows, especially when I was passed over for a brand new producer. It was my dream shows and despite regularly filling in meant nothing to them. They want producers who aren’t willing to try something new besides a different camera shot.
Champaign is a great place when concerts happen, you must go to the Canopy Club in Urbana. You make poor money there so hit up Salt and Light in Champaign and Urbana, great clothes super cheap. The library book sale in Champaign at the main library literally across from the station is amazing and affordable. But the winters suck and you will hate your life, I had to get my car towed out twice from my parking spot due to ice. Also renting sucks, they either charge too much for a place without a private bathroom or too little for almost nothing, search carefully and look where the U of I students look at on Facebook. Also 99 percent of places require a year long lease. Don’t try to live in Decatur or Springfield (unless you are in the bureau), the commute is very long.
WCIA is far from the worse station I have worked for (two are far worse), but I personally won’t say to work there. They don’t pay well and they burn out producers and they’ve lost almost all of the experienced ones, only two major pluses, no contract for producers and if you get sick they won’t give you a hard time for needing to take time off.
There are just better places you can go to even within the market at this point, better off trying WAND since they got a new ND.”
News Director: Kyle Fobe
“Starting out, things looked good and seemed promising. But once Kyle took over, it was a string of broken promises and putting focus on other things, rather than caring for employees. There were times when schedules were changed without consulting with reporters/producers/etc and concerns for overall health and burnout were not taken seriously.”
While working for WBND this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management is very toxic and non-transparent. Employees were lied to multiple times about scheduling or not consulted with before schedule changes at all, communication is non-existent, and people are only looking out for themselves, not for the success of the company.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“South Bend as a whole is a great starter market. But I would avoid WBND at all costs. Save your mental health, and avoid starting/continuing your journalism career in a place that seems to have given up.”
News Director: Dionne Young
“The director can be very passive-aggressive, favors producers and doesn’t know how to handle conflict.”
While working for KBAK/KBFX this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Not the worst station you could work for, however, the work environment is extremely hostile and having a passive-aggressive director does not help. There’s a reason why people leave and most people here are unhappy. If you have an option for another station, definitely take it. Not worth your time.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Marcus Stroud
Experience described as: “Helpful, very nice, understanding, and wants you to do well.”
While working for KTAL this person experienced:
“Marcus is new to the station. He’s really nice and helpful. He was a photographer so he knows how being in the field works and will also go out and get drone footage for us.
He is a good thing that has happened to this station and with him as the leader of this newsroom, things will get so much better.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
Additional comments:
“The people at this station mean well, however they’re just all over the place. The editorial meetings last longer than 40 minutes everyday and sometimes reporters are still lost as to what they’re suppose to be gathering. If you’re applying to be an anchor here, they will work you to DEATH. If you have any experience be prepared to be overworked.
There’s a huge gap of folks here that have little to no experience and those that do. The resources are limited. Because there isn’t any money for new equipment, if it’s raining outside. Reporters are not allowed to do live shots in fear the equipment will get damaged. Literally everything here is broken. Again, nice people. It’s just very dysfunctional.
They also make anchors go out and MMJ their stories, edit them, all before preparing to anchor the desk. Meanwhile that day there will be editors, photogs, and MMJ’s just sitting around the office. Again, you’ll love the people if you come here. But if you have experience, prepare to be overworked.”
News Director: Kyle Brinkman
Experience described as: “Poor”
While working for WSPA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The management team (GM/ND/Creative Director) here is incredibly toxic as a trio. The station has the potential to be great overall, but until there is legitimate leadership here again, I can’t recommend anyone come here unless the market/area is somewhere you want to be. There is a total lack of communication, vision, direction, and organization here that has left morale the lowest of anywhere I’ve ever worked. The market is incredible and there is a lot of news here that, if better planning were used, we could dominate given our producers and field crews. Overall a great station, just in dire need of leadership changes.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Aaron Vogel
“HORRIBLE YOU GET OVERWORKED AND THE ASSIGMENTS ARE 3 LIVE SHOTS A DAY 2 SEPERATE STORIES OR WORSE. EVERYONE LEAVE THIS STATION AND NEVER STAYS LONGER THAN THEIR CONTRACT.”
While working for KHSL this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“YOU NEVER GET A LUNCH. THE MANAGMENT IS HORRIBLE. THEY TREAT EMPLOYEES HORRIBLE AND IF YOU TALK TO THEM ABOUT ANY MENTAL ISSUES THEY DON’T CARE. YOU OFTEN GET OVERWORKED AND WHEN YOU BRING IT UP THEY DON’T CARE. I BREAK DOWN EVERYDAY. AVOID THIS STATION…NO ONE LAST HERE AND IF YOU COME HERE YOU ARE MAKING A MISTAKE. PEOPLE WHO WORK WITH ME HAVE TOLD ME THIS PLACE MAKES THEM SUICIDAL.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“YOU NEVER GET A LUNCH. THE MANAGMENT IS HORRIBLE. THEY TREAT EMPLOYEES HORRIBLE AND IF YOU TALK TO THEM ABOUT ANY MENTAL ISSUES THEY DON’T CARE. YOU OFTEN GET OVERWORKED AND WHEN YOU BRING IT UP THEY DON’T CARE. I BREAK DOWN EVERYDAY. AVOID THIS STATION…NO ONE LAST HERE AND IF YOU COME HERE YOU ARE MAKING A MISTAKE. PEOPLE WHO WORK WITH ME HAVE TOLD ME THIS PLACE MAKES THEM SUICIDAL.”
News Director: Melanie Standiford
“When Jacque was there, KNOP was awesome. Once she left, they put an anchor (Melanie) in her place because no one wanted to move to North Platte for what they were offering and the others there with seniority didn’t want it because they saw how awful it is. Melanie is so not qualified for the position, the community doesn’t respect her, and CONSTANTLY fights with viewers online and in the comments section of articles as the KNOP page and then deletes her comments or any comments that she doesn’t agree with. There are several reasons why there are always openings there and it’s a revolving door of talent- some has to do with it’s in the middle of Satan’s buttcrack and the embarssing pay, but it’s also because of horrendous management. Gray barely acknowledges the station since it’s the 2nd to smallest TV market in America and the funds are bread crumbs.”
While working for KNOP this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“It’s not run like a regular newsroom so the things you learn barely transfer, many leave the business altogether after this one experience in news, the city has a ton of drugs and no social life, but the area can be what you make of it, the pay is awful, the viewers are nice, a lot of what they do it the laughing stock and comes in 2nd to the newspaper, which is more of a serious and legitimate publication.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
Additional comments:
“I get that some people want to gain experience, but it is 100% not worth it because the ‘experience’ you get there does not translate or carry over to another station, even a handful of markets up due to the way they run. 0/10 stars. Just ask any former employees or even some of the viewers how downhill it’s gone after Jacque’s departure. DO NOT DO IT.”
News Director: Shawn Venhaus
“He has been nice to me, but I’ve heard and seen him be mean to other employees.”
While working for KFDA this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“There is a lot of tension between production staff and reporters. Gray Television underpays their employeess, while Nexstar pays their employees a living wage. Reporters have gotten fired for no reason. The news director name calls and discriminates against LGBTQ employees. If your’re not in the “in crowd” then you are just a pawn in a chess game.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“if you are a current employee, quit and escape . If you have applied to work here, cancel your application. This station is only going to get worse.”
News Director: Jeffrey Schlessler
“Absolutely terrible. Manipulative person and will claim you will be “living in paradise,” but it isn’t paradise if you can’t afford rent.”
While working for WWSB this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“An employee was allowed to say whatever he wanted to his coworkers, including calling them racist, with no repercussions.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Avoid this station at all costs if you want to keep your love for TV news. The ND has no idea how to run a newsroom, the reporters NEVER have photogs and are expected to work long hours, being live in three to four shows a day. Completely unorganized mess and the people that are still stuck there are completely miserable. You get paid nothing when rent is skyrocketing, most people can’t afford to work here. If you’re a good worker, you get punished. If you’re a bad worker, you get rewarded. It is a completely toxic environment and not somewhere you can grow. And don’t listen to any “promises” that are made to you, they will never happen. So many people have left the business completely after working at this station. You’d be better off trying out Tampa or Fort Myers.”
News Director: Tom Yazwinski
“Tom overall is a nice guy. He’s changed his ways after reporters brought up his behavior to HR and to him directly. He cares about safety of employees, he’s flexible and understanding when it comes to taking time off, celebrates employees birthdays, brings treats, etc. I wish he was a better boss. He was a bit of a micro manager, went out to stories/breaking news that reporters should have gone to, doesn’t give feedback and he had favorites. There were moments he would lash out at employees.”
While working for KEPR this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“There were some unprofessional and toxic behavior that was addressed to management and HR but NOTHING was done to resolve the issue. Management is also EXTREMELY shady and at the end of the day all you really are is just an employee. There was also lots of favoritism and if you aren’t a favorite they don’t care about you. I was incredibly dissapointed with my experience. There’s a reason why so many left the business after working at that station.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Adam Carros
Experience described as: “Unhelpful”
While working for KCRG this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Aaron Hepker, the nightside executive producer, is easily the most awful person I’ve ever worked with.
He constantly talks smack about the competition but talks even more s*** about other people at the station. He never shuts up and when he’s not insulting others (including many insults I felt should have gotten him fired if they were heard by the wrong person), he’s bragging about other jobs he’s had in the past (which besides KCRG includes the #2 station in Des Moines and the last place station in Sacramento, and neither of those positions for very long before he came back to KCRG).
And he’s b****y and lazy. He pawned off training that I should have had to others, had no patience or interest in mentoring or collaborating or simply following up on where I was in the training process.
And I got zero help from him the entire time I worked there. I can’t think of one time that he offered to help me with anything.
He also had this super disrespectful habit of rewriting things I’d written but made no effort to talk to me about why he did so or have any kind of dialogue so I could see why he’d made those changes and help me work to improve in the future. He was perfectly happy to let you guess why he’d do what he did and had no interest in helping you get any better. There was this awkward vibe that he was uncomfortable having to talk to me about work plans or strategy, but I can’t think of a single I did to make it that way. And even if I did, who cares? I worked there and he was supposedly in management. It was his job regardless.
And he never stopped talking and never did much else. I think the anchors and management were the only people in that newsroom that didn’t ask me point blank “Well what is Hepker doing?” or “So what does he actually do?” But the answer was always “nothing” or IDK.
The only other skills I’d credit him with having besides blabbing and inflating his own ego would be back-stabbing and gas-lighting.
It sucked working with him and I feel bad for everyone who ever had to deal with him in the past and those who deal with him presently.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The anchors, reporters, photographers, and production workers were all pretty nice and professional for the most part.
But management in that newsroom sucks.
The assignment editor almost got fired for posting that stupid, debunked “Plandemic” documentary on Facebook, got in a spat with an anchor at a different station over it and it all go posted to FTV Live. The guy works in news, but apparently doesn’t believe in what they do or have any idea how to decipher accurate from BS.
The news director is a twitchy spazz who plays the part well enough but is horrible at planning and executing strategy. He’s quick to freak out and mistakes speed for quality.
They don’t communicate with each other, so there were many occasions where one manager (or other newsroom employees) was clueless as to what the other had decided the newsroom was doing on any given day for any given story or newscast.
They fired a sports anchor who was there for close to ten years because they told him he did too many sports highlights (seriously) instead of some vaguely communicated strategy to focus more on sports features and profiles.
The HR woman is horrible. If you go to her with an issue or a complaint that places any blame or responsibility on the station or management, she’ll do everything she can to gaslight you into thinking your issue is not a big deal or that it is your fault (not theirs). She will not advocate for you and will do everything to protect management or staff with longer tenure, regardless of who is in the wrong.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the newsroom: the egos.
They are a #1 station with a large audience and web following. And they’ve been #1 for decades. But for what? The reporters and photogs and production folks do a fine job, but nothing outstanding. Certainly nothing you couldn’t see with either of the competition in the market.
Those competitors both won 2021 Edward R. Murrow regional awards for continuing coverage of the 2020 Derecho storm and a documentary on the 2020 Iowa Caucus. And KCRG only picked up one 2021 Upper Midwest Emmys for their ridiculous coverage of the funeral of a state trooper killed in the line of duty. The other two stations in the market were nominated for way more and KGAN 4 or 5 Emmys.
And best yet, KCRG’s coverage of the 2020 Derecho lost out to a former Cedar Rapids reporter and resident that came back to cover the Derecho for WOI in Des Moines.
Again, quite a bit of ego despite such little recent accomplishments other than having the same anchors for a couple of decades (which isn’t a skill, it’s because they’re the only ones getting paid grownup money).
KCRG isn’t the worst station you could ever work for. But you’re walking into a toxic situation with oversized egos and little patience or stomach for grunt work. And they’re going to take advantage of newbies fresh out of college or those trying to work their way up to a bigger market.
They’re going to try leveraging their status and position in the market against your dreams of moving-on-up to make you do all the hard work and take blame when things don’t go exactly to their poorly thought-out plans.
But that plan isn’t to help you grow and execute teamwork.
That plan is to put the squeeze on those with desperate asperations so they’ll either shape up without them having to do anything or so they can fire you and bring in someone else that they can pressure into doing the job to their liking while management continues to do the bare minimum.
But here’s what they don’t tell you: unless you’re an anchor or on the weather team, you’re going to make similar money at either of the other stations in the market (maybe a little less, maybe the exact same, maybe even more).
No station is perfect, but the money will be about the same no matter which station you end up at in the Cedar Rapids/Waterloo/Iowa City/Dubuque market of eastern Iowa.
The only difference is you won’t have to deal with the annoying egos, you’ll probably have significantly more creative freedoms that will pay off down the line, and the # 2 and #3 stations are likely to be managed better. There’s no reason to believe you wouldn’t be able to cover the same stories or the same type of stories at KGAN or KWWL.
My best advice: unless KCRG is your only opinion or you’re 100% sure you’ll be able to achieve your long term goals with them, see if KGAN or KWWL are hiring. You’d be just as likely (if not more likely) to be able to achieve what you’re looking to do in the news biz with way less hassle and for the same money.”
News Director: Aaron Williams
“Nice and approachable, but extremely hands-off. My experience would have been better if I had felt like he truly cared about our content and the employees as human beings.”
While working for WBOY this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Several negative experiences with EP, who seems to take pleasure in belittling others. I also feel there was a lot of favoritism shown in the newsroom when it comes to promotions, new opportunities, etc.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
Additional comments:
“Unfortunately, I would not recommend this station to someone starting out. Unless management chooses you as a favorite, opportunities are few and far between. It is also difficult to come across learning opportunities and constructive feedback.”
News Director: Rehan Aslam
“Quite difficult and he has since moved on. Disorganized, singles out favorites and non-favorites. Doesn’t have experience really leading a newsroom.”
While working for KTRK this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Toxic work environment from management. Most of the talent is fairly friendly but assignments and EP’s are routinely under high pressure and stress. Creativity is only allowed for a few at the top. Do not make suggestions if you don’t want to get shown the door.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
News Director: Suh Neubauer
“Is pleasant during the first month, but quickly begins criticizing your work in a non-constructive way. During the pandemic, she did was not seen at the station more than 5 times total in over a year. She neglected to come into the station on Election Night. When she would sometimes volunteer to finish up a script, web or video edit for show, she often would forget to complete the task and other editors, reporters or producers would have to hurry to pick up the slack before show. Was known to go back on her word unless a conversation took place over email or text, since there was evidence. I don’t think she ever even watched the show — sometimes thing would go wrong and nightside staff was seldom contacted for advice, support or news directing. If you did not take care to be friendly with her, she could show her toxic side.”
While working for WICZ this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Although this is a known starter station, it should not have been completely run by 22-year-olds fresh out of college. There was very little direction or thanks from management. New hires were seldom trained, and would face criticism first without previous guidance. New ideas were often shut down. Overall, there seemed to be an unspoken “us versus them,” since the news staff was often left to their own devices to run the station.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Most of the equipment is either out-dated or simply not taken advantage of. The studio itself is entirely green screen — even the desk — and the walls and ceilings of the building are probably another cause for concern. One winter, the snow on the seldom-maintained roof melted and started pouring through the ceiling tiles into the control room. Management refused to come in to help, as it was a holiday. News staff had to tarp all of the control panels and equipment despite the electrical hazards, and we only thanked by management for being a source of revenue for the station.
The only positive aspect of working at Fox 40 was my coworkers on the news team, as we were all in the same age group (Early 20’s) and experiencing the same turmoil that was WICZ. Although essentially filling three roles in one, working minimum wage 40 hours a week, will be a résumé booster, it is not something I would wish on anyone fresh out of college and looking forward to getting started in their journalism career. This station killed my spirit for television news, and I hope that something changes with management to prevent the same from happening to future employees.”
News Director: Kyle Fobe
“He’s all over the place but is very smart when it comes to what viewers want. He lets you be creative and he cares.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“They make you work harder than you should. I was once told ABC57 is like a “boot camp” and that’s not too far off. Communication is the biggest challenge. Staff are overworked and underpaid. There are sometimes the extra work doesn’t make sense, and they stick to a tight standard of vosot and pkg with 2 interviews at least, even if that means talking to random people on the street about things that don’t pertain to them. Fobe is newer and brings a lot to the table. Hopefully, this changes. Great first station. Expect to work your butt off for no reward or acknowledgment.”
News Director: Scott Rates
Experience described as: “Terrible”
While working for KION this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“If you have any semblance of dignity and respect, you should stay far, far away from this station. The newsroom is incredibly unorganized, toxic, full of favoritism, and lacking serious professional and ethical journalism and leadership. If you’re expecting a starter market that will help shape into a competent reporter, this isn’t the place for you. The station is also incredibly cheap with equipment that is constantly falling apart or missing. They also struggle to pay their workers fair wages and raises. Their PTO is abysmal. Any possible gain/experience is quickly overshadowed by its glaring problems. AVOID THIS STATION AT ALL COSTS.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Dan Delgado
“Worst possible experience. Delgado’s ego is ruining young journalist and he is a disgrace to the industry.”
While working for KCAU this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The assistant news director, Andy Bottger, is bitter and biased. He won’t approve stories he thinks “will create conflict” or “ruin relationships.” He constantly belittles newbie journalist and flaunts how smart and experienced he is. He’s burnt out and wants everyone else to feel miserable. Bottger and Delgado are running that place straight into the ground. Ps don’t ever bother going to HR. She will tell everyone your private conversations and is only there to protect management. She also yells at people like they’re her kids. The three of them should be fire. Pss… the GM has a smiling picture with a “TRUMP 2020” hat that plays in rotation in the conference room. A very unbiased newsroom of course!!”
News Director: Craig Smullin
“This is a newsroom run by bias and nepotism. When your news director has no collegiate education in journalism and just so happens to be the owner’s nephew, be wary of what your experience might be. While Craig is a nice guy, he lacks basic communication skills and basic journalism ethics.”
While working for KOBI this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Expect to be asked to perform every task in the newsroom while the news director and EP arrive late, leave early and take 3-4 hour lunches.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Dale McElrath
“He’s supportive, kind, understanding, values work/life balance and is a great leader and wants to see everyone grow and get better.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Best station to work for hands down, I’ve had such an incredible and positive experience. If you’re looking for work/life balance but the opportunity to tell good character driven stories while having the time and creative means to do so this is the station for you.”
News Director: Melissa Medalie
Assistant News Director: James Warner
“The worst station I ever worked for.”
While working for WOFL this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“This was the most hectic, unorganized and mismanaged newsroom I had ever experienced.
Not only were you thrown at multiple stories each day, the management is constantly panicking and the senior management (news directors) are incredibly degrading with little cause. It’s a place many people are leaving or have already left.
My husband also bent over backwards for this station for four years. He rarely missed a day and was promoted often. When he announced he was leaving three weeks before his contract was up they made him pay a buyout and we believe (but cannot prove) caused a job offer he had taken to fall through the cracks.
I would NEVER recommend anyone work for this dumpster fire.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“FOX O and O does have great benefits but it ends there.”
News Director: Lowell Briggs
Experience described as: “Positive”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“Constant shift in news directors. Very low staffed. Constant required overtime and 6 day weeks.”
News Director: John Kirby
“John Kirby has an outdated style of News Directing that leads young women to feel insecure and unsafe.”
While working for KREX this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Unpaid overtime is regular. Your appearance is regularly criticized (beyond small comments normalized with the business). A co-worker of mine was African American, and while all white female staff got salon/hair visits paid for, our co-worker did not because the salon we were provided did not do black women’s hair. There is no security for morning anchors coming in alone at 2 AM.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Amy Beveridge
Experience described as: “Middle of the road”
While working for WMTW this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“This station has positives in the area is lovely to live in, but difficult on the salaries offered.
You are paired with a photog everyday- no solo live shots but producers hold all the power and literally run the ship here. If you come in with years of prior experience expect to be ordered (and I don’t use that word lightly) by someone fresh out of college.
Every shift is live for the sake of live, it is a Union shop so if you are the new hire expect to work every holiday and be “forced” to take shifts despite previous plans or if it falls on your normal days off. There is blatant favoritism among reporters and being difficult is often rewarded with high profile story assignments or best shifts.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
News Director: Jennifer Rigby
“Jennifer is wonderful. She lets journalists be creative and doesn’t hover. She is supportive of her staff and is one of the few ND’s I’ve had in my career who hasn’t scared me.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This newsroom should be what other newsrooms aspire to be. The people are respectful, kind, and hard working. The station also cares about good journalism. It encourages creativity and innovation and provides good feedback to staff. This is a wonderful place to work. I wish it was more competitive with pay, but you can’t beat the environment and culture here.”
News Director: Steve Cohen
“Extremely knowledgeable and congenial news director. Pretty hands off for the most part, and prefers to leave the oversight of the daily newscasts to his Asst. News Director or EPs”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This was a great starter job for an aspiring producer. I was just an AP, and they helped hone my skills. They are very adamant about recruiting from local community colleges in order to give aspiring writers/producers a foot in the door. The pay was not great, and they intentionally choose recently graduated community college students and 4-year students to fill their writing and associate producer positions for the reason they can pay them minimum wage. But the trade off is you get experience and they are more than willing to help you find a job in a different market once you are ready to move up. The staff can sometimes be gossipy. I know that’s the case wherever you go. But since this is an independent station, with no affiliation, and is privately owned, there is very little recourse any employee can take. Moreover, the family that owns the station, the McKinnon’s, are extremely right-wing conservatives. They are huge donors to the Trump
Campaign, and many of their political segments are EXTREMELY biased and one-sided, which is a very rare trait in a local station. An example would be: I helped produce a local weekly 30 min segment which aired on Sundays that discussed topics impacting San Diego. Topics ranged from the Mayoral election to the opioid epidemic. However, in 2016 we were supposed to do a two part episode about the presidential election. Our first episode was about the Republican candidates for statewide office as well as Trump’s campaign. When we were recording the episode the anchor asked me if we were going to be doing the Democrats next week and who were our guests. I asked my assistant News director and she said we aren’t doing another episode. This was our only election episode we were doing. The anchor got really upset and told her that he understood the owner is a Republican but we are a local news station and journalists, we can’t be just blatantly one sided. It will ruin our credibility. So at the end of the segment he decided to tease next weeks episode with the Democrats, much to the ire of the AND. Needless to say we invited the Democratic political analysts to come on the following week, and literally on the day we were going to record the episodes the assistant news director walks into the lobby where tjentieste are waiting and informs that she is canceling this episode, without providing any reason. The political analysts who were there were flabbergasted. That didn’t go over well, especially when the main guest scheduled that day was a local state representative, who ended up getting elected as Mayor of San Diego in 2020. He refused to go on KUSI when they hosted the mayoral debate.”
News Director: Tim Klutsarits
Experience described as: “Horrific.”
While working for WBBH this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I currently work in a top 20 market. I’ve heard lots of horror stories but I’ve yet to hear of a more manipulative and toxic environment than what I worked in under Darrel Lieze-Adams and Tim Klutsarits. Both of them facilitate an environment built on gossip. Coworkers are pitted against each other because “competition breeds excellence.” Anchors have constant meetings with management where they shit on their producers, most of whom are fresh out of school and inadequately trained by management. I’ve seen a few rookie producers unfairly fired…several of whom were actually good, and one of them went on to produce in market 3 right after. Plus, it isn’t a real newsroom. Content decisions are not made based off impact or how it would serve people living in the market. Instead, every decision comes down to one thing: ratings. Even the most minute things, like how often your scripts say the words “today” or “right now.” It’s all manufactured by consultants. The newsroom isn’t run by Tim or Darrel, it’s run by the consultants. To both of them, the word of God may as well be coming from the mouth of a MAGID consultant. And that means what the consultants say, goes, period. And you better not disagree. On top of all of this, the pay is terrible. If WBBH offers you a contract, run far, far away. Don’t be fooled by the beaches and sunshine. Your mental health will deteriorate. Btw, you won’t get paid to work OT or to work a 6th/7th day. And you’ll be forced to do both.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This station is great learning environment, if you want to discover everything that’s wrong with local TV news. When I got to my new market, I had to unlearn nearly everything that was beaten into to me at WBBH. Trust me when I say you’re better off working somewhere in a less desirable geographic location to get your start. If you looked at their staff page three years ago, all you would find are white faces and blonde hair. There’s a reason why that was forced to change, and why they now have a more diverse group of reporters and anchors. And it’s not because management had some sort of awakening.
This place is toxic as can be. Unless new management comes into control, do not work here.”
News Director: Matt Templeman
“Nice guy, but completely out of touch with what his reporters are seeing in the field. He is also the main anchor and has no time to help reporters learn and grow. But he sits in the studio and criticizes his reporters work but don’t doesn’t address it.”
While working for KEZI this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“When it comes to sexual discrimination he would not let me do certain jobs because of my gender. He would use excuses to get around the real reason why. When it comes to a toxic work environment, there is constant emotional abuse and trauma. People would get screamed at for little errors and management plays favorite with reporters. The only thing that got me through my contract was the support from fellow MMJs because we all bonded on the trauma we experienced.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“They are number one in the market but stick to the “formula.” They do not want to diverge from it because they think what they’re doing works. There is no creativity. They pay for consultants to come in to tell you why your work is bad, he offers suggestions, but management doesn’t let you actually go through with it. There are also many unethical decisions made in the newsroom like showing people about to commit suicide live on television. This guy was on top of a building and management decided to take the sky cam to show the guy at the edge. Also they do not care about safety. The general manager and news director victim blames reporters if they’re in a dangerous situation. There were times where I felt unsafe and the news director pulled me into his office to tell me what I did wrong. The cost of living is high in the city and the pay doesn’t meet that. You need parental support to live in Eugene with the salary. If you’re a self starter and can push through having no support from management, this station is for you. But for the sake of your mental health, this station should be avoided.”
News Director: Dan Boers (when I was employed a year and a half ago)
“My experience working under Dan Boers felt impersonal. If you wanted Dan to take anything seriously, a male or veteran opinion was required. Although he is no longer the news direnctor there, those same conditions apply to most authority figures whom are still there.”
While working for WOOD this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Although I never personally experienced sexual harrassment or racial discrimination (I am white), I saw it and know others who have. It has taken me almost two years to finally write this review, I was fearful that had I written this after I was fired that it would get in the way of new job prospects. I was fired for attempting to stand up to legitimate racial threats, albeit I’ll admit my method was unconventional, nevertheless there was no reason to completely terminate my position when sexual predators have gotten to keep their’s or have been asked to resign. In short, this station protects sexual predators and racists. After it was brought to Dan’s attention that an employee was actively using racial and homophobic slurs, that employee simply recieved a slap on the wrist. He was a male.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you’re under the age of 30 (especially if you identify as a woman), do not expect to be taken seriously. The misogyny and ageism runs deep at this station. There are some great vets to learn from and despite my negative review, I did learn a lot. However, it is an overall toxic environment and be sure to keep your gaurd up.”
While working for WDJT this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination
“It seems the best opportunities here are given to people who complain the most, which goes against everything I’ve aspired to be as an individual. I don’t feel like I can talk to management about anything. Others are constantly stepping over me to do my job despite having no idea what they are doing, then I look bad when the quality of the news product suffers. Working here has made me depressed and angry and made me want to get out of news.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
News Director: Lauren Weppler
“Lauren should not be in a management position. She is a lion in sheep’s clothing. She will make baseless claims about wanting to support and help you. However, when she’s given an opportunity to do so, she will not. Her compliments mean nothing and you should never trust a word that she says. Her treatment towards you will depend on her mood of the day. She is extremely selfish and rewards people based on favoritism instead of merit. Don’t be surprised when you see the laziest workers being praised and promoted. She also condones a toxic work environment full of harassment. It’s easier for her to hide things than be an actual leader.”
While working for WTOL this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management is terrible. You will genuinely question how “higher ups” are able to act the way they do. Lauren is a master manipulator. Younger, inexperienced employees will be taken advantage of. All it takes is a few years in the workforce to figure out her game. Trust me, you’re better off working anywhere else.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you have another option, don’t work here.”
News Director: Jerry Giesler
“News director is only there to collect a paycheck.”
While working for WJFW this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Inappropriate employee behavior and comments were common here.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“There’s holes in the walls made from employee fists and a head in multiple employee altercations. Management and supervisors regularly lie with no shame. No COVID policy. Station stopped “caring” about COVID after the election. Not uncommon to short employees on paychecks. Good luck!”
News Director: Sarah Zak, but I worked under Mark Kurtz
“I had a great experience with Mark”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“I would say for the most party, WAVY is a great station to work for. Just like any newsroom, it has its problems. I would agree with the person before me when it says negative/toxic people get promotions when they should be fired. Also, WAVY is unfortunately not immune to a lot of problems plaguing the biz. Overall, I had a great experience. It’s very much a “family” environment and sometimes that can feel a little fake sometimes.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
News Director: Dan Firnbach
Experience described as: “Absolutely a pawn of management, no real power.”
While working for WWTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The entire environment is not toxic, (as in there are many wonderful employees that work here) but management and ownership certainly is. Gross understaffing, no investment in infrastructure (except perhaps the fancy new building), decades-old equipment, underpayment nearly across the board, and a strange, toxic dynamic between all the managers is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s also very important to note that although, as mentioned above, every department is understaffed, and nearly every understaffed worker is working 2 or more jobs at once, they still have a pretty penny to output towards the owner and to aquire new businesses.
To further underline the toxicity of 9&10- yes, it does hemorage employees. Constantly. It’s a low wage stepping stone station that hires grads right out of college, treats them poorly, and then ponders angrily as to why they leave. The operations department is the same way, only able to hold onto a few core directors as most the high-schoolers they use to fill the other jobs get wise or tired pretty quickly and move on, or go off to college. It is constant turn around. Do not let the concernly fake reviews fool you. 9&10 is known for its turnaround. Just look at the ever shifting news anchors. Furthermore, producers have been pushed out. Multiple times.
HR is like almost all HR departments and there to protect the company and only the company. The HR has a concerningly lax attitude towards what’s allowed and what isn’t, but for the most part you’ll never interact them so that’s something.
Also, there’s a concerning lack of Covid-19 protocol.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This place IS NOT all bad. It has wonderful people working in it and it has it moments of putting out good content (because of the workers). Until management gets its act together, this place will always be a subpar place to work.”
News Director: Mitch Davis
Experience described as: “Sneaky, Stays in office all day, Uses other newsroom managers as pawns for dirty work”
While working for WKBN this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Pretty much out of the whole building (ALL departments) there are 4 people of color, One Anchor, One Digital Reporter, a Production team member and a Weekend Met. THAT’S IT. The youngstown DMA is pretty much 50/50 when it comes race, black and white. THE STATION DOESN’T REFLECT THE MARKET. Management doesn’t care and isn’t trying. The Overall environment is chaos in a can thanks to the ND and Managing editor. Reporter and some Producer schedules are all over the place and never consistent. But they get confused about why people leave due to not having any consistency. The ND, is a used car salesman who knows the car is broken but sells it to you anyway, Broken Promises. The Assistant ND only leaves his office to talk to sports. I honestly have no clue what he does and I don’t think he knows either. Again the managing editor who is number 3 in the newsroom…I honestly don’t know what to say about her.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you are looking for mentorship and a place to learn and grow this isn’t it. There is no help or guidance. Management will complain about you, your work and talk bad about you behind your back but ….NOT HELP YOU. Your ONLY chance for survival in that place is Nightside from what I hear because the nightside EP is a genuine person and great to work with. I wish I worked on that shift more. Also with your crazy days off the shift you work is all over the place. The Managing Editor is the one that does the scheduling, lord help her. Also do you see all the jobs I clicked above? I get hired as one thing (MMJ) and become everything. There are so many openings…they won’t fill. They just rather make reporters be Producers and fake Mets, TACKY. If you are foolish enough to come here, don’t get sucked into being on the WYTV side. Gosh I feel bad for the Anchors, Producers, and mets on that side. Management only cares about WKBN and it shows and sadly I’ve heard them say it too. WKBN gets all the resources like producers and money. The WYTV side is literally all hands on deck (Anchors and MMJs producing shows) but management expects WYTV to operate and look like a WKBN side. It’s insanity. Also when I have produced on both stations the sports block is almost 5 min. CRAZY. and to make sure WKBN is doing ok they make sports be in the B block of the 11 on the WYTV side, I’ve seen the rundown. When it comes to the EPs they have have to produce daily newscast too on top of their EP duties. AGAIN CRAZY.”
News Director: Greg Schieferstein
“A manager who chimes in simply to pretend he’s managing. Interactions with him are rare, which could be a blessing in disguise. He mostly sits in his office and plays on his phone.”
While working for KRNV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“KRNV is a good station to work for if you want to get therapy; because this newsroom will ensure you need it. Coworkers are great, but management (for the most part) will ensure you lie in bed every morning as long as you can, staring into the abyss asking yourself how you can get through one more day.
Support for employees is minimal (not there at all) so you must be a self-starter to have a remote chance to succeed. In other words, expect to work outside of your shift, but don’t expect any appreciation or payment for doing so.
Reporters have been sent to riots with no safety precautions. Shifts are structured in a way that makes you question your life choices on a daily basis. Stories are shot down or changed on a whim with no explanation just to send crews hours away to nonexistent news. (Happens on many occasions).
Don’t expect a steady schedule because there’s a good chance yours will change on a week-to-week basis due to poor management and high turnover.
This newsroom legitimately could have been one of the best in the west (yes, even compared to SF and Sacramento), but the insanity behind management’s decision making ensured that potential was never realized. Virtually all of the photographers left, all meteorologists quit within a few months of each other (again, terrible foresight by management), and producers and reporters enter and exit like it’s some kind of carnival ride in hell.
Active investigations have been brought forth against the ND with no results. Employees have confided as much and admit they’re on the verge of mental breakdowns.
Reno rests in a lovely area, but the salary compared to the cost of living and affects on your mental health means you should avoid at all costs.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Avoid if you can. Despite a great set of coworkers, the taxing toll on mental health will make you regret your decision almost immediately. Many have broken contracts just to get out. They weren’t the first and won’t be the last.”
News Director: Matt Templeman
Experience described as: “Good guy but overwhelmed boss”
While working for KEZI this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“They pay u burger king wages and act like you should be greatful. Even Sinclair pays better, has better benefits and has less workload. There is no upside to working here.”
News Director: Keith Connors
“One of the worst experiences of my life”
While working for WFSB this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The station has no communication, the management has no idea what goes on in the newsroom. They don’t care of journalistic ethics, they don’t care about anything but advertising money. There is no team work.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“It is amazing that they are the number one station in the market. I felt less like a journalist here than I did in high school. It was all about the money, nothing about journalism.”
News Director: Barb Rothler
“Barb was the news director at the time, I feel that she knew the newsroom was filled with toxic behavior from management and she did nothing about it. She was very passive aggressive, but seeing as though she’s gotten out of the industry, I’d like to focus my review on the EP and the Assignment Editor. The two of them together were never on one accord, you’d get an assignment from the editor and then get yelled at by the EP for doing it. They were both manipulative, conniving and it seemed as though they did everything they could to intimidate their staff and back them into a corner. I am very happy to no longer be working in this place, it was more harmful to my career than helpful. My advice is to not make a stop here if you don’t have to, getting the experience is not worth the hell you’re put through.”
