Posted: 7:00 pm Sun, January 31, 2010
By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer
After months without a sportscaster of its own, Baltimore’s WMAR has turned to a local sports media company to produce sports segments on its nightly television newscasts — a move some say is a financial win for both companies but a potential loss for viewers.
PressBox, a Baltimore company with a monthly newspaper, a Web site, and weekly television and radio shows, started producing the script and voiceover for WMAR’s sportscasts more than a week ago and plans to officially announce the new relationship Monday.
A handful of PressBox writers — including company founder Stan “The Fan” Charles and managing editor Kevin Heitz — serve as the nightly voice of the sportscast. A 90-second voiceover of highlights and news is recorded and sent to WMAR, where the video is later edited in and aired during the 11 p.m. newscast.
The look and feel is similar to watching ESPN News, said John Coulson, managing partner for PressBox.
“It’s less expensive for them but produced at a higher level than a sports department with two people in it,” he said. “So they’re able to control costs, and we grow because we get so many eyeballs on the 11 p.m. news at night.”
Coulson said he hoped the added exposure will correct most people’s impression that PressBox only publishes a newspaper.
“We see ourselves as a sports media company that has platforms,” he said. “We create content and we don’t tell consumers how to consume us.”
Two one-year sponsorships pay for the cost and talent of producing the spot, according to Coulson, and PressBox and WMAR share the advertising revenue. The sponsor logos are visible during the segment.
The ABC affiliate, owned by The E.W. Scripps Co., underwent a company-mandated buyout period last fall that resulted in a 20 percent shrinkage of its newsroom. Before that, the station’s sportscaster, Long Island native Rob Carlin, left to take a broadcasting job in New York. Since then, the station’s news anchors have read the sports reports.
With the buyout period over, WMAR is training its entire newsroom to become multimedia journalists who shoot and edit video and write stories. Station manager Bill Hooper said in roughly six months he expects WMAR to start adding more content to its sports coverage to supplement the PressBox report.
But he said WMAR will not be hiring a replacement for Carlin.
“To have someone up there reading you the scores, for the hardcore sports person, that is not appealing because they already know the scores — they’ve seen it online or on ESPN,” he said.
That could be a mistake, said Steve Dresner, founder of Media Relations Professional in Gaithersburg, who has worked at places like HBO Sports and ESPN and started his career with the George Michael Sports Machine in Washington.
Being without a sportscaster for on-screen banter and personality could further alienate WