KIMT

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

This isn't quite letting me honestly answer, but I was on the creative/marketing side of things but short-staffed meant also often helping run the cameras or audio board during noon news, and often early daybreak news as well. My experience is less with the news director and more with other managers, and they were toxic. The general manager, the sales manager, the production manager - all horrible people. What I did see of the newsroom was sacrificing quality to save money for the managers and sales people ... creatives like me, reporters, directors all paid crap, while sales people - which the GM used to be one - and managers like him made big bucks. Hard work was not valued as we did not see raises worthy of our value. A lot of hustle and bustle, with more constantly asked from us as more newscasts were added, and constant turnover.

Insurance sucks with ownership constantly changing and the out-of-state owners being just as clueless. During the recession, they froze wages - but it was an election year and our station actually broke records with profits. Profits that hard workers like me did NOT see.

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.

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.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

News Director Jamie Copley creates a very toxic work environment. You never knew which Jamie you were going to get each day. One day she’s out in the newsroom playing music and dancing, the next she’s throwing things across the room and screaming.

I would never wish the experience I had there on anyone. Right out of college, I believed this was the way all newsrooms worked and seriously considered changing my career. Luckily I had one mentor there who was awesome, looked out for me, helped me grow and honestly saved me. News Director Jamie Copley and General Manager Steve Martinson are absolutely terrible to work for. They don’t care about their employees mental or physical health at all. You’ll work crazy overtime, expected to do more work than feasible in an 8 hour work day, but get in trouble for actually clocking in those overtime hours. They abuse their salary employees. For example, they were short staffed in the weather department and made meteorologists work 6 days a week for months with promise of “getting that time back” only to never see it. Not to mention when the meteorologist started to complain about being over worked they actually had anchors with no weather experience do the weather! It was honestly embarrassing. They also feel local sports are not important once so ever. Copley has anger management issues and it’s clear she brings her home life into the workplace and takes it out on her employees. Her best friend is one of the anchors and she lets her get away with doing absolutely nothing while pushing the work onto other employees. No newsroom is perfect, but I honestly believe this is one of the worst.

This station feels like another round of college. You’ll learn a lot, especially from George and corporate consultants. The KIMT team is a fun bunch. We hang out even when we’re off the clock. You know the phrase “the customer is always right?” If you treat management like the customer and can swallow your pride, you’ll do just fine.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

The management staff is horrible.

Management at KIMT expect reporters to never take a sick, personal or vacation day. They pile up the workload and expect us to not get overtime.

The news director is extremely unprofessional. They will speak to everyone about you and how you're a problem here without directly coming to you. There is no room for growth. This is a small market, meaning most people are straight out of college or in their first tv job. They use that to their advantage by making you feel like you will never be successful outside of KIMT.

The news director has only worked at KIMT for 20 + years. If you try to suggest doing something different of a new way to approach a story. She'll try to embarrass you in front of everyone during the pitch meeting. The station is going through a change of shifting coverage from primarily Iowa to Rochester, Minnesota. Management (News director, news content manager, HR, etc) all live in Mason City Iowa. That means they don't know what's really going on across the border. They don't understand how far some areas are from each other and expect reporters to be able to do two live hits about two different stories on two different sides of the state. They also heavily rely on reporters to become content managers and know EVERY event going on in the area. That means if a reporter calls in sick or is on vacation and we miss a story, they blame reporters and not their own lack of understanding.
Many reporters have cried, experienced anxiety attacks and even broke out into severe rashes because of how unorganized and toxic the newsroom is.
This is not a place where you can grow and be thankful for your experience. FOR THOSE LOOKING TO COME TO KIMT, YOU WILL REGRET YOUR DECISION WITHIN 3 MONTHS!!!!

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Management at KIMT expect reporters to never take a sick, personal or vacation day. They pile up the workload and expect us to not get overtime. The news director is extremely unprofessional. They will speak to everyone about you and how you're a problem here without directly coming to you. There is no room for growth. This is a small market, meaning most people are straight out of college or in their first tv job. They use that to their advantage by making you feel like you will never be successful outside of KIMT. The news director has only worked at KIMT for 20 + years. If you try to suggest doing something different of a new way to approach a story. She'll try to embarrass you in front of everyone during the pitch meeting. The station is going through a change of shifting coverage from primarily Iowa to Rochester, Minnesota. Management (News director, news content manager, HR, etc) all live in Mason City Iowa. That means they don't know what's really going on across the border. They don't understand how far some areas are from each other and expect reporters to be able to do two live hits about two different stories on two different sides of the state. They also heavily rely on reporters to become content managers and know EVERY event going on in the area. That means if a reporter calls in sick or is on vacation and we miss a story, they blame reporters and not their own lack of understanding. Many reporters have cried, experienced anxiety attacks and even broke out into severe rashes because of how unorganized and toxic the newsroom is. This is not a place where you can grow and be thankful for your experience. FOR THOSE LOOKING TO COME TO KIMT, YOU WILL REGRET YOUR DECISION WITHIN 3 MONTHS!!!! If you try to get out of your contract they will come after you. This station is the absolute worst newsroom I've ever been in.