While working for WILX this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“There was an obvious limit of diversity among staff in this newsroom. There was also a constant deny of pitches that represented the Black community, along with an apparent difference in treatment when it came to work criticism.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“While diversity was an issue at this station, it was just one of many. I had several coworkers outside of the Black and Brown race who also felt that the work environment was extremely toxic, I wouldn’t advise anyone to work here under the current management.”
News Director: Jerry Giesler
Experience described as: “Casual, Light-hearted, Fun”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“WJFW feels small town (or in this case Northwoods), even for its market size. But that’s not all bad.
Nearly no breaking news means reporters are free to pitch fun or thoughtful enterprise stories.
The ND is the most laid back and friendly manager you’ll ever have. He will give feedback and help if you seek it out, but he’s fairly hands off (which most NDs are) on hour-by-hour work.
The Chief Met, Geoff, is genuinely the nicest person ever and helps lift the mood of the whole station.
This is a low stress place to learn. But if you’re looking for fast-paced breaking news and bigger city lifestyle, look elsewhere.
They pay MMJs slightly better than market size would indicate (though it’s still a small market), and are willing to splurge for leaders, if they think they’ll make a difference.”
While working for WWTV this person experienced:
“As a woman of color who works here I think it’s important to note I have NEVER experienced racism or sexism by any employee”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational
News Director: Jenna Huff
Experience described as: “Toxic and Uncomfortable”
While working for WANE this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I’ve experienced countless moments of racial discrimination encounters with current News DIrector, Jenna Huff. She never takes responbililty for her actions, she just puts it on someone else. She’s not a team player – it’s either her way or no way. She looks at others as beneath her. This is not a safe place for people of color.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“No matter how much you complain, nothing gets done”
News Director: Mark Kurtz
Experience described as: “Toxic”
While working for WAVY this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Mark had no spine. Rude and toxic employees get promoted when they should be fired. They’ll constantly say “it’s good to be WAVY” and gaslighting you while giving you no raise or 1%. It’s ridiculous.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Avoid Nexstar, weekend shift, and the morning show.”
News Director: Jenna Huff
Experience described as: “Toxic, Negative, Heartbreaking”
While working for WJCL this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Got it how’s this…
Since Jenna Huff has been news director at WANE 15 at least 14 passionate journalists have left the station and a majority of them have left the industry and majority of those leaving are people who would normally be consider “lifers.”
Huff requires reporters to have 2 stories set in stone before their shift for the day but if she does not like them had reporters cancel, which has made it difficult for reporters to keep contacts and sources.
Huff belittles reporters, especially if she does not like their story ideas and discourages reporters and photographers from covering events in surrounding counties.
Huff often yells at reporters and threatens to fire employees in front of other employees. When reporters or photographers show an interest in moving to another station within Nexstar Huff makes it difficult to transfer and then tells the newsroom “(reporter name) is dead to us” and “if you don’t want to be here I don’t want you here.”
The pay is poor, the news director leadership is poor and what used to be the 1 station in the market has slipped to 2.
The only positive is that when Huff does belittle an employee the others are there with tissues because the day before they were being told they’d “never be a good reporter””
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“WANE was the place to work BEFORE Huff. The fact Nexstar corporate has yet to respond and step up is a slap in the fast of all the hardworking people who made WANE 15 the number one station and those reporter struggling with a toxic boss and mental health.”
News Director: Jenna Huff
“Worst experience of my life”
While working for WANE this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“News director sets unreasonable work expectations and how strict she is with them entirely depends on how much she likes the person. Makes snap decisions regardless of how many people disagree with her and will change the subject or ignore phone calls when she’s done talking about it.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“WANE went from being a station where people genuinely enjoyed working at to a place where people are miserable. Around 14 people have left in the last year (compared to 1 person the year before) after a change in leadership and now new hires are being thrust into their jobs with little training but high expectations. Pay is poor and news director refuses to negotiate. Mental health for many news staff is not great, and it’s now become about getting by and staying out of the line of fire rather than putting out great content.”
News Director: Andy Pederson
Experience described as: “Absolutely awful – Worst Job”
While working for KTVE/KARD this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I was sexually and verbally harassed by (someone in management)*** during my time there. It was my first job out of college and I thought it was normal to have an older white male constantly stare at my ass, constantly comment on tight dresses I wore, and even would pass by me to ‘casually’ touch my butt. He has a very specific type. After he hired me, he hired skinny and brunette females as if he had a type. He is married with a son and was constantly preying on me. I had to go to Corporate to report him, because my HR rep at the time would not have done anything about it. Corporate brushed it under the rug despite the fact that I had about 4-5 instances as proof. When he wasn’t sexually preying on me, he was verbally harassing me making fun of what I said and constantly bringing me down. If you go to myarklamiss.com, you’ll notice there are only 4 males that work at the station and the rest are females…”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I did eventually transfer to another station and never want to look back again, but do not work there if you are a female. You will run into the risk of working with a sexual predator and will have little control of your situation.”
***The person’s job title was removed due to claims of libel from the accused.
News Director: Ernesto Romero
Experience described as: “Abhorrent and unprofessional”
While working for KYMA/KSWT/KECY this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Ernesto is a nice person, but only as a person. For him, there’s no boundaries. Texts and emails early in the morning and late at night. Often times he is missing in action in the newsroom. You are frequently wrong, but he never is. Absolutely unable to make quick decisions and more times than not, plays favorites. Upper management even turns a blind eye to his horrible behavior – but ratings and web views always does well, so he gets credit. (Someone in management)*** made a move on me outside of work and it was majorly uncomfortable ever since. Worst two years of my life.
Don’t even think about asking for your equipment to be fixed (when it often breaks) or you’ll get all the blame. Very unorganized. If you’re strong-willed, independent, and pay no mind to the drama he creates, then you’ll succeed. Otherwise, this newsroom is absolutely toxic.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Can’t really say anything positive about this newsroom except the tight relationships made with other people in the newsroom. But, there are some with major egos – they are fueled even more by the News Director. Everyone says it’s not a competition, but you’ll find yourself all competing and fighting to get the top stories and coverage. Usually agendas/plans for news coverage for big events (President’s visit, Press Conferences) is last-minute. The station has NBC, CBS, ABC, Telemundo, and FOX all under the same roof… but all the company’s resources goes into the NBC’s 5 & 6pm shows. If you’re not on those shows, then don’t expect to be a priority. Not worth it for the amount of time you’ll bust your butt to work.”
***The person’s job title was removed due to claims of libel from the accused.
News Director: Dan Firnbach
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“We all know these reviews are written by (four current employees)*** and a few others (maybe don’t text others about it).
I’m tired of people in the newsroom talking about this website and then going to it just flat out lie about Dan and the rest of the people in the newsroom that care about it.
No one has left the newsroom in months. It’s not toxic, filled with racism or sex discrimination. These are so laughable cuz every one knows it’s these 4-5 continually posting these. Meanwhile the rest of us laugh at their texts and secret talks about these posts. Get a life divas.”
***The names were omitted to hide the possible previous reviewer’s identities.
News Director: John Haferkamp
“He was good, made some offensive jokes at times but overall seems to care about his employees. Never had a problem getting time off or anything.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This is a great first station to work for, and I think everyone should disregard the negative review by the reporter.
That negative review makes some good points but is mostly false. WSBT has a lack of on air diversity, but then again it’s Indiana. We do have a very diverse group of people working behind the scenes, but I doubt (they)*** ever cared to meet any of them. (The person who wrote the negative review) was fired because (they) kept sharing confidential details about our daily news operations on (their) public social media and openly criticizing us in detail on those platforms if we didn’t like (their) ideas that day. (They) also refused to take criticism and would get offended when changes were made to (their) scripts. I even saw (them) refuse those corrections and voice (their) pkg with (their) original script on several occasions. (They) would constantly miss the point of stories or force an angle that just wasn’t there. (This person) was once sent to cover a town hall on gun violence and came back with a cutesy story about a child asking the mayor his favorite food. (Their) firing had nothing to do with (their) race, (this person) was just a bad employee and delusional. (This person) was even given multiple warnings and chances to improve, and management spent extra time and resources working with (them). Still, (this person) always thought everyone was out to get (them). Our news director was not shady at all or discreet with (this person’s) performance issues with (them). I would consider him one of the better bosses in this industry.
The station also does not hate Joshua Short or WNDU. We just dislike his famous black friday live shot because he made a mistake being on the wrong side of the mall. He also continues to ride that gimmick for going on 3 years now. Most people are friends with him and he regularly goes out for drinks with WSBT staff.”
***The pronouns were changed to hide the possible previous reviewer’s identity.
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 (someone in management)***. 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.”
***The person’s job title was removed due to claims of libel from the accused.
News Director: Iain Munro
“There’s a reason people are fleeing this station left and right: management”
While working for KRQE this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The management at KRQE is absolutely unacceptable. Talented, motivated journalists (producers included) and meteorologists are dropping like flies at this shop because of how poorly they are treated by superiors. The long-time talent are the only ones treated well — and they are allowed to speak/act in a completely unprofessional manner to/around the younger staff members. It’s a mess. If you’re looking for genuine mentoring and a leader of the people, Mr. Munro is not your guy.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The ‘never settle’ attitude of the newsroom is KRQE’s only praise-worthy quality. Reporters/MMJs are pushed incredibly hard to find enterprise news stories the competition won’t have — and they develop a crucial skill set to turn in-depth daily stories that would likely be an investigative piece in any other market. You’ll learn a lot… just learn quickly and take your talents to a place where you won’t be treated like garbage.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Dan Firnbach
“Seems a bit in over his head”
While working for WWTV this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Totally a boys club.
Women don’t have a say.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Unorganized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Love this site. It gives employees an opportunity to speak their minds and inform other potential employees of what they are getting into. Wish I had known about this before I hired in to 9&10.
Don’t let review #10 fool you. It was obviously written by their current news director Dan Firnbach. I have emails from him screenshot where some of the exact verbage he uses in this review was used.
Clearly trying to do damage control because of the amount of people that are leaving 9&10.
There are people paying to break their contract just to get out of that place. Think about it. To some people, it’s worth the 10k penalty just to leave. That speaks volumes.
Was the last news director your best friend? Did he hold your hand and pat you on the bottom and tell you everything is going to be ok? No. He’s not your mommy. He had expectations, and held you accountable. That’s why 9&10 used to be the best. Now the news department heads are nothing but pushovers in way over their head. Watch their news shows. It’s a disgrace.
I have been here a long time. It’s not better than it used to be. It’s worse than it has been in years. And the reason for that is the firing of the people who were the heart of that station for years. GM, ND, and anchors let go that MADE this station. And the hiring of upper management that have zero experience in news, and are only looking to make money. Case in point, if you look at available job postings at 9&10, you will find one for a farmer. A farmer. Why would a news organization need a farmer you ask? Because they are pouring money into building a farm, to make more money for the bosses. Meanwhile, they are letting good people go because there “isn’t enough money in the budget.” But they have enough for a farm? Maybe it’s from all the 10k penalties people are paying to break contract.
Don’t be fooled by upper management writing positive comments on here.
It’s bad.
And no change seems to be on the horizon.”
News Director: Ryan Hazelwood
Experience described as: “I feel victimized”
While working for KOAA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I am refraining from giving away any identifying information about who I am or what my job is at the station, because I know our vindictive managers not only read these reviews, but they also admittedly write fake positive ones and retail items against those they believe are responsible for the very accurate negative ones.
I will also likely be putting in my resignation soon and do not want to be identified just yet. But suffice it to say they’ll be shocked if and when I do.
I have watched as this once shining example of how a newsroom should be run has gone completely downhill.
As other reviews have accurately pointed out, it all started with the former GM Evan Pappas. He cared about the bottom line and the bottom line only. He went through several news directors before he found his yes man in Ryan Hazelwood.
For the past few years, since Ryan Hazelwood took the reigns, it’s been a downward spiral of negativity, toxicity, and straight up bullying.
Since Scripps bought us, he has been doing all he can to kiss the asses of Scripps’ corporate leaders and let them know he’ll do anything they say, even if it comes at the expense of his employees.
As long as Ryan Hazelwood is in charge of this place, I would recommend staying well clear of here.
And others have taken note of this. In just the last six months or we have lost:
-Two producers who didn’t even make it a year
-Two digital reporters who barely made it a year
-Three reporters, one who made it a little over a year, one who made it a little less than a year, one who finished out their contract and left.
-An EP who only made it a little over a year in that role
-A fantastic photog who had only been here a couple years
-Our beloved main anchor who management stabbed in the back and replaced with a washed up former anchor of another station in town who was not anymore well known than our (much better) anchor that they pushed out.
Of all those people, only two are still in the business, and are much better off now than they were here.
The rest, understandably, have been scared off from ever taking a job in TV news again.
That’s what working at KOAA will do for you.
Congratulations Ryan Hazelwood! You’re ruining this industry by scaring off good talent, and I’m the next one to go!
Scripps, if you’re reading this, do yourself a favor and show Ryan and his cronies the door.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Stay away! Work at KRDO (they’ve gotten much better since all the negative reviews in here, they’ve totally cleaned house) or KKTV or Fox 21!
I only checked the intern box for job description because I do not want to give away what position I work, and we do not have interns in this news room, so it was a good neutral option.”
News Director: Kristen Shill
“If you love receiving constant criticism from a boss that’s never there, then this is the job for you”
While working for WQOW this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“the immense level of unprofessionalism, misplaced criticism, management laziness and lack of solid journalism ethics amongst higher-ups is astonishing.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“employees in both news and production departments have been cut in half within the last few months – and there’s a reason why. do not work for this station.”
News Director: Dan Firnbach
“No problems. Helped when needed and stayed out the of way when not”
While working for WWTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“These reviews are laughable! It could be an overall toxic environment before this year when a lot of the toxic people were let go. Probably why they are all so angry at the new management that finally saw through their BS and are resorting to writing these fictional reviews to get even. What’s good about 2021? Bullies aren’t tolerated! The rules apply to everyone! We get told and shown we are appreciated regularly. Most everyone wants to be there and is pleasant to work with. No more walking on egg shells around a few that were ticking time bombs.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Take these reviews with a grain of salt and realize that they are likely posted by people that are disgruntled. Happy people rarely take time to write reviews. If you want to learn, work hard and feel appreciated this is a fun place to work.”
News Director: Dan Firnbach
“Great learning experience with consistent feedback”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This site is total garbage! All it does is give the toxic people that finally got what was coming to them another outlet to complain and make up total lies. Is it perfect? Nope, but it is obvious everyone is trying their best from co-workers to management. When things do go wrong or can be improved most of the time they listen and work with you to reach a solution.
I have worked here for awhile now and I can tell you things are WAY better the last year than they used to be. It’s nice to work for a news director that shows gratitude and genuinely cares about his people.
The hr manager is fair and consistent which is probably why the ones that mess around and do stupid things don’t like her.
The coo is relatively new, so I haven’t interacted with him a whole lot. He seems cool and says hello to everyone by name when he sees them though.
Bottom line: Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.”
News Director: Tom Henderson (now retired)
“I like him. I think he is a genuine, caring person.”
While working for WTVC this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“It has come to my attention that a recent review for this station have many people who work there think it has come from me — as I have received numerous messages about it.
While it did not come from me, this gossip (and false assumption) is a good example of the “toxic environment” that a lot of the previous reviews left here reference.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“You will walk away from this station having learned, but I do agree with the other reviewers that there is lots room for improvement here.”
News Director: Melanie Standiford
“Awful. She was hired with only about of year of TV news experience. She has no clue what she’s doing and has absolutely no idea how to train. She has a really hard time admitting she’s wrong about anything when she’s wrong.”
While working for KNOP this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I would definitely do some research or contact former employees before committing to this station.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Dan Firnbach
Experience described as: “Rude, Sneaky, Doesn’t know what he’s doing”
While working for WWTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Nobody cares what you do or wants to help you get better.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Im glad someone else said something about the human resources lady and the coo Josh Trust.
Here is a hint if you do work there. Don’t open any doors without knocking first. I opened the hr lady’s door and her and the coo were in there together and standing what i thought was a little close. They got awkward and red in the face.
A month later I was fired bc of my “negativity.” Personally I think they were doing stuff they should be at work, and they thought i caught them.
So lesson learned. Knock first.”
News Director: Greg Schieferstein
“Horrendous. I would be surprised to have gone a single day without a complaint about him or his assistant Jason. You could literally hear their conversations occurring from Greg’s office and some of things heard are truly alarming. They look at their staff life useless pawns. It has been truly sad to see young people get hired in my short time here just to lose their interest in journalism in record time. If it wasnt for contracts, this Sinclair station would have zero ability to retain talent. Everyone is unhappy, literally everyone, and if they arent — give it time or the first second they try to speak up and have an idea.”
While working for KRNV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The above mostly covers it, but I know this is a starter station and I cant even imagine how disappointed people must be to come here and think this is how news is. Its a tough job already, but Greg and Jason really team up perfectly to make getting underpaid and under appreciated feel like the least of their dissatisfaction. The goal of Greg seems to be hitting the nail the same way until the hammer breaks, then blame the nail and then finding a new nail for it to happen again all while using the same now broken hammer. Nothing changes there. This station has seen covid outbreaks where Greg has tried to get people to come into work while sick because he cant hire or retain people enough to afford people being sick, the station is currently under a cyberattack but Greg and Jason still expect everything to run as normal, and the station is somehow dead last with the most corporate financial support out of the 3 stations. Whats even more shocking is the TALENT the station has. Its the people who wear many hats, bound by contract, that literally hold the station together. Ive seen people there that literally have Market 10 and lower ability and zero respect to their flexibility during everything. This is the kind of news station that is a lawsuit waiting to happen.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“There are great people here. Dont get me wrong. I just hope one day a ND can sit with those people and hear them. Theres lots of good ideas, but a horrible couple of listeners. I believe Gregs only goal everyday is to keep his job rather than grow the station.”
