Station's Ratings
News Dirctors
Reporter Job details
Yearly salary
Contract3 years
Paired with a photogN/A
Station market rankbetween 1-2
Greg Sheppherd
Unfortunately the other comments are accurate. He’s a hands on boss who doesn’t like to say he is. He gets managers under him to deliver hard decisions and tell bad news. He’s afraid of getting sued for every story. He’s killed good journalism out of fear. His untrustworthiness and pettiness have pushed out great employees.
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
The newsroom is managed by several managers who all fear Greg’s decisions. Ratings are slipping, morale is terrible, and people are leaving the station and industry. Avoid this station at all costs until Greg Sheppherd leaves. He’s destroyed a once proud brand.
Photographer Job details
Yearly salary
ContractNo
Paired with a photogN/A
Station market rank#3
Greg Shepperd
Proven track-record of being a bully and poor people person.
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
How Hearst has allowed Greg (and Melissa) to continue their abusive management style in market after market is unreal. When Greg worked in New Orleans as Asst. ND, his fellow managers admitted he had terrible people skills. Sacramento, same deal. In NW Arkansas his difficult, disrespectful, toxic management style led to a mass exodus of many long-time employees both in front of and behind the camera. Including the Asst ND who transferred to KOAT to escape (only to be under Greg’s leadership again) the long-time chief meteorologist, both morning anchors, the entire sports department, and producers. Reading comments from current co-workers here shows nothing has changed. Greg has ran a once proud station into the ground, ran out many talented people. He cares little about people or the product. Just look at the ratings. His only focus is dressing his cats in costumes, his Starbucks venti soy drinks, wine/dines on the company dime, and blaming everyone else for his and his managers failures. Because he’s unlikely to change as a person, my only advice is to look elsewhere. Avoid KOAT as long as Greg is in charge. You’ll be glad you did. ***Remember the devil wears Puma.
Consider yourself warned.
Just watch the product.
You can see people dread being here.
Is it enough to get Hearst corporate’s attention?
Unlikely.
Greg Shepperd
A micromanager with unoriginal ideas. Small town mentality for News. Has to have a meeting about everything but no results or resolutions. Melissa Williams is his equal.
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
The morale of staff is very low. Both Greg Shepperd and Melissa Williams do a great job at micromanaging staff, not offering critiques that actually help growth,Williams is very nasty/condescending when you ask for clarification or don’t agree with her. Greg is better about it. There are so many meetings during the day that are pointless and could have been an email. If you want to feel annoyed while at work, you should apply now.
Both greg Shepperd and Melissa Williams love smiling at you while forcing you to work on your days off. 6-12 day shifts are not unusual here.
Photographer Job details
Yearly salary
Contract2 years
Paired with a photogN/A
Station market rank#1
Greg Shepperd
Best news director I’ve ever worked for
Greg Shepperd is a genius manager. His stories of his past markets are inspiring and I have a lot of respect for him.
Reporter Job details
Yearly salary
ContractNo
Paired with a photogN/A
Station market rankbetween 1-2
Greg Shepperd
Chaotic, toxic, unsatisfactory
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
They overwork us, but yet never satisfied. Morning meetings go on far too long and they sometimes don’t benefit us because things still get screwed up. Management will throw you under the bus if something goes wrong.
During the week we have at least 5 managers working dayside, but still, this place is unorganized & management can careless about how it interferes with our day.There’s no opportunity for growth. It’s always the same photographers and reporters creating sweeps piece’s, special projects. The same people in promos. Overall, not a fun place to be. Poor representation of Hearst.
Photographer Job details
Yearly salary
Contract2 years
Paired with a photogN/A
Station market rank
Greg Shepperd
Very inferior, not sure why he hasn’t this job
An Overall Toxic Work Environment
Most of the toxicity comes from the News Director and Assistant News Director. They are both lacking in news judgement. Neither of them know how to handle or talk to their staff. You are always tagged as insubordinate if you ask a question or raise a concern if there is a problem. They care more about being sued than putting together a good quality story. They love national news more than covering local news and make National a priority over local. The News Director and his Assistant News Director like to keep doing stories on old news rather than enterprise new stories. They constantly discourage staff from pitching good ideas and talk down to them a majority of the time, while always trying to find a reason to be angry at you.
All of the reporters, photographers and anchors are awesome and are the best people I have ever met. The News Director and Assistant News Director don’t need to be in the position they’re in. They both took a former #1 and respected station and drove it to the ground where viewers no longer rely on the station for local news.
