Spectrum News 1 Wisconsin

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Very toxic environment, led by an overreaching general manager and a news director who serves as his puppet.

Everyone beneath management in the newsroom are great people stuck under the thumb of inefficient and ineffective supervisors.

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.

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.

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.