News Director: Eric Walters
Experience described as: “Terrible. Eric Walters is atrocious.”
While working for WDBJ this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment
“Eric Walters hires people for their looks, so they’ll be forced to pay attention to him. He has no actual management skills, other than looking for physical talent–most of whom would leave him “on read” anyway.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Eric Walters ruined this station. He doesn’t know how to manage, nor does he care. He is incapable of dealing with different personalities, and doesn’t have what it takes to be a leader. He doesn’t care about people–only whatever makes him look “cool” for his Twitter followers.”
News Director: Tim Klutsartis
Experience described as: “Nice guy, approachable, but lacks any power beyond editorial control.”
While working for WBBH this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management creates a chaotically competitive environment that burns people out. Employees have been pinned against each other for promotions and management takes joy in fanning exceedingly petty drama with other stations in the market.
Upper management will go out of its way to highlight the short comings of the competitor in ratings while simultaneously ignoring why the newsroom morale is at an all time low as the station hemorrhages employees. Ratings are king, but bringing in “record books” for the station during sweeps is never reflected in compensation and ratings bonuses are being phased out.
Management touts the station as one that operates at the level of a top 20 market, but regularly advertises itself as “WatermanU” – essentially treating employees like they’re fresh out of college. This station continues to pay its reporters, weekend anchors, and producers unsustainable wages even as the cost of living in the area has doubled in recent years. The staff continues to carry the station to record high numbers while being paid in sunshine.
Finally – the station lives and dies by what Magid consultants say. Upper management is in bed with them and if you don’t serve as a yes man to everything the consultants want, you’ll be out the door at the end of your deal.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t even get me started on middle management.”
While working for KGBT/KVEO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“This place is an absolute train wreck. By far the most dysfunctional work environment I have ever been a part of. The recent ND just left, so I won’t comment on her impact on the newsroom – outside of the fact favorites were always promoted internally whether they deserved it or not. One MMJ was caught forging soundbites in stories, yet he somehow a few months later was promoted to main anchor. There is not a single person in the newsroom outside of the assistant nd/chief met that is over the age of thirty, and you can tell by the behavior after management is gone for the day. There’s more nerf gun wars than quality news content produced. Literally everything breaks all the time. Whether it’s a camera, or the server crashing for the 5th time that month – your hard work can easily go in the trash because of how haphazardly Nexstar pieced this duopoly together during the buyout. Countless people have broken contract recently to escape from this hell hole. Avoid at all costs.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t work here. It’s not worth your sanity”
News Director: Ernesto Romero
Experience described as: “Not helpful.”
While working for KYMA/KSWT/KECY this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“They’ll overwork you, you’re undervalued and underpaid. There are great stories in this market but you won’t have much guidance.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Renee Nygren
Experience described as: “Incompetent and insecure. She has no business running a newsroom.”
While working for KVLY this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The General Manager and News Director are wholly incompetent and at times downright cruel to newsroom employees. There’s a reason why they haven’t hired a producer in well over a year. They also gave an open white supremacist and COVID conspiracy theorist a platform for well over a decade, hurting the reputation of the newsroom.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Gray Television exists solely to underpay and overwork recent college grads until they get burnt out and leave the industry entirely… and then management wonders why there’s no one left to take on leadership positions in their newsrooms. Benefits are the bare minimum and are being gutted with each passing moment.
Management loves to talk about opportunities within Gray, and how the company wants to keep and build talent, while refusing transfers and LYING to our faces about it. Management expects you to empathize with them about staffing issues and sacrifice more of your time… while firing multiple hardworking people for basically no reason. There are probably some well-run Gray stations, but Valley News Live is an absolute joke.
The bottom line is you will get paid basically nothing to do extremely difficult work, with no guidance from management, all while getting trashed by the community.”
News Director: Jenna Huff
Experience described as: “Maddening”
While working for WANE this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Only writing this so anyone thinking about working here will strongly reconsider. Working for Jenna Huff is like trying to hit a moving target. She’s confusing and hard to work for. She’s moody, will play mind games and talk about employees to other employees.
Jenna’s been here for 14 months and since then 14 employees have left. No idea how that fact alone doesn’t raise red flags with upper management. Everyone in the newsroom is beyond miserable.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Bryan Queen
Experience described as: “Absolutely awful”
While working for WHP this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“This station is miserable. Our news director openly favors men, regularly berates his staff, and is generally not a good person. If you’re looking at this review because you’re considering coming here, don’t do it. I haven’t been here that long and I’m actively searching for a new job. You’ll be overworked and underpaid and regularly treated like garbage. Don’t do this to yourself.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Avoid this station at all costs. If there is a change in leadership, this station might be manageable. But while Bryan Queen is here, it should be avoided at all costs.”
News Director: Dan Firnbach
Experience described as: “Terrible. Has no idea what he’s doing.”
While working for WWTV this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The news director, Dan Firnbach, and Assistant News Director, Bill Froehlich, have no respect for females in this business. A lot of ‘mansplaining’ and talking down to female subordinates.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Where to begin.
Let’s start at upper management. Nobody has any experience in news. Every single person in charge, is a businessman. The total focus is on lining the pockets of upper management.
If you come to work in the news department, you will have no support. The people that are supposed to support you (news director, HR director) seem to work together against their employees.
The HR Director, Leslie Nowlin, has no respect or care for any of the employees. She does what is best for upper management, not for the employees who need her support. Somehow, she has a great deal of power, that no HR Director should have. Possibly because she is obviously having an affair with the recently hired COO, Josh Trust.
Moving down the line, closer to the newsroom, you get to the newly hired ND Dan Firnbach, and assistant ND Bill Froehlich.
Clearly both in way over their heads. Why were they hired?
Dan spent over a year trying to undermine and backstab his News Director, Sean Mahon, until he was eventually let go. Now he’s been promoted to the ND job because he is a weak puppet that does whatever upper management wants him to do. Bill Froehlich, he was just the only one stupid enough to accept the assistant news director job, because so many others had already passed on it. Partially because, in an effort to cut costs, they combined the positions of Assistant ND and Assignment Editor into one, and then ate the salary of the assignment editor, asking the new assistant ND to do 2 jobs, at about a 40k discount. And partially because nobody in their right mind wanted to work under the conniving Dan Firnbach.
Finally, we’ll get to the employees in the newsroom. Some of them are really decent workers and very friendly. However, there are a few that watch your every move and as soon as you do something they don’t like, will run to the news director or HR Director. They are the little spies for upper management. If you manage to avoid pissing off these sketchy veterans, don’t forget that you’ll be terribly overworked due to the lack of staffing. Reporters you will be told that you will get to be with a photojournalist every day. Don’t believe it. They only have a handful of photojournalists, and even less that are any good. And the good ones will go with the people that have been there longer. You will likely be asked to go out on your own and MMJ, with no support from your ND and Assignment ND, because again, they are in way over their heads and have no idea how to develop talent.
If you are looking for a job in the industry, stay away from 9&10. They are a sinking ship with no one at the wheel.”
News Director: Denisha Thomas
“Wonderful! She and the rest of management have an open-door policy.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“WATN/WLMT is a very positive newsroom.
I have been working for this station for a few months and I LOVE the creative control I have over my work.
Since this station has rolled out its rebrand, there have been several changes in both the on-air and digital products.
This station has a ton of potential ahead to stand out from the competition and I’m thrilled to be part of it.”
News Director: Shane Moreland
Experience described as: “Worst news director ever”
While working for WRIC this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Shane Moreland is the type of news director who will talk down to you, put his hand on you, discuss other employees behind their back and someone who goes back on his promises. Shane often hires from the outside instead of promoting from within, causing those people to leave and find new jobs. He’ll make promises to keep people happy then go back on his word. His judgement of news is laughable and it shows in the ratings. Sports is also a disaster with minimal local coverage and it’s led by a sports director Shane hired who cannot fulfill the job requirements. Shane is also known for hiring or not hiring someone based on their looks or race. He has been heard criticizing employee outfits and hair styles.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Nexstar is running the station into the ground because of bad leadership from VP/GM Larry Cottrill to Shane Moreland. Staff turnover is high and that will continue with both of them in that building. WRIC only promotes select anchors and reporters. This station has gone from respected on-air and behind the scenes employees to a revolving door.”
News Director: Jerry Howard
Experience described as: “Kind, open to hearing ideas”
While working for KDRV this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Very toxic work environment in the newsroom. No one is happy and they are SEVERELY understaffed.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Jessie O’Neill
Experience described as: “Poor, passive aggressive, demeaning”
While working for KOAT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“You will blamed for everything. EP’s do whatever they feel like and the rest take the fall. He will bully you into resigning yet destroy you in your review. The word is out. He complains he can’t hire yet he’s the reason and the other managers . Rest of newsroom a nice group.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Yeah if you want to be in this market , look at 13. They’re on top of it . Good desk while we miss BIG stories. Very little experience here. Everyone looking to get out. The GM ignores heartfelt concerns. Our ND has managed to bully the few good producers we’ve had and fire them or they quit. GM never thinks this is odd?
As for the Asst Nd she
Hasn’t shown up to work for a month for medical reasons, yet showed up last night at our Emmy party to collect hers . Well enough for that . And oh. She takes credit for everything so be prepared for that too .
A young reporter in the newsroom was torn apart by Melissa last month. How about coaching ? Nope. Look elsewhere”
News Director: Shauna Ziegler
Experience described as: “Awful, she chooses her favorites and is uninvolved”
While working for KFOX14/CBS4 this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Avoid this station at all costs, it’s toxic and has led several people to have serious mental health issues because of how they treat you. Schedule changes are constant and without notice. You will be asked to work OT without being paid for it.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Shauna Ziegler
While working for KFOX14/CBS4 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: Shauna Ziegler
“not involved in the station at all- the assignment desk runs the show and makes all reporters cry on a regular basis”
While working for KFOX14 & CBS4 this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Shauna Ziegler
Experience described as: “Fantastic”
While working for KFOX14/CBS4 this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment
“Some of the men there would make lewd comments”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational
News Director: Shauna Ziegler
Experience described as: “Very poor”
While working for KFOX14 & CBS4 this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Very toxic work environment.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Diane Irving
Experience described as: “Caring & compassionate, knows her stuff”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This newsroom has been in operation for three years, yet still operates like it’s a start-up. Reporters don’t have to chase fires & ambulances & murders, so they can work on actual good pieces (both enterprise & day of), but the method & style Spectrum uses can feel convoluted at times. There is next to no proper training for any position, so it’s often on the fellow producers & on-air people to train based off what they know, and not from any official company policy. There are too many managers, stuck in too many meetings every day, so often they have no clue of what’s going on, even if they say otherwise. Staff is friendly, works hard & wants to do well, though too often is stressed due to workflow issues, numerous failures in the newsroom production system. Turnover remains relatively low, though all these issues & more keeps it unclear whether that will stay true.”
News Director: Brad Kessie
“Brad can be tough but is a good teacher. He is very passionate about news and the product that goes on the air.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“This is a “starter market” but the pay matches many mid-markets. It’s a good learning environment, and you will learn good journalistic values, ethics, and integrity.”
News Director: Julie Szulczewski
“Julie is the type of manager that will throw any and everyone under a bus if it makes her look better. She has no vision for the newsroom, poor news judgement, and terrible people management skills. She makes disparaging remarks about employees and calls it a joke.”
While working for WAFF this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Disrespect comes from the top down. Julie does a terrible job leading by example. She doesn’t respect her employees or appreciate the work any of them put in. She berates some of the people who work the hardest, and will sometimes do it in front of everyone and in the middle of meetings.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Where to start? This station would be better run by literally anyone else. If you want to work for a manager who demands respect and acts like a moody teenager, this is the place for you.”
News Director: Steve Hyvonen
“He told me to keep my head down and mouth shut and I’d get ahead in “the business” he also told me digital was not an important job because everything was “trending toward TV and away from digital.” If you aren’t an anchor he doesn’t care about you and frequently pits reporters against one another and participates in station gossip to control the narrative. He also allows his managers to run amuck and turned a blind eye to sexual harassment, bullying, and racism.”
While working for WXIX this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management level employees regularly sexually harassed female employees while upper management turned a blind eye. Managers regularly participate in station gossip to control the narrative floating around the station. They also pit employees against one another. Managers frequently bully lower level employees and allow other employees to bully each other. If you try to go to HR, managers will pull you into their office, deny everything, and threaten your job safety.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you speak up and try to enact change toward a more positive work environment (reporting bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination) upper management will silence you by telling you it’s their word against yours and no one will believe you.”
News Director: Tracy Davis
“Shes green and easily influenced in her decision making”
While working for WVIT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“There are inexperienced people in positions of management that should not be there. Specifically an EP, managing editor as well as a few other people that have “risen to power” in between massive ND and GM upheavles over the years – a lot of uneducated chiefs and not enough i dians ( can we still say that??)”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Run from this o and o it has been turned i to a training ground for wanna lbe management ( even the current gm is a creative services director turned gm.. what? “
News Director: Chad Mahoney
“Chad Mahoney is a literal dictator and sociopath. He regularly tells his employees seeking to get the heck out from under his rein that they are “not ready” to move on when in fact they are! And most likely, they NEED to get away from working for him for their mental health. It’s like being in a relationship with an abusive partner who repeatedly tells you that you’re not good enough or won’t find anyone better. It’s so sad. I don’t know how this man still has a job after the way he repeatedly treats his employees. He is so controlling and just the worst person.”
While working for WGEM this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The absolute worst place I have ever worked. Chad M is demeaning, petty, demoralizing, and overall just a yucky person who quite literally gets pleasure in other people’s pain. He’s twisted.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Do not work here unless you want your mental health to suffer (three employees have recently left citing mental health), you want to be controlled and run out of the business. It’s so sad that this many employees can up and leave and leave these reviews and Gray does NOTHING.”
News Director: Rob Taylor
“Rob recently came to WFFF/WVNY a few months ago. The previous news director was a mess and MIA. Rob came in week one of the job making changes for the better. So far I am very happy with the change.”
While working for WVNY/WFFF this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“At times the newsroom can be a toxic place… we have a variety of individuals working at the station who have worked at the station for over 10 years to people fresh out of college. A lot of the veteran anchors/reporters voice their opinions and at times make you feel like the smallest person in the world. With the previous ND, there were favorites and when you had private conversations about something or someone… they would get word of it from him. It can be VERY gossipy if you allow yourself to fall into the toxic trap. ON A GOOD NOTE…. I have been able to grow. It did NOT COME EASY…. let me tell you.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I would describe the newsroom as unorganized chaos.”
News Director: Greg Schieferstein
Experience described as: “Toxic”
While working for KRNV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Greg tells many lies, gaslights in order to get his way, avoids serious issues, and refuses to listen to anything outside what he believes. He is arrogant, manipulative, and a terrible manager.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Greg Schieferstein does not need to be a manager, let alone the news director. He is the most toxic employer I have ever worked for. HR does nothing about him. They are corrupt as well. Do not work here. If you want to work in Reno, work for Channel 2 or KOLO. At least until Greg is gone. Not to mention he makes very inappropriate comments towards women, many of which cried in response to his remarks. Avoid at all costs. This is not a healthy introduction to journalism”
News Director: Jim Campagna
“I didn’t really have an issue with Jim as a person. As a manager I found him completely incompetent and unprofessional. He had no problems getting into screaming matches with his EP or running into the control room to scream about anything ranging from a problem he had with the stacking of a show to a minor technical problem.”
While working for WSYR this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The newsroom was an absolute mess. The News Director didn’t like making decisions and when he did it seemed more like a rambling stream of consciousness rather than an actual plan. New producers were trained very minimally and it seemed they were just thrown into the fire. Certain reporters were given way too much slack to screw up, others were criticized for every little mistake they made. The only reason this station is still #1 is due to lack of competition and a number of talented people who are somehow keeping the ship afloat.
I worked in production. I’m going to keep my criticisms of it to a minimum as my former boss (the operations manager) is about to leave the station, so the criticisms of him will soon be outdated. I will say that the biggest issue facing production is the amount of dead weight. There are a handful of people who have been there 20+ years, that make constant mistakes (but never admit to them), and have no problems throwing other people under the bus to make themselves look better. Part-timers are usually treated like garbage. They were usually barely making over minimum wage, scheduled horribly and had little to no protections by the union.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Like most Nexstar stations the pay was low and the morale was lower. Important note: it’s a union shop. Union negotiations are particularly nasty. During the last negotiation in 2018 a regional manager reportedly said regarding the low pay: “if they can’t live on this, they should work somewhere else” and “it’s not indentured servitude.” Those quotes certainly helped the already low morale at the station. The negotiation ended with the union threatening to go on strike and Nexstar settling for a “loss” by giving employees a whopping 2 percent raise spread out over 4 years, and a $500 bonus that was already given to non-union stations.
I do want to add that there are a lot of good people to learn from at WSYR. The station has a number of veteran photographers that are great to work with and learn from. The chief editor is amazing as well, and she can teach you a lot about editing. The producers were (for the most part) the usual revolving door recent college graduates, some good… some not so good. As for production, some of the people can be helpful, but the department has its fair share of people who confuse experience with knowledge and competence.
If you do decide to work here, only go there to learn. Take all criticisms from management at face value, lay low and once you reach your ceiling, start looking elsewhere.”
News Director: Janis Harper
Experience described as: “Disappointing”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The News Director, Janis Harper, was hired as part of the leadership team to go to Anchorage, Alaska to turn KTVA 11 News around. Ratings did not improve after several years and the station went out of business in July of 2020, shortly after Janis left for her new job in Wisconsin. Under her leadership, I experienced poor communication and a high level of frustration in the newsroom.”
News Director: Greg Phillips
Experience described as: “Absolutely wonderful”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“I was part of the March 2021 Sinclair layoffs, which I can honestly say was THE BEST thing to ever happen to me.
I have been working for WMC (Gray) ever since and I have never been happier at a job than I am here.
For the first time, I truly feel APPRECIATED and that my talents and skills do not go unnoticed. And they are actually utilized in ways they should be.
