KOAT

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.

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

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.

When people leave KOAT for bigger markets, other opportunities, or other stations in the ab1 market, they seem much happier.

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

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.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Hopefully I won't be here too much longer but I'll chime in to save someone else the pain. If you're coming here as a manager you'll probably like it because they now have 3 times the number of people doing what just a few managed 2 years ago. Crews in the field have it the worst. We never know who's looking over which shows, who to contact during the day. The new ND has had more time off since he started than we've all had this year. He took over and troubled struggling green newsroom and when I've called the station to talk to him about leaving he's always off. GM doesn't care. She allowed the News Director to fire the only producer who had experience and didn't screw over the crews out in the field. Why? Because she was was fearful of Covid and wanted to work at home. @Hearst doesn't care about their people. Not at this station. But managers work from home all the time and even some favored producers. The ND is petty and I know people with a year plus left on their deals who've already started looking.

The station is run on nothing but inconsistent management. Seems to favor a green producer staff. Some have good attitudes . others are allowed to be nasty and then crews get in trouble if they react back after constant bs from the booth. Get out of TV before you consider KOAT.
Or, if for whatever reason you want to be in New Mex, look at KRQE, Solid GM I hear who knows the market. Staff like it over there. Adults with experience who run the shop respectfully and don't treat hard working people with threats.
And,,,,they have about triple the number of people for every job , unless us. Always scraping to get by. Competent leadership would care more about quality and not just getting on the air but when we are communicating with multiple managers who all tell you different things all day, hard to make quality anything and make slot.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

If you have another opportunity take it. As I sit in a much larger market now I have the current KOAT Asst, ND Melissa Williams to thank. When my former friends still stuck in that place showed me her grand EMMY win pic she posted of herself this week, current and former employees want to barf. Just know that it's clear evidence of how this newsroom runs. Come here, work your butt off, be verbally abused by management. They take credit for everytihng and lie constantly. "Her" emmy was for a newscast that so many people made happen that night. Here in my current newsroom, they were nominated for an newscast Emmy too and it credits the station STAFF....Not ONLY some loser manager who just yells at people and noone listened to that night we were putting that emmy winning show together anyway (me included). Melissa Williams entered herself for a newscast Emmy and only put herself. Not staff, not KOAT team. All the newscast entries were for Staff . Except KOAT. Thank you to her, that award winning night i said i would be leaving that place somehow. Surprised she's still there. Inflated ego and mistreatment has ruined that place.

I'm gone so haven't worked with the new ND but have a lot of good pals left at the station . They now make reporters do 2 packages a day . So get ready, They run the place BARE BONES,. this is not your typical Hearst -run station. I've heard they keep padding the place with more managers but then burn out reporters and sometimes have just 1 reporter a day. Be warned.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Station continues to get worse. Sadly, everything that's been written is true. The GM has sat in her office for years telling employees different stories and playing dumb. They refuse to hire anyone with experience anymore so if you actually care about doing real news don't come here. We get beat on all the big stories and managers don't want to hear it. They blame the crews for voicing concern. Producers are fresh out of school or have no newsroom experience. Some are trying others have horrible attitude and are nasty to reporters and managers blame the crews instead. Producers get no real help or coaching so reporters battle everyday with producers. Until @hearst decides to hire good managers who actually care and will listen to those actually trying to make things better more people will throw in the towel. #hearst #koat

Legal claims are in the works from a variety of current/former staff.
And they fired the ONLY good producer we had. She was respected and was 1000 times better than our non existent EP. But the station allows managers to work from home where they do nothing but she was given ultimatum to work IN the newsroom despite COVID worries or get canned. Hearst claims to care about employees. There's one example of what that really means.