I have received numerous emails/comments from management (ND and GM) saying they are PROUD of me and my work. Such a “small” act goes a long way and can boost employee morale to new levels. It’s really that simple, Managers.
I love the creative control I have over my work. I love my co-workers.
Everyone has been so kind and welcoming. I love it here.”
News Director: Jeff Schlesser
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“First and foremost, I want to say I don’t regret working at WWSB; only because I gained a wealth of knowledge from being there for two years. Overall, the station has a rough and tumble attitude. Not positive, but not negative either. The majority of people there are hard workers and a joy to be around. If I learned anything, it was thanks to all the great producers and reporters. I can’t say the same about management. An employee should not be scolded for not being able to fill in on weekends, when an on call schedule does not exist. Producers were often overworked and given more responsibility than one person can handle. Although I believe it’s important that station employees work together and form strong bonds, I resent the use of the word “family.” During my time at WWSB I was often told to “do it for the family!” or “consider the family.” A news station is not a family. It is a business. As for WWSB’s news director, Jeff Schlesser, he was always very nice until you did something he didn’t like. To Jeff, I have one thing to say: I know you are dealing with a lot of red tape and managing a station can not be easy. But when the going gets tough, don’t take it out on your employees. It’s confusing and it won’t make them stay. To anyone thinking about working at WWSB: don’t stay there too long. You’ll forget why you wanted to work in journalism in the first place.”
News Director: Tom Henderson
Experience described as: “Overall, fine — if you’re a favorite.”
While working for WTVC this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I can’t believe this station is still standing, honestly. This newsroom is so disorganized — especially since those in management are people that really shouldn’t be.
Right off the bat, there’s Tom’s pet: “Managing Editor” Latricia Milburn (or maybe Tom is HER pet? It’s hard to tell most days). She may come off as caring and nice at first, but don’t be fooled. She is a bitter, rude, and miserable human being who will make you hate your job. Numerous reporters have broken their contracts this year (2021), mainly citing Latricia as the reason why — she kills your spirit and love for journalism to the point you never want to do it again. And we’re talking about reporters who (unfortunately) landed at WTVC for their first job out of college. It’s very sad. As far as her job “duties,” she sits at her desk all day long doing… nothing??? She’s a managing editor, which means she has to approve scripts — and those don’t come in until the afternoon, so between 10am (and after the morning meeting) and 3pm, she just browses the internet and gossips about everyone (openly) with Assignment Manager Shannen Sharpe (more in her later). Another thing about Latricia is when she’s “approving” your script, she’s actually rewording things the way SHE writes / speaks, rather than the way you, the reporter does. Sometimes her rewordings make the story incorrect/infactual — because, again, she doesn’t work for a majority of the day until it’s her time to shine on “the Latricia show” for the 5/6pm news. Additionally, I have called out to her in the newsroom numerous times for help. “Hey, Latricia…” and I get no response or acknowledgment of any kind. I sat 10 feet from her, there’s no way she didn’t hear me. Last thing I’ll mention about Latricia is how fake and insincere is becoming on social media. She is now tweeting “great job,” “so glad you’re on our team,” etc tweets to reporters because there’s new ND (named Phil Bueler — yikes, have your read HIS reviews on this site??) and somewhat new GM who are well aware of these reviews and she is possibly afraid of them now that her protector Tom isn’t around, I’m assuming.
Now to Shannen Sharpe, Assignment Manager. She is RUDE and overall an unpleasant person to engage with at all. She got promoted to a management role only because she’s Latricia’s favorite and pretty much anything Latricia says (to Tom, at the time) goes. Shannen does not handle stress well, and honestly, she often makes high pressure situations worse. The station has had numerous power outages of the past year-year and a half that have taken the station off air completely and every time she doesn’t come in for those, there’s a big sigh of relief from the newsroom. She, like Latricia, will also usually ignore you if you call out to her in the newsroom. We are all peasants, after all.
Then there’s this guy… Dan Lehr who runs the social media. He’s like, 50-something but you’d think he’s a 13-year old by reading his replies to viewers. He makes the station look like a joke TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. I can’t tell you how embarrassed I was to even be associated with the station based on his social media posts/interactions. He’s technically a “manager,” and he definitely enjoys having “manager” in his title,” but he doesn’t actually want any of the managerial responsibilities, so if you come to him with a problem, he will give the information to another manager and have them handle it. And based on the other managers I’ve mentioned, is that really what you want? Dan also takes a million smoke breaks a day. And gets paid for them. Which is annoying because reporters rarely (if ever) get breaks to EAT.
Also, this station doesn’t pay proper salaries. This was my 2nd job and employees at Walmart and Hobby Lobby were making more than me.
Also, there HR Rep, Katie Carlson Bandy is a real Witch. She is the very last person who should be in a HR position. She routinely sends out rude emails. Me, personally, I would never take any issues to her because she genuinely doesn’t care about you problems or concerns and again, is very rude.
The GM, Todd Ricke, I do think is a nice and sincere person, overall. I think he makes strange choices though. The big request is to have a fenced parking lot for employees — there have been many threats to the station made where people say there are going to shoot up / blow up the station, etc. Police routinely get involved to “investigate.” But instead of getting a fence/gate, he is more concerned about updating the kitchen and bathrooms. And while that is a nice gesture, yes, it really shouldn’t be at the top of the list. What’s more important? Your employees safety, or a pretty kitchen?
Do. Not. Work. Here.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The weather guy Brian Smith is also a piece of work. He’s a gossip who will routinely twist and manipulate situations that benefit him / make him look like a victim, so do not trust him no matter how “nice” he may seem. He just hates when he doesn’t get his way and will infactually talk about you behind your back.”
News Director: Ryan Webb
“Terrible. Ryan can’t even look you in the eye during a regular conversation. The station can’t retain or hire new employees because his reputation for running people away is overwhelming the station.”
While working for WBTW this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Ryan Webb has been in charge during a time of gross turnover and is unwilling to hire new talent. The station needs reporters, photographers, and producers. It’s hard to hire when $25k is the yearly rate. Morale has seen a steep decline with some employees even telling Ryan Webb they are depressed and may even be suicidal because of his lack of compassion. Instead, those employees are pushed aside and encouraged to leave.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
While working for WREX this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Managers do not know how to communicate with one another or the staff. There is only room for one main anchor and all other reporters and anchors are giving peanuts when it comes to resources, production, promotion, etc.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational
Additional comments:
“The bar is high here and young reporters will get the opportunity to develop into great journalists. If you want to be a producer, this is the station to be. Its a good place to start, not to stay. Everyone has a click, talks about each other behind their back, pretends to be “family.” Literally its all a lie.”
News Director: Valerie Sullivan
“Val will try to support you but when it comes to issues with other management or co-workers she won’t stand up for you. Everyone is overworked and miserable and when we bring our concerns up to her, she does not do anything but take out those frustrations on us. I feel trapped here.”
While working for WVNS this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Extremely toxic work environment. Nothing is done to address bullying & mistreatment in the office. People are afraid to bring up concerns because they will punish the person who speaks up via scheduling or story assignments.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I joined this station because I was told it was a great place to get my start, a great place to learn. The only thing I’ve learned here is why people want to leave the industry. I would look elsewhere.”
News Director: Jerry Howard
“The most incompetent and clueless leader I’ve ever worked for.”
While working for KDRV this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I wish this station would close down. It is the worst newsroom in the country. Until Mark Hatfield leaves, STAY AWAY! he is sexist, racist, and a misogynist. I am so disappointed I ever worked at this station. Please for your sanity, find another job. They complain people break their word by breaking their contract but everything they tell you in the interview is a lie. There is a group of us looking to sue for harassment, bullying, and more.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you are interested in Medford, look at the other two stations. This group doesn’t deserve you. I learned the hard way.”
News Director: Joseph Schlareth
“Terrible manager, even worse human being. Old. Outdated/out of touch. Creepy.”
While working for WFIE this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Any new reporter who was a person of color was held back and it was blatantly obvious. They were never taken seriously when an hour positions opened up (they weren’t given any kind of try out or interview). Several people openly talked about pay and the black reporters were making significantly less than white reporters. Blonde reporters who were skinny made more and had more opportunities than reporters who were not blonde and were not stick figures.
Joe continuously makes inappropriate comments to attractive reporters”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The Digital Content Manager, Jill Lyman, is also a nightmare to work with. She is very loud in the newsroom whenever she talks negatively about other employees when they are not around but acts like their best friend to their face. She straight up told me if she “could fire my ass she would.”
Anchor Jackie Monroe is fake as fuck and will run to news director to snitch on you. Her nose is so far up Joe’s ass it’s unreal. The worst part is she tries to make you think she dislikes him a lot.
There are a bunch of other people who are considered “14 lifers” there who are just the absolute worst types of people to associate yourself with.
There is absolutely zero organization in the newsroom. Too many people think they are in charge.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Aweful pay in an expensive town and state. You won’t be able to support urself.
You’ll be asked to do lots more than a normal reporter for lots less.
Avoid.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized
News Director: Jess O’Neill
Experience described as: “Toxic, draining, stressful”
While working for KOAT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“If you are considering the ABQ TV market, stay far away from KOAT.
That newsroom was nothing but toxic and draining. There is clear favoritism and management does nothing to hide it. People with less experience, less motivation and less drive get the great opportunities to anchor, travel, do cool stories…over the people that work their butts off every single day and ask to be included. I watched great journalists leave the station one by one, one right after the other after their concerns to the news director AND the GM went over looked.
The news judgement in the newsroom is very questionable…example: being pulled off a special project story to do live shots for a “protest” that was 10 people line dancing in the street to the ChaCha slide YES THAT REALLY HAPPENED TO A REPORTER. Not to mention, the ND told that reporter to “stay on it, things COULD get rowdy” but then changed his mind after 2 hours of nothing happening and the “protesters” leaving.
Management and EP’s are never held accountable for the crappy decisions they make and never face any consequences. It always falls on the field crew.
And let’s not gloss over the fact that your hard work will get submitted and claimed by everyone but you when it comes to awards. How would you like to see that your story was submitted and nominated for an Emmy, but the only name on the nomination is the photog…How about the assistant ND winning an Emmy for a newscast that at least a dozen people had a part in… no ones name was on the nomination but hers.
These are just some things to think about, but for choosing KOAT.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“When people leave KOAT for bigger markets, other opportunities, or other stations in the ab1 market, they seem much happier.”
News Director: Kim Wilhelm
Experience described as: “Toxic”
While working for KWCH this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“If you haven’t worked at the station for 5+ years, you do not get any recognition for your work, and your youthful ambition is taken advantage by doubling your workload. No resources, no appreciation.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Sarah Gray
“She acts like she cares about you, tells you what you want to hear, then backstabs everyone she knows”
While working for WISC this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Former News Director Colin Benedict is absolutely disgusting towards women. He belittles them and uses his position of power to degrade people in the ugliest ways. He’s now VP of news for the company, Morgan Murphy Media. The current News Director, Sarah Gray, is the most vile snake I’ve ever met. She pretends like she cares about your feelings and tells you that your mental health is important then talks so poorly about you behind your back and plays victim when she gets caught, only worsening people’s mental health. She only cares about the bottom line, belittles people in the newsroom, only cares about news that destroys others just so she can get ahead. So many people have left under her leadership. The General Manager, Lyle, is more focused on making sure no one can succeed after wanting to leave the station. He puts all his time and energy worrying about others and no commitment to even knowing anyone’s name or position in the newsroom.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Would absolutely never recommend working for this company. The things they do to people are truly disgusting. They drive people out of the newsroom so fast because they focus on all the wrong things. Rather than wanting people to be happy and succeed, they bring people down and then wonder why people want to leave.”
News Director: Greg Schieferstein
“Greg Schieferstein is a horrible person and a worse news director. Calls his reporters stupid and then sends them to life threatning situations alone. Truly a dangerous person to work for.”
While working for KRNV this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Racial Discrimination: Greg makes open comments about race and has even told reporters he only hired them because of their ethnicity.
Sexual Discrimination: Greg only gives certain stories to male reporters. If your a woman get ready to fight just to keep your stories.
An Overall Toxic Work Environment: Creativity is so discouraged that you will do the same thing day in and day out because anything you do out of the norm will get you a special meeting to yell at you.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“COVID-19 was treated like a joke at this station Greg Schieferstein never wears his mask right and calls people into his office and takes his mask of to yell at them. They had a COVID-19 outbreak in the station and tried to cover it up. A lot of the staff got sick and Greg never once asked it they where ok.”
News Director: Renee Nygren
“The most insecure, toxic manager I’ve ever had. Projects her own shortcomings onto you. Is just the general manager’s lap dog.”
While working for KVLY this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“General manager is a misogynist and news director is a doormat. Coworkers were generally cool and helpful, but morale is consistently low and management sets everyone up to fail. And worse, there’s no sympathy if you stumble, and no positive or even constructive feedback. The morning shows are an afterthought and that shift is just its own toxic pit of death.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The Gray Television business model is to hire young people fresh out of college, pay them next to nothing, and barely train them. And then when they inevitably get burnt out and move on, blame them for their perceived shortcomings and trash talk them for years to come. Turnover is insane and most of the current newsroom is close to quitting, but at least they got a fancy new set! smh”
News Director: David Springer
“David was great to work for until new General Manager Rhonda Lavelle came. She tries to run the newsroom even though David is more qualified than her. She tries to micromanage it all. She is obnoxious and treats people terribly.”
While working for KAAL this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“New General Manager tries to micromanage the newsroom. I get it, she came from news but don’t try to micromanage a news director who has more experience and more success than she does.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t work here until they get a new GM. The ND probably won’t; be here long because of the GM.”
News Director: Jennifer Dale
Experience described as: “Horrible news director, terrible leadership, everyone was afraid of her”
While working for WCSC this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Managers spoke badly about other employees openly and there was never any positive feedback. Managers also picked favorites, and never helped the other people become better journalists.
Everything I learned, I learned through trial and error or my co-workers, not managers, especially not the news director.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Think twice before coming to work here”
News Director: Alison Coe
Experience described as: “Decent. Few bumps in the road.”
While working for WATE this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Reporter was banging previous news director. She remained for some time. Same reporter didn’t get along with an anchor so they went to mediation. No one is open to change. Certain people in the newsroom and in the front offices know which employees play which cards. Everyone else falls by the wayside. Vindictive. Not professional by any means u less you’re a handful of evening anchors who are truly genuine while others are just there to be on tv with their best clothes and free gifts from viewers.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Workin 9-to-5. It’s all taking and no giving. Using your mind and they never give you credit. It’s enough to dive you crazy (if you let it).”
News Director: Brit Stack
“This is the worst person I’ve ever worked for in my life!”
While working for KADN/KLAF this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Alison Coe
“Alison is very kind and understanding. Very easy to talk to. Not a yeller and doesn’t demean employees. I will say there is not a lot of feedback. You have to ask for it. She’s not always available when you need her. But overall, very nice news director.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This is a great learning market. We’re technically number 2 in the market but we’re often neck and neck with the number one station. You will have opportunities for breaking news, all sorts of meetings, and light hearted stories. Management is open to letting you try new things i.e. anchoring. If you’re a strong reporter, you’ll be rewarded with a larger work load and more responsibility. Not a lot of feedback from management. If you want constructive criticism, you have to ask for it. Main anchors are incredibly kind and helpful. No egos and are always willing to help you become a stronger reporter. The company is VERY slow to hire when someone leaves. We were often understaffed. That can be a little frustrating. BIG sports town. You will have lots of opportunities for fun college sports stories. Overall, I will say I’ve enjoyed my time here and would recommend this station to someone else.”
News Director: Tracy Davis
Experience described as: “Seems nice, just started, inherited a load of crap”
While working for WVIT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“RUN! AM EP and Assignment Desk Manager have no idea what they’re doing. Producers are the heart and soul of this business…not here! People are dropping like flies and rethinking their career choices because of how poorly Producers have been treated. Save yourself the time and stress and apply somewhere else! Opportunities for growth don’t exist here. Aggressive newsgathering doesn’t exist here. Good news judgement and neutrality do not exist here. RUN!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Leisha Beard
“She can be understanding when she wants to, if you want to avoid conflict, stay in her good graces.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“The station is #2 in the market. Though it can be unorganized, toxic and negative, if you work hard there you can make a good jump to another market. Live shots are rare, if you want them for your reel you’re going to have to work out all the logistics. Come in knowing what you want from there and don’t get involved in any drama. There are many opportunities to fill in on the anchor desk as well.”
News Director: Lauren Weppler
“Horrible doesn’t begin to describe Lauren Weppler. She plays favorites, doesn’t address serious issues, and is very disorganized. Your PTO requests will sit for months, emails unanswered, and concerns brushed aside.”
While working for WTOL this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Our sports director called a coworker a homophobic slur on a hot mic. The recording will eventually surface as most employees have it or have heard it. He was suspended for awhile. Others had to work to pick up his slack. He posted on social media that he was on vacation during this time to save face. Management hid all of this. Can’t wait for the recording to come out. It wasn’t a slip up. This is his consistent pattern of behavior that he gets away with.
The work environment is really bad. Raises, promotions, treatment based off how much you are liked not how good you are at your job. Turnover is crazy. People leave left and right. Until new management comes in or current management take a good hard look in the mirror, this place will always be terrible. Wish I would have known before coming here.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Jaime Copley
“Jaime was very good at gaslighting, turning people against one another and manipulating people into believing things were their fault. Micromanaged everything but didn’t pay attention at the same time. Impossible to get ahold of her.”
While working for KIMT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“There’s a reason why many people have broken their contracts (with years left) in the past two years. KIMT has tried to transition into a fully Minnesota station after being the legacy station in North Iowa the past 50+ years. The only problem is that have failed to adapt to that transition.
News Director, Assistant News Director, General Manager, master control and half of sales are still in North Iowa. It took years after opening the Rochester studio for management to finally start using their offices there consistently. Still, the ND and AND are in Iowa the majority of the week, meaning if you need help with your story, you have to call them. Not a huge deal, but neither live in the primary coverage area, so they don’t know what’s going on in Minnesota half the time.
Reporters aren’t treated well, the workload is much higher than any other station. Multiple stories per day, multiple live hits on different stories throughout the day. Going live is fine, but this station goes live for the sake of going live, most times it adds nothing to the story. Safety is not much of a factor, they send reporters into dangerous protests and severe weather without a check to see if they’re fine.
Anchors/meteorologists are treated well. If you can get a job doing either, things will go well.
Sports are an after thought. The current Weekend Sports Anchor is operating as a one-man band in the middle of high school football season. They’re working her to death and expect producers to fill the time when she’s off. They ask to cover two states without the man power to get it done. ND doesn’t like sports so doesn’t understand why they’re important to the coverage area. They emphasize on storytelling and not highlights, even though a lack of presence at games is what is hurting the station’s branding. Also, they don’t promo sports, at all.
Most managerial decisions are made through corporate consultants. Consultants are helpful, but after the second and third visits with them, it’s the same old, same old.
With that said, there are also plenty of good within the station. Reporters are live every day, and get plenty of opportunities to get better on camera.
The anchors (currently) there are a wealth of knowledge and give great feedback editing scripts and storytelling.
Rochester is a great city (but expensive) to live in with great restaurants, although the bar scene died out due to Covid. Still, it’s an hour from the Twin Cities and five from Chicago.
It’s your typical starter market, there are going to be good and bad parts about it. There can be real growth in the station if management didn’t continually get in their own way.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Positive, Fun, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I checked both toxic and fun because overall, reporters, anchors and producers get along with one another. Management tends to create a negative environment with their work delegated to the staff.”
News Director: Nicole Hogensen
While working for WPTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you like covering city council and school board meetings look no further! This station has actually made me a worse photographer. My last couple weeks there I didn’t hit record one time. I came here thinking it would be a great place to work but, I was wrong.”
News Director: Jessica Bobula
Experience described as: “Miserable”
While working for WITN this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Jessica will rapidly erode your quality of life. She is straight up nasty to new reporters – not even giving them a chance to get their feet under them. She will waste an hour and a half of your day talking about nothing and then send you on your way feeling like you’ll never be good enough. Great talent has been running out of this newsroom to get away from her. She lashes out at young talent because she can’t handle herself. She pushes her own narrative into the news stories and acts like she’s better than everyone else. Incredibly disheartening.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This newsroom will make you hate news. So sad to see such talent treated how they have been since this news director took over.”
News Director: Kathryn Bonfield
“Terrible experience”
While working for WJXT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“EXTREMELY negative environment. Virtually all feedback is negative. Angry, vindictive anchors make the environment even more hellish. I LITERALLY hate coming into work every day. Absolutely zero respect given to anyone’s private life. No thought is given to employees’ family lives or personal time.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you’re thinking about coming here, don’t. Both the news director and assistant news director are EXTREMELY negative. People are routinely treated like crap, yet expected to sacrifice personal time routinely, many times, with virtually no notice. Learn to mirror before coming here as well, because if you have a different opinion, you’ll be quickly put in the doghouse. When you hear a statement end with, “don’t you think?” You’d BETTER have an answer that affirms the news director’s opinion, or else.”
News Director: Jessie O’neill
“Not my department but producers are miserable”
While working for KOAT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Finally decided to leave. Department managers treat people poorly. Producers get no real help from the exec producers and producers get blamed for everything instead of managers stepping up. That’s why producers leave constantly . EP incompetence
In production we’re all working crazy hours yet the woman married to the engineer gets to stay home for a year and a half and finally returns to the station and no longer has to do anything, She used to be a director. Now she just sends out an email maybe once a week and still gets her salary, Can someone say NEPOTISM?!
A tough place to survive. Do your research. Most staff has been there for 1 year or less. They can’t keep people. @koat7news @Hearst”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If interested in the market look at the CBS station KRQE. Solid management and an actual web department that doesn’t throw reporters under the bus. KOAT web manager makes her own hours then makes other people do her job, which is probably better anyway since the running joke is she can’t post a thing without bad spelling or bad info then emails staff to delete posts because she screwed up. again. NOONE cares.”
News Director: Morgan Shaab
Experience described as: “Caring, supportive, hard working and passionate”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This is the place to be, environment is positive. People are caring.”
News Director: Jeff Houston
“Jeff is just a terrible person overall. He takes joy in creating drama and friction between staff members and then declares how he hates all the drama. He is manipulative and also a liar. He will promise you a raise, shift change, anything to make you go away but then never deliver.”
While working for WBMA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“As I said previously, Jeff enjoys creating drama between the staff. He likes to pit everyone against each other, but no one ever wins. If you like drama this is the place to be. His new thing just before I left, was to start hiding little blue plastic ninjas all over the station for people to find. There was no explanation of why he was doing this. He would waste probably an hour or two every single day hiding and then re hiding these ninjas. Meanwhile he would forget to schedule a producer for this shift and forget to schedule a director for that shift. Always short staffed and undervalued here.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Jeff has managed to drive off some really great people. Only a handful of “old timers” are still around. Even most of them want out but can’t because they don’t want to relocate or can’t retire yet. If you go to HR and/or the GM for anything, even if you are in the right, they will immediately turn it back around on you. Low morale and lack of support from management. So glad I have moved on.”
News Director: Marc Sternfield
Experience described as: “Fun ND, team player”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Scripps is a good company and coworkers are nice. Lots to do in Utah if you like the outdoors”
News Director: Christi Reynard
“She has lots of frivolous ideas, but absolutely no follow through. Current work environment climate has significantly gone downhill since our former News Director left. Many seasoned anchors departed before or after the former News Director left because they could see this sinking ship coming from a mile away.”
While working for WKBT this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The GM is ultra conservative, and has an unusual stronghold over the newsroom. He has pushed many seasoned anchors out of their positions, and has shaken up this station- not in a positive way. It’s unfortunate how downhill this station is going. Even viewers make comments on Facebook saying things like, “where is ___?” Because a significant amount of people have left. The GM drove out the former News Director of 20+ years, and she has been replaced with a news director that has never had experience managing people. She micromanages every department. This used to be a place many people enjoyed working at, and now it’s not.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Renata Stiehl
“Can do whatever you want/ Lack of organization/ Need to be a go getter”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“After gaining trust you will be free to do stories you want but the station runs a lot of sponsored content mainly in the morning shows but also in the day time shows; this content runs on weekly and monthly bases. Advice, direction and overall communication are essentially nonesistant.”
News Director: Stephen Gallien
“Experienced, kind, fair and passionate. The newsroom is on the rise and quickly coming back from a long, hard road of past management running things into the ground. New energy, actual storytelling and something to be very proud of! If you read through the past reviews, keep in mind the entire upper Management team has changed. It’s a great culture and only getting better!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Positive, Fun
News Director: Victoria Spechko
“Victoria is one of the best news directors to work for. She will offer fair, yet tough feedback to make you stronger as a journalist. If you have the opportunity to work for her in Savannah or Conway, you will learn a ton.”
While working for WTGS this person experienced:
“The Savannah newsroom is very cut and dry. WTGS is a good starter station, but is an entry-level newsroom. Most go there and leave after a year or two years max.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational
Additional comments:
“As the digital producer, you will have several additional tasks including assignment desk editing, making and taking phone calls for the newsroom, and other duties outside of your job title.”
News Director: Sean Mahon
Experience described as: “Good”
While working for WWTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I worked there awhile ago but only recently found out about this site. The assistant news director, assignment editor and a couple producers and reporters (you’ll know who they are because they’ve worked there forever and don’t seem to have any motivation to grow beyond there) are the ones creating a toxic environment for literally everyone else. I know that at least the same assistant news director is still there. Anyway, a lot of manipulation and gaslighting from them. If they can’t get you to fail for real, they will literally make something up. If you’re going to work there, be very vocal when standing up to yourself because they rely on passivity and talking behind peoples backs to spread these kinds of lies to get people fired. Either that or become like them and complain a lot and make up lies, especially about the news director. (Who couldn’t be nicer by the way) The more racist and sexist, the better. You’ll be promoted in no time. I learned a lot there for my first news job, so I appreciated that. But I was constantly paranoid too.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
News Director: Chad Mahoney
While working for WGEM this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Over the course of my time at WGEM there have been many highs in this position, but just as many lows. While working here my mental health has been compromised – I have been diagnosed with anxiety and depression. I received no support from Chad Mahoney or the General Manager – both lack any sort of empathy for their “team.” My diagnoses was only worsened during the Pandemic. I felt extremely pressured to get the COVID-19 vaccine. I realize as a reporter, we are interviewing people/at events/etc. – but to feel pressured, excluded and isolated…did not lend itself well to my already deteriorating mental health.
I just feel like the leadership at this station lacks compassion for its employees. Many leaders seem to forget that leading others more than anything else should be held in reverence. Being the leader means that you have been placed in a position to serve others. Too often, the ND throws his positional weight around, and instead of leading from a place of service, leads from a place of ego when things get rough – that is not a leader and certainly not one that I want to work under.”
News Director: Josh Good
“He is petty, manipulative, and will throw anyone under the bus to save himself”
While working for WFXR this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“He constantly picked on certain people, retaliated when they reported him to human resources. The HR department is an absolute joke. Since he started, every reporter has left, broken a contract, or chosen not to renew. Management is absolutely awful. He only hires Black reporters and then treats them horribly. Management does not reflect their all minority reporting staff who are constantly being overworked and put in dangerous work situations. He gossips and brags about pushing reporters over the edge, and constantly talks down to people. Assistant News Director Thom Brewer is way worse. He’s worked at every station in the market over the past few decades and still doesn’t know how to do his job. He yells at people, and snaps at reporters, but loves cats.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Only one reporter since new management took over has stayed at the station.”
News Director: Scott Nichols
“Terrible. Talks down on anyone new to the business, never open to new ideas, will keep tabs on any petty mistakes you make and talk to you about them 6 months later.”
While working for WSET this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“With the leadership being poor, it just trickled down to the work environment. Because it’s a small market, anchors were also managers, and therefore had a terrible attitude towards a majority of MMJs. They set ridiculously high expectations and workloads and would put MMJs in sketchy situations alone while out in the field. You can’t walk around the newsroom without walking on egg shells and the pitch meetings forced MMJs to be in competition with eachother instead of collaborating together.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you have other options, go elsewhere. This station is deceiving due to its #69 market number, but it’s only that high because it’s partnered with the highly populated city of Roanoke. You’re better off at a lower market that ACTUALLY gives you room to grow, that has equipment that works, a positive work environment, and a set that’s not from 1970.”
News Director: Lisa Burger
Experience described as: “Aggressive; unapproachable”
While working for KSEE/KGPE this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“ND has favorites and doesnt hide it. If your a conservative pretty white girls you can get away with murder. Better off working at the other stations in town..they pay more too”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Station has been been losing credibility and staff since lisa arrived”
News Director: Joe Sullivan
“Overall seems nice, but can be extremely passive aggressive. My first week training, I was threatened to be fired and terminated after I failed to put in OTS GFX 15 min before the show, because I didn’t know how.”
While working for WXXV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Marybeth Jacoby
Experience described as: “Very confusing and difficult.”
While working for WVLT this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Not a diverse newsroom at all. Your feelings are not valid. No matter what you do you will feel beaten down and worthless. There is no communication or organization. They will change your schedule and your position without warning or reasoning. Very draining and toxic work environment with a very high turnover rate.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“A lot of gossip and toxic working environment. Equipment and news cars
are not organized.”
News Director: Dan Firnbach
Experience described as: “Gutless. Puppet for upper management.”
While working for WWTV this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“This place does not treat women or minorities with any respect.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This station is a train wreck!
Stay away at all costs.
So many people fired in the past 8 months.
The new news director is an absolute puppet with upper management pulling his strings, including a vindictive HR manager who has entirely too much power, and does not have the employees interests in mind.
The recent firings look like a complete salary dump in order to clear the books so the station can be sold.
Avoid this place!”
News Director: Mike Canan
Experience described as: “Frustrating. Has no television experience. Poor leadership skills.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
Additional comments:
“Content strategy is very confusing. Very choosy when it comes to covering crime or breaking news. Executive producers are not helpful. Schedules never released on time. Communication is minimal. Work flow is disjointed. Training and on-boarding is self-guided. Management will not help you and want you to come up with your own work flow. It’s left up to the staff to train new additions to the team.”
News Director: Ed Reams
Experience described as: “Frustrating”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational
Additional comments:
“This is the only station that I worked at in my career. I found the newsroom to be very disorganized, with a revolving door of Senior Executive Producers (we went through three in the time I worked there). The producers rarely seemed to understand the work that was put into reporting in the field. Photojournalists there are also the show editors, and are often expected to perform miracles in record times, without being paid appropriately.
The team of photogs that I worked with were an excellent team who are vastly underappreciated by most of the rest of the staff (the exception being several of the reporters), are underpaid, and are treated like the grunts of the station. Example: When the newsroom received a massive overhaul and redesign, the photogs were put in a space away from the rest of the newsroom, using old desks and not given enough space to work if we were all there (there was always one space less than photogs). It wasn’t until shortly before I left that we received our own desks and workspaces, and even then they shorted us by one.
The staff of reporters, photographers and anchors were all excellent to work with. My primary issues there were with management overall (there were some bright spots with the Assistant News Director, and the Social Media Manager).
I cannot recommend anyone working there though, as your work is likely not going to receive the recognition you deserve.”
News Director: Ryan Hazelwood
Experience described as: “Clueless, inefficient, corporate ass-kisser”
While working for KOAA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management doesn’t know how to treat people as humans.
Editorial meetings are like a demolition derby.
The Assignment Editor is large and in charge and doesn’t take dissenting opinions lightly, unless they come from someone who has worked there longer than her (which are few and far between).
Reporters are routinely told their ideas are crap… often being told to leave the meeting and come back with a “real” story idea… unless their name is Bill Folsom… he gets to do whatever he wants for some reason.
Producers have no power. If managers want a reporter to do a 2:30 package on a lemonade stand in Fountain, they make you squeeze it into your show.
Also all the stories are fluff. If you want to do serious news this is absolutely not your place. At one point, the ND banned PIOs from being interviewed. Needless to say that didn’t last.
They don’t recognize talent. The two most recent producers hired lasted less than a year. Both got jobs outside of news after they left.
They drove out one of the most talented reporters I’ve ever met after he was only here a year, and currently treat our other most talented reporter like garbage.
They don’t give two shits if you’re good at your job. If you don’t fall in line with their BS, you’re on their shit list.
There is no way that 7/20 “review” was submitted by a current KOAA reporter or producer.
We all talk and none of us feel that giddy about this place.
That “review” could not be more inaccurate and I want people to understand that it was probably written by management.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I think the toxicity all started from the top with the old GM who just got promoted within Scripps. Time will tell if things can get better under the new one, but I think as long as the ND and Assignment Editor are who they are things will only get worse. Especially since the new GM has already worked at the station for years (he used to be head of sales).
The AND is new and to be honest I don’t really have much to say about her either way. She seems like she’s still trying to find her place and just defers to the ND.
There are some bright spots. The recently-promoted EP is a nice guy who is open to giving you constructive feedback and actually has producing experience to know what he’s talking about. He pretty much sticks to working with the producers. He knows his place and doesn’t bother trying to manage people he doesn’t have the expertise to manage.
Digital director is an all around great guy who tries to stay out of the toxicity too.
The producers and MMJs are all awesome people and so are the anchors, but they’re dropping like flies.”
News Director: Zoltan Csanyi-Salcedo
“Gives feedback when asked, if you’re doing a good job you won’t hear much from him.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational
News Director: Keith Blivin
Experience described as: “Absolutely awful”
While working for KTIV this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Sexual harassment was from an employee in a different department. Once *several* women shared their stories the individual was let go immediately. Five years too late but… better than never.
Overall toxic work environment is felt by everyone in the news department. Morale is SO LOW. The leadership is just straight mean.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The team is awesome. People are kind, helpful, and genuinely good. Leadership is a different story. The ND and GM are absolutely terrible a their jobs, but also just make people feel like trash. No one feels valued. You’ll give 110% and it still won’t be enough. They will not give anyone benefit of the doubt and just assume the worst in you. If you want feel like you’re a worthless piece of garbage, start here. If you want a work environment to grow you and invest in your potential… go literally anywhere else. Hope the station gets better once Gray takes over.”
News Director: Allison Smith
Experience described as: “Not good, awkward and confusing.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“I hate my life at this station. The EP is rude and disrespectful. The news director changed her demeanor about me when I started. She has favorites and so does the EP. Be careful before you apply here. The AND told me I had to be pretty in order to be an anchor. It is not a welcoming environment. My life as a reporter/MMJ is miserable and can’t wait until my contract is over.”
News Director: Stephen Gallien
“Stephen was just hired about 8 months and has proven to be a strong leader and fair manager. He knows good talent and how to foster it. He does have high standards and wants us to “win”. I would not have stayed at this station unless it was for Stephen.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“There are still flaws in the newsroom but things have improved. If you are a hard worker and want to get better at your craft, you will have the opportunity to do that here. There are a lot of talented people who want to be better and right now the station is very much in a ‘transitional’ phase. I think in a few years, it will really start to climb back up in ratings. Side note – the building is disgusting but we have been told we actually will be getting a new building. However, that could take years.”
News Director: Mr. Joseph Inderhees
Experience described as: “Truthfully speaking, a pain in the…”
While working for WTLV/WJXX this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Overall the experience I had in my short term of working with FCN was atrocious from the constant telephone calls on days off. He as well as other managers do not respect personal time off as though your entire life revolves around news in relation to be a 24/7 on call doctor for child birth or surgery. FAIR WARNING: STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Run for the hills and I mean FAST! The reviews don’t lie, no one has your back at this place besides you. There were a couple to fair amount of good people in the newsroom to uplift you when things get rough but they are just as toxic as managers with their cattiness and gossip girl ways. Once I found my new company and a real news family that understands we have real things going on in our personal lives that we can’t be consumed with news ALL DAY especially when it doesn’t affect your culture or household… ponder on that!”
News Director: Kyle Brinkman
“He does choose favorites. The newsroom isn’t the greatest when it comes to morale. His choices are at times sexist, always knee-jerk”
While working for WSPA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Over the last two years of working here, Kyle is a new News Director that has let this station fail. Hiring inexperienced reporters and producers for this level market forces those with experience to work harder and pick up the ever building slack. Professionally this man is terrible at his job, but he’s generally a nice person.
My advice, if you do end up working here, get what you need from this station and get out. Be on your p’s and q’s about your work and you’ll be appreciated/respected by your colleagues and more senior producers who appreciate good work.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
Additional comments:
“Once a change in management happens, things should improve. Ratings across the board show these teams have potential, it’s just management fails to have focus.”
News Director: Sean Vanhaus
“He was abusive and on many occasions blatantly disregarded his reports and staff.”
While working for KFDA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“When making a report about situations happening in the news room, our HR would then go to my news director that I was having issues with. Then I would be called into his office to be “spoken with” which was him shaming me as an employee.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The GM, News Director and HR person grew up together and have a close personal relationship. You will always be wrong if something comes up.”
News Director: Lauren Weppler
“Lauren is unorganized, sneaky and an instigator. If you speak up for yourself she will begin keeping tabs on you and start putting things into writing to build a paper trail against you to get you fired.”
While working for WTOL this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Very unhappy and unpleasant place to work unless management favorites you. Lauren likes to change employee’s schedules without any thought or concern to their lives. Reporters are overworked and the newsroom is filled with mean and crass producers. One producer in particular loved to send nasty emails to the news director to complain about absolute nothing because she simply doesn’t like you. Andrew Asks (assistant news director) doesn’t help. He appears to be nice but like Lauren is sneaky and can’t be trusted. Turnover is very high here for a reason. Find a better place to work.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t work here if you have other options. If you speak up for yourself in any way you will be punished. Professionals who have a high standard and care about their work will be disappointed. Few opportunities to grow.”
News Director: Ryan Hazelwood
Experience described as: “Encouraging, helpful, and challenging (in a good way)”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Wow. I have worked at KOAA and other stations and I have been very fortunate. KOAA is outstanding. The culture is supportive. People including coworkers and management care about me as a person. There are a lot of charges issued in the last post that are unfair, malicious, and simply untrue. There is a phrase, “there are two sides to every story.” In this case the two sides are truth and fiction.”
News Director: Jess Laszewski
Experience described as: “Chaotic, disorganized, micro-managing — but cares a lot and has good intentions.”
While working for WMTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The assignment editor has a very short fuse and can be combative and dismissive. Frequently talks down to women in the newsroom, particularly young women. Outright mean to reporters and is casually racist. He sets a sour tone, coupled with micro-managing news director with respect for other peoples’ time.. can be very tense/chaotic/toxic on the dayside and nightside shift. But it’s not all bad all the time.. morning shift especially has lots of fun and a very positive vibe, since they don’t work directly with problematic managers.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Open to Creative Control, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“At this station, you will get out what you put in. It is not for the faint of heart — the training is very bad, planning is very last-minute, and many of the managers are miserable to work with. BUT if you are passionate about news and determined to “make it work,” this station provides ample opportunity for really strong, advanced experiences that in larger markets are typically reserved for more senior staff. Lots of opportunity for growth within the station. ND puts a high priority on helping you advance your career. We also do a lot of great work fundraising for our community, which is really fun to be a part of. The staff is a good mix of young and fun/older and experienced. ND is open to trying new ideas and wants to be an industry innovator. That energy is fun to be around, when she’s not nit-picking you to death or re-stacking your rundown 15 minutes to show…”
News Director: Amy Sullivan
“She plays favorites, is an incompetent ND, is rude and crass, and will throw you under the bus if she needs to”
While working for KGBT/KVEO this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Where do you even start with this place? The turnover is ridiculous and it’s for a reason. They once had 15 people leave in a single year. If you notice, they’re always posting new job listings because they can’t keep anyone.
The ND and the AND are thick as thieves and will have 0 problem throwing you under the bus if it means saving themselves. When the merger with KVEO was first announced, the ND would walk out of the building mid-show and tell everyone to deal with whatever mishap of the day was going on on their own because she initially thought management was getting the boot. When that didn’t happen, her attitude changed and she was suddenly the “fearless leader” again. Let’s make one thing clear, she’s not a leader, she’s just someone who sits at the big desk and gets cut the check every two weeks.
If management does not like you, you have no shot at moving up – no matter what your work, prescence, personality, is like. They have and continue to give every available opportunity to reporters that also played a role in bullying in the newsroom and no one else. Management (though they hire newly graduated journalism students) refuses to teach reporters/photographers/anchors the tricks of the trade – you’ll either sink or swim of your own doing – and if they don’t want to deal with you, say hello to the morning show: the home of the KVEO rejects.
Management (including the EP and the Assignment’s Desk Editor) would have meetings in the ND’s office and discuss personal grievances, issues, and NSFW things regarding their employees with the DOOR OPEN. Morale was low when I left and it’s only gotten worse with the duoply.
Reporters who no longer work at this station were blamed for the toxic work environment because the ND and AND refuse to take responsibility for the newsroom they’ve created. Their main anchor has probably been there around 4-5 years now and he’s a senior compared to the rest. The only one who’s seemingly lasted is their meterologist – the rest are newbies that the community will never really get to know because of the revolving door that leads in and out of KVEO (formerly KGBT-TV).
Run as fast as you can from this station. It’s not worth your mental health. If you needed one more thing to convince you not to sign that contract, know that the Assistant News Director has a history of gossiping with colleagues about other employees, once asked who was sleeping with whom, and has raging tantrums in the newsroom with consistent outbursts about how “stupid” everyone is. DO NOT WORK HERE.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Ryan Hazelwood
Experience described as: “Toxic, abusive, manipulative, liar, empty promises, inept”
While working for KOAA this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“If you are unfortunate enough to find yourself considering working for KOAA… RUN, do not walk, to your nearest emergency exit.
Basically back in February or March the ND, AND and Assigment Editor managers were like “pandemic’s over no more zoom interviews. All interviews have to be done in person.”
They said this, despite the fact none of us had been vaccinated yet, and we still weren’t allowed to work in our building. (Fun fact: I never worked a day in our building)
I told them unless they could make it as easy as possible for us to get the vaccine (give us PTO to go get it), I would still be doing zoom interviews when I felt it would be safest to do so.
They told me basically to suck it up, and do in-person interviews, and if I wanted a vaccine, I’d have to get it during one of my shifts or an off day. Well the second dose fell to where I’d have to get it on a day I worked, and I flat out told them I’m not going to turn a full story today and still take two hours to go get my vaccine that will in turn make me feel like shit all day.
Ever since then, they’ve been playing little petty games with me.
My news director, assistant news director, and assignment editor would straight up bully me during our pitch meetings, in front of everyone on zoom. (Yes, we still did our pitch meetings on zoom, but couldn’t do interviews on zoom.)
They told us we were no longer allowed to interview PIOs in any story, and every story had to have a “real person”/“character” angle, which is great. I like that too.
Except they’d even turn those down.
One time I pitched a local fire department going for a Mill levy election to expand service to their growing community.
To that, my assignment editor said verbatim: “well unless you can find a real person who almost died because of long response times I’m not interested.”
It was like that for everything I pitched.
Meanwhile, the MMJ who has been there for 25 years would literally pitch story after story with just one source, usually a PIO, and they’d treat him like he was God’s gift to news.
One time he literally pitched “this park is getting a new gate out by the parking lot,” and they literally didn’t bat an eye.
Meanwhile nothing, and I mean nothing I pitched would be good enough for them.
And if your story idea doesn’t fall under one of the 5 pillars of the Scripps content strategy, you can forget it. So many good stories don’t get covered because “it just doesn’t meet any of our pillars.” WHO CARES? IT’S NEWSWORTHY OK?!?!?
Also, when I was hired, I was promised a work day once a week.
When I never hit one, but another reporter was given one weekly, Ryan Hazelwood (the ND) shouted me down while Olivia Dickinson (the AND) just played dumb.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The three people to look out for are the News Director, Ryan a Hazelwood, the AND, Olivia Dickinson, and the Assignment Ediotr, Elaine Sheridan.
Ryan Hazelwood is a corporate shill who cares more about kissing Scripps’ corporate higher ups’ asses than treating people as humans.
Any concerns I would ever bring up to him or Olivia were never received with understanding or listening. He would immediately start arguing, trying to intimidate me.
Meanwhile, his minion Olivia Dickinson is good for nothing else but doing his dirty work.
I don’t think I ever heard her say one thing of substance that was not just the management party line. It’s a shame, because the AND before her really cared about people.
Elaine Sheridan the assignment Editor has been here forever is set in her ways and hates new, young people with a passion.
She will talk to you like you’re a child who knows nothing about anything, and send you demeaning and belittling angry all caps texts and emails if you dare question her.
She has no time to try to make friends with new people and goes out of their way to make their lives a living hell.
At one point, these three managers decided, for weekend reporters, they would need to pitch SIX DIFFERENT (basically Emmy-worthy) stories for the weekend by 2:30 PM ON THE WEDNESDAY BEFORE. Do you know how unreasonable that is?
The saving Grace about this place is all the other employees, specially Ben Lloyd the Digital Director, and Rob and Elizabeth, the main anchors. They get it. And they realize we are human.”
News Director: Warren Stewart
“He has a severe Napoleon Complex. The GM and HR/Business person continually let him get away with mistreatment, verbal abuse, sexual harassment/misconduct, blaming part time people for his mistakes and ever changing mood on what’s considered, “news.” If’s he’s angry, he will yell without hearing or considering the circumstances of whatever mistake he perceives you to have made. He puts a select few on a pedestal based on their level of attractiveness and refuses to hear any criticism against them. He fights with other voices of reason and experience. He put forth a training schedule for all shifts to train the crew to produce and run shows the way he wanted and never left the evening in over a year. If you’re good at your job, he will make you do the job of others who aren’t keeping up and you will not be compensated. He tried to gut the sports department during a time when the station had an excellent sports director. He has fired many people who are excellent at their jobs for minor offences or none at all. He is the reason many others left.”
While working for WEVV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“For the most part, the news crew are decent and enjoyable people. A handful of the full time people are allowed to gossip and create toxic work conditions.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The GM has admitted he knows nothing about news. The station held onto a reporter after she verbally assaulted several employees, was caught leaving for hours during her anchor shift on a regular basis, and after physically assaulted a producer. The station held onto a weather man for months after it was found out he was sexually harassing women for feet pictures and foot fetish activities. Other’s have been fired for minor offences or for situations they were forced into. The pay is low. You will not get a reasonable raise. If you show you are able to work multiple full time jobs (producer, director, photographer, editor, web producer) you will be expected to complete multiple positions in the same shift for the pay of one. The equipment is often mishandled by inexperienced workers, which causes them to break. This is not the station to work if you enjoy working in news, because it will beat it out of you and you will not have benefitted in any way aside from experience.”
News Director: Rob Cartwright
“I think Rob attempts to help people when issues happen, but it’s not a healthy work environment and he’s either unaware or not doing enough to address the issues.”
While working for KEYE this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“If you’re a POC be prepared to feel uncomfortable. A lot of the people at the station make racially insensitive comments. No one is ever checked or held accountable for their actions.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you’re reading this don’t work here. Your mental health will be in jeopardy. This is the warning I wish I received.”
News Director: Bob Noonan
“I completely disagree with the negative review that was posted about Bob. I have had a VERY different experience. Bob is caring, helpful, and honest. He was very transparent with me when I visited the station and made me feel welcome. This station is not number one but they constantly break stories and have different content from other stations. He gave me critique and many opportunities on the anchor desk. He walks into the news room and greets everyone by name and with a smile. He is like a dad and news director in one person but in a good way. You can tell he’s a family man by how he treats people. He gives people the recognition they deserve and I believe he has created a great news environment where people can grow and work as a team.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“The people at this station are some of the most hard working people I have ever met in my entire life. They hustle and are humble! I have learned SO much from them and I am so blessed to work in a place where everyone gets along and is treated like family. This market is unpredictable and you’ll have the opportunity to cover amazing stories. WPMI is innovated and they enterprise amazing stories that constantly break news. They’re investigative heavy and hold officials accountable.”
News Director: Kristen Shill
“She knows what she wants, but isn’t always the greatest at taking input from others. She also is not as involved as a news director should be especially during breaking news or big shows.”
While working for WQOW this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“A decent learning station with a handful of really great people. There is some issues with passive aggressiveness especially between the evening vs morning crew and in news vs production. My biggest advice is to ask questions, ask questions, and then ask some more questions. Someone will teach you and you’ll get good experience here. Stay out of the toxicity and you’ll be fine. Learn what you can and then get out of there.”
News Director: Shane Moreland
“It was terrible. He lied and didn’t care about our well being. We weren’t paid enough and then he got mad because people started getting other jobs to supplement their income. He tells everyone’s business and also will tell you something then when you bring it up he tells you he didn’t say that and wouldn’t let you document or record anything or put stuff in writing. He would single out certain producers and give them special treatment and the cushion schedules. All the producers of color were on the terrible shifts and had to threaten to quit to get moved.”
While working for WRIC this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“People of Color are literally treated like they’re stupid or invisible; staff would have ignorant conversations regarding race and when told it was offensive they didn’t care. Some staff would use racial slurs and complaints were ignored. The male evening anchor would yell at producers, and curse them out to the point of bullying them and managers did nothing. The White producers and some staff would try and get people fired or bully them into leaving and when a producer would push back they’d complain about them being difficult to get them written up. If you called out sick Shane would require you to tell him what’s wrong so most people avoided calling out sick. No creative control if you tried something without telling a manager first you were called into the office. Most of the producers have no real newsroom experience so they’re just trying to learn and grow and the older producers would make sure to tell them wrong information.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Don’t work here. It’s probably the most toxic station under the company. No one is happy there or have already left and the people stuck there are probably planning exit strategies. It’s not a team environment, leadership has no clue what they’re doing and it shows. When staff wises up to HR rights and policies, Shane will file a HR complaint against that staffer to build a negative HR file. He’s also called other stations to trash talk employees to prevent them from leaving. Turnover rate is excessive and the pay is terrible.”
News Director: Tina Commodore
“No relationship”
While working for WFTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Tina seemed nice, but was almost entirely absent from decision making from day one. She came during the pandemic, leaving the assistant dope in charge Jason to single handedly destroy the legacy newsroom.
He belittled senior reporters on the morning meeting, got into screaming matches with them, harassed the younger reporters so much they often they couldn’t do their jobs and retaliated when anyone fought back or voiced an opinion. His signature move was acting completely shocked when he put a coverage plan in place and nobody understood it.
He loved to threaten employees who didn’t agree with him, by dangling horrible work environment situations in their faces, then demanding they accept the bad or it would just be worse.
Noteworthy: This is his second round at WFTV. He was kicked out one time before after so many people complained.
Run.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Jeff Weinrich
Experience described as: “Dedicated, knowledgeable with a caring attitude”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“Everyone has been through lot from going from a family owned business to various corporate sales. They have a newly renovated newsroom and studio. Through it all we depend on each other and try to do good work daily – unfortunately we are not rewarded in the ratings. Many who work there are local graduates or long term employees. Not a bad place to work but it is a very slow news market.”
News Director: Shane Moreland
“An overall awful experience”
While working for WRIC this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Just don’t work here. The news director will spread your business to everyone so he’s can’t be trusted and the chief meteorologist and morning meteorologist (and these are grown men) gossips about everyone like women! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve over heard the news director talk bad about everyone to others and telling people’s business to others that has no business knowing. The chief meteorologist would stop me in the hallways to talk about how stupid he would think the sports director was (she’s a woman) and how stupid he thought the newer meteorologists were. I would try to leave those toxic conversations but he doesn’t pick up social cues when someone doesn’t want to be part of a conversation. No help or support from anyone. The news directors news judgement is awful. A lot of my stories would get shot down if they were community based. This station is not about community and the news director does not want us hanging or liking our competitions pictures on social media even if they’re your friend. Talk about control freak. The male evening anchor is literally insane. I’ve seen him curse out people and throw things at people (papers, pens) out of frustration.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Whatever you do? DO NOT WORK FOR THIS STATION! From the news director to the chief meteorologist. Just awful people. Not professional and people of color are definitely treated differently. Not in a good way! No one renews their contract there and the turnover rate is extremely high. In this business, people come and go, but no one stays there. From the producers to the talent. The employees that have been there for a long time stay because they can’t go anywhere else and those employees bully the younger and newer employees. If you’re looking to get help and grow here just know that no one will help you, in fact if the people that have been there for a while do not like you, they will try to get you fired. And they have been successful a few times. Extremely toxic environment and the news director is literally the worst ever. He talks down to you and don’t even get me started on how he micromanages everything. He’s a liar. If you end up working there.. don’t trust anyone. Everyone is miserable there.”
News Director: Jessica Bobula
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized
Additional comments:
“Jon is a good boss for the production department. Our schedules are flexible, and overall we have a positive environment in the control room; even when working with remote anchors (which tends to be stressful and overwhelming) and having multiple prompter issues, the production team always achieves successful news shows. It would be great if a few technical things would get fixed such as prompter system.”
News Director: Jessica Bobula
“Great. Every interaction is pleasant and positive. She has a full understanding of what needs to be accomplished and communicates said goals affectively.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“WITN is a great environment to learn and grow. The people are kind and always willing to help. This past year (2020) has brought many challenges and the leadership has done a great job maintaining inclusiveness at a time when we had to be a part.”
News Director: Jess Bobula
“We work well together. She appreciates my feed back and story ideas. She supports my work and decisions”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control
Additional comments:
“Like most stations, this one is both organized and unorganized at the same time. In certain situations we are prepared and others not so much. Since it is a smaller market, there are limitations but we are working to break through that. I think we are doing a lot to help teach the younger/newer employees. We have some experienced employees which help elevate the quality work.”
News Director: Jessica Bobula
Experience described as: “Nice experience”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“It is a good station and all the employees are great at their jobs.”
News Director: Tom Doerr
“Hardly saw him. Rarely available to talk to.”
While working for WINK this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Most of the issues are with the Assistant News director, Rich Garcia. He makes some female reporters his ‘girls’. If you’re not one of his chosen you get overlooked for promotion no matter how hard you work. Only hired one male reporter in the time I was there. He’s hard to talk to because he is argumentative and loud. Between him and Doerr there is no direction at WINK.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“It’s a family owned station and makes up rules as it goes. Newsroom is cliche groups…you fit in or you don’t.”
News Director: Eric Walters
Experience described as: “Bad, unsupported”
While working for WDBJ this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Management blames the producers and reporters for the fact that it is not the number one station anymore. However, this can be blamed on the managers and not having an assignment manager. The managers are checked out and do not care about their employees or the quality of the newscast. Producers and reporters are stretched thin and continue to have more added to their plates.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“When I first started, the station was number one and I had a good experience. However, that ended when the current news director started. He is incompetent and does little to no actual management. The station and general manager’s main focus is money, and that’s it. The focus on quality journalism and helping employees is nonexistent. There is currently a mass exodus of people leaving the station because they are fed up with management. It’s sad because there are a lot of good people that work there who have been there for a long time.”
News Director: Greg Schieferstein
“A pathetic excuse for a News Director in any way, shape and form. I wanted him to do much more, but also did not trust him to do anything good if he did. He was just a corporate paper weight at that job.”
While working for KRNV this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Greg has created a toxic newsroom. Since March of 2019, when he was hired, we have lost the institutional knowledge of more than half a dozen producers, reporters, anchors and mets. Some of which broke contract to get away. Greg played stupid, told lies and did nothing to keep these people on. Now he has a newsroom where no one has standing bridge of respect or communication with him. He can literally not speak to women properly and has has sexual harassment claims brought against him. There was not a single employee during my time there that would not complain about Greg’s lack of news judgement or him just being clueless. In blows my mind that Sinclair or even the GM dont see the trend considering most of them left horrible reviews of Greg with them. That station will not grow until he is gone. I am glad I got out, but my fellow on air staff and producers were great people. Also, the review from July of last year ok this site is not only inaccurate, but ingenuine. We have had ZERO reporters come from other markets and then leave around that time, so it must be someone trying to paint a different picture.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Ask any of the reporters or producers there about this station prior to accepting any offer. They will give you the best indication of how things are, but I just left and I am saying until Greg is gone this place is without a paddle.”
News Director: Kerwin Speight
Experience described as: “Toxic”
While working for Spectrum (Central NC) this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Kerwin is by far the worst manager I’ve ever worked for. Spectrum is a decent enough company and Charlotte is a great city, but I’ve never seen so many MMJs and producers leave in such a short amount of time after a News Director started. I’ve never seen a ND actively avoid their staff. I was never considering leaving until he took over. It was an overall negative experience working with Kerwin.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“If you just want to get a paycheck and live in Charlotte, it could be a fine job. If you want to be a journalist, it’s probably not the best place to be at the moment. Be sure to talk to a current MMJ at the station before applying or accepting any offers. Anchors have a pretty cushy job though, so not a bad place to work the desk.”
News Director: Joe Spadea
“Awful. He is disorganized and moody. Unfair, plays favorites. Not the biggest problem, the biggest problem is the general manager Eric Thomas. Unfortunately Joe does everything Eric says.”
While working for WVLA this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Opportunities are given to the same undeserving people over and over. Very unprofessional, toxic environment. Favoritism… some people are disciplined for minor errors and others seem to do whatever they want. Women are passed up for raises, and opportunities despite experience and qualification. If you’re a Black woman your pay will be significantly less with no explanation. Eric is a bully who sees his employees as numbers instead of treating them like actual people. Employees say the station has been under investigation by nexstar multiple times for harassment and discrimination and yet nothing has been done. It’s clear Eric makes all decisions based on money. The building is disgusting and deplorable. The turnover rate is extremely high and many talented people leave the business after working here because of the stress and toll on mental health. More than 30 employees have left in less than 2 years. The General Manager sees this as a positive to hire younger more inexperienced people who he doesn’t have to pay as much. You are expected to turn your stories on laptops that are not compatible with adobe. During the pandemic employees were told it was not possible to work from home. We were still forced to come into the building daily and take equipment that would crash within a few minutes of using. A mask mandate in the building was not put in place until an anchor brought the negligence to corporate and suddenly they began to take covid precautions “seriously.” HR department is useless and cannot be trusted with serious issues. This station is full of empty promises and no support for your ambition and drive. Management fails on all accounts. Anchors are inexperienced and unprofessional.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Do not work here. Go to channel 9 or channel 2 if you want to be taken seriously as a journalist. You will have more opportunities to fail than grow. Management does not set you up for success.”
News Director: John Dearing
Experience described as: “Chaotic”
While working for WBOC this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“John and Ron are the opposite of leaders. Both hide in their offices and have absolutely no idea what is actually going on beside their glass walls. They expect the reporters know everything when in reality they are struggling each and every day with little to no help. They are liars. They promise you one thing and do not ever, ever go forward with it. You are expected to work way past your shift and provide more content than you actually have. Overall, it is a chaotic situation. Miscommunication is what kills the station. The news director and assistant news director have ideas in their head but do not share it with the actual new staff. When there are breaking those are big coverage events they are often times left out of the communication process and have no idea what is going on until about five minutes before hand. The money and benefits here are luring but do not fall to the trap.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The management will push agendas on you as a reporter. Do not fall prey to this. Especially when Covid struck, they made things appear they were much worse then they were because the news director, who suffers from diabetes, was more afraid of Covid than the average citizen.”
News Director: Steven Shaw
“Extremely unprofessional. One of the worst Nexstar news directors out there. Will ghost you if you apply for a job and have an interview, tried to make a main anchor/reporter the main editor on the weekends and does not care about the safety or personal lives of his employees whatsoever. Do not work for this guy.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized
Additional comments:
“Assistant news director Jody Gill is a horrible human. Will throw you under a moving bus. Has been there for more than 15 years and still cannot manage employees. Everything is your fault not his. He will not help you get better. This station has gone down hill so fast which is incredibly sad because it’s a great place besides the awful management. Again, don’t work here. You will not improve you will get burnt out.”
News Director: Morgan Schaab
Experience described as: “Hardworking, organized, always thinking of employees and the community”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Organized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“I love WAND. Absolutely a great place to work and learn. The community is very welcoming and the news staff is friendly.”
News Director: Greg Schieferstein
“Greg is truly horrific. To put it simply first, news is tough and you dont get paid enough for the job as is, so if you are looking for a way to somehow make the job more difficult then come to work for Greg — where it is unbearable. There is not a single employee in my day to day at KRNV that Greg had not burned a bridge with or lost their respect. His news judgement is not only prehistoric, but at times so off-tune that you cant fathom how he has been able to fly under the radar this long at multiple stations in the role. The culture he has created is not one of open dialogue and conversation, but a Greg way or the highway — or an accusatory and uncomfortable phone call where you are reminded that there is nothing you can do other than shut up and play the game. I know that he has received a handful of complaints to HR for various reasons but he still remains. In my time there I experienced him get hired in March of 2019 and in that time institutional knowledge at the station has fled like a mass exodus with Greg being a major factor. Two long time morning anchors gone, a handful of established producers and reporters burned out. I know this is a starting market, but I am talking people literally leaving mid contract to get away. One producer came in and left after two weeks. All of that aside, my biggest gripe was the unacknowledgement of work and inability to provide thoughtful feedback. Me, among those who are still there and those who have left, have all spoke about how its perplexing that no one is seeing the trend of bad turnover since March of 2019. The entire managerial staff needs an overhaul, other than the staff is great and found the other reporters talented and kind, but very undervalued.”
While working for KRNV this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Greg does not know how to speak to women — flat out. His work environment is awful and the only relationships that work are between the staff in similar roles.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Run the other way.”
News Director: M. DAVID LEE
Experience described as: “ADVERSARIAL AND HORRENDOUS”
While working for WFRV this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“In the year M. David Lee has taken over, more than 13 employees have quit.. to include our Chief Photographer with 25 years of experience”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“DO NOT TAKE THIS JOB BECAUSE YOU DON’T HAVE A JOB!!! WAIT IT OUT,YOU’LL GET SOMETHING BETER. ALL MMJ’S HAVE TO PRODUCE.. YOU CAN’T PUT TOGETHER A REEL IF YOU HAVE TO PRODUCE THE SAME DAY YOU REPORT!!!! GOT TO WBAY, FOX11, WKOW OR ANY STATION IN MADISON.. PICKING UP DECAYING DEAD DEER IN THE SUMMER ALONG THE INTERSTATE IS BETTER THAN WORKING AT WFRV.”
News Director: Tom Henderson
Experience described as: “Toxic”
While working for WTVC this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Tom comes off as genuinely kind and I believe that he is but he is also foolish and shows lack of compassion for his reporters.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“This station really kills many people’s joy and happiness. Over half the people that left while I was employed bought themselves out because of treatment from management. Many people came to this station with a love of news and within a month hated the field and never want to work again. Tom and managing editor Latrica pick candidates straight out of college and completely kill their spirits. Six former employees left news completely because Tom and Latrica made stop loving their job. Even mentioning this place to some former employees makes them cry. Tom also tries to pit coworkers against each other if you aren’t a favorite you won’t get a thing. DO NOT WORK HERE.”
News Director: Chuck Maulden
“Chuck is a good news director overall. Strong ethics. Unfortunately, he’s not able to run the newsroom because the VP of Content controls everything.”
While working for KOTV this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Without giving too much identifying information, the station has gone extremely downhill in the last five years. The VP of Content brought in an extremely unqualified news director who was not only bad at his job, but has been described as “evil” and the “worst boss I’ve ever worked for” by people who have been in news for decades. The damage done during that ND’s time felt irreparable. Now, Chuck Maulden is a good news director, but is still not allowed to make the big decisions because the VP of Content controls everything. The VP of Content is massively disliked throughout the newsroom for how he treats to and talks to people. He is notorious for playing favorites, and giving promotions to people who absolutely do not deserve it, while deserving candidates fall by the wayside. He also hires “friends” from outside the company to fill positions when there are many qualified candidates already under his roof. The people you work with directly are, overall, wonderful, even the managers. But again, they all fall under the VP’s thumb. In the past year, all reporters have been forced to turn into MMJs, plus an extra show has been added and doubled everyone’s workload. It seems like no one cares about quality anymore. It’s sad to see what was once an amazing station, fall into ruin because of poor leadership.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Tulsa is an amazing city with a lot of news to cover, and your coworkers at this station will be amazing! Unfortunately, that’s not enough. The newsroom has lost several great journalists in the last couple years because of the miserable environment KOTV is cultivating.”
News Director: Olivia Dangler
Experience described as: “Painful”
While working for WHTM this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Worst place to work. Toxic, gossiping people in charge. Hardworking people are manipulated as they are bashed to the ground. Those who should be fired are instead celebrated. Many employees hate daily life and are seeking a way out. The number of people who leave without other jobs lined up speaks volumes to how horrific employees are treated.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Tracy Davis
“She just started”
While working for WVIT this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The managing editor and am
Ep are incompetent fools and need to be removed from the newsroom”
News Director: Steve Koles
Experience described as: “Positive. Great leader.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Open to Creative Control, Positive, Fun
Additional comments:
“This is a great station to work for. The management is solid, both ND and AND. They’re constantly trying to make the best hiring choices, and invest in those they do hire. They’re 2nd in the market but they do not directly compete with the other stations because they’re in Grand Rapids, while WWMT is in Kalamazoo. The news stories they cover are not newsworthy, however. Follow up to how someone died horrifically, generally. Maybe once a month one might cover something interesting. But if you like breaking news, this is the station for you, because that’s pretty much what they do, making it hard to grow and get better, but the station management, especially the GM, believes that’s where the ratings come from. The gear is new though, and that’s nice.”
News Director: Jess Laszewski
Experience described as: “Uninspiring”
While working for WMTV 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: Barb Roethler
Experience described as: “Horrible. Unpleasant. Moody. Unprofessional. Conniving. Just a bad/miserable human being.”
While working for WILX this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Barb was the worst person I have ever worked for. She promised many of us young reporters that we’d get our chance to anchor, do some sport reporting, whatever we wanted, etc.. None of that happened, she lies to bring you in, but once you are in, you’ll soon realize it was all lies, it is a shit show. My outfits were scrutinized by her and EP Jeff Proctor, who is the worst human being of ALL-TIME. This guy should not be allowed to work in a news room. He made fellow female colleagues of mine cry because he would yell at them for officials not answering calls, something out of their control. This was something that happened all the time, by the way. He followed me into the room where we got our cameras and threatened to fight me, because we had words over my suit color. I could not believe it. The man definitely has a bipolar disorder. He also took a reporter’s keyboard and slammed it on his desk in front of his face, keys flew everywhere, all because his script was “shit.” Here is the best part, this was in front of Barb’s office. Barb never says a thing about Jeff’s tantrums, so good luck going to her LOL. Oh and don’t give money to that union, they won’t do a thing for you. Also, be prepared to see Barb/Jeff play favorites, they had this one reporter “follow” a dog abuse case for about a month or two, and by follow, she just sat at the station all day, and used left over stock footage each time she pushed a story out, meanwhile all of us were slaving away to turn stuff every day. When I look back, I think of all of the friends I made, BUT I would not recommend this place to my worst enemy.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Again, I would not recommend this place to my worst enemy. This place ruined my whole outlook on Local News, really. All Local News stations are shit, run down, you get paid like crap, but I was hoping that the good would outweigh the bad, but not at WILX. This whole WILX experience was very sad, since I am a Lansing native, and went to MSU, it was just very eye opening.
#FireProctor”
News Director: Eric Walters
Experience described as: “Toxic. Negative. Neglectful. Disrespectful. Miserable.”
While working for WBTW this person experienced:
Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“I laughed out loud while reading the review from June 23. It was CLEARLY written by a manager or an anchor trying to save face for this toxic and failing news station. Ignore this “positive” review. WBTW is DESPERATE and pathetic. This is how low they’ve stooped to get people on their team. Trust your gut and more importantly, trust the negative reviews because they were written by people who actually worked as MMJs under Eric Walters’s leadership, unlike the person who wrote that “positive” review.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“Listen to every single one of the negative reviews. Every single one. Work somewhere else. There are plenty of stations to choose from.”
News Director: Bill Cummings, Curtis Jackson, & Asst News Dir Matt Rosenberg
“All 3 are horrible leaders with bad communication skills”
While working for KIFI/KIDK this person experienced:
Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“Women are treated worse and talked down to. One female employee had a seizure and passed out while working over the weekend. She called the asst news director after she woke up and told him what happened. He told her she couldn’t go home and to get back to work. She was fired soon after because she was a “problem””
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“No matter how desperate you may be for a job, do NOT under ANY circumstances work at KIFI. Managers don’t address or care about things you bring to their attention (they promoted a producer who slept on the job for 1/2 of their shift. Plus the long-time audio/graphics guy screws up multiple times each show and nothing happens to him because he’s part of the church). They do nothing to help or mentor new employees. Pay sucks. GM is a bully who makes Scrooge look like a big spender. If you are part of the LDS church, they will kiss your feet. If not, you are treated much worse. I wish I knew about this website before I worked there. The other posts I read are accurate. Please…protect your mental health and stay away.”
News Director: Joe Radske
“No news judgement”
While working for KVRR this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The News Director always shutsdown story ideas and instead makes mmjs go to events to promote a company or organization. KVRR is a news station, not a PR company.
He’s also very obssesive over going overtime. He will remind you as much as he can to make sure not to exceed hours and if you do, it will most likely not reflect on your paycheck.
The main anchors are mediocre at best. They love to talk about mmjs behind their back instead of helping them grow. Maybe it’s because they lack experience themselves.
Equipment is very outdated. Nothing ever works. There’s also not enough editing computers for all the mmjs. The station is also extremely understaffed.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
News Director: Warren Stewart
“The absolute worst boss I’ve ever had in my 13 year history of being in the tv industry.”
While working for WEVV this person experienced:
Sexual Harassment, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“The organization is ran by three people who have no idea what they are doing. The lack of leadership is among the managers is actually quite funny when you look at it.
Warren sexually harasses and discriminates against employees daily, and is so involved in station drama and gossip, it’s no wonder that the station has such terrible ratings.
The assignment editor/ “Assistant News Director” send reporters to the wrong stories on the wrong day daily, the GM has no idea what is going on, and that is because he (the GM) believes the ND knows what he is doing. I’ve never been a part of such a drama infested environment, that is all led by the ND. The station has had multiple talks about how gossip must stop, including emails sent by the GM to stop the drama, however it continues because the ND constantly spews it. If you are called into Warren’s office, he is going to ask you what everyone is talking about and for the latest details of drama in the station. It all stems from him, but he is untouchable. He never gets in trouble for his inappropriate actions because the GM writes it off as “fake”. It’s sad, but it’s true.
The normal employees are great people, but seeing the life sucked out of employees is so sad. Over 50 people have left in under 2 years, which J’s a crazy amount of turnover when you compare it to the other two stations. In those 50+ people, some of them have even left to go to a competitor for LOWER PAY. If that doesn’t describe how much of a mess that place is, I don’t know what else to tell you.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“DO NOT WORK HERE.
I cannot say this enough. If you are fresh out of college and think you are successful because you landed a market 102 job, think again. Go to market 160 instead. This place is the absolute worst place to start, because you may never want to continue your career after this toxic wasteland. Bottom line, if Warren Stewart is the news director, DO NOT take the job.”
News Director: Janis Harper
Experience described as: “backstabbing and two faced”
While working for WEAU this person experienced:
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
“A lot of holdovers from the previous news director thought things would get better under new leadership…They were wrong! This woman is straight up clueless, no wonder the last station she worked at closed! She will pretend to like you and then go behind your back when you begin to call out her decision making.”
This person describes the overall newsroom environment as:
Unorganized, Educational, Negative, Toxic
Additional comments:
“The only two god things about this station are the rank and file staff, and the learning you will get to do in what will probably be your first job. Aside from that, you will be miserable due to management which probably won’t change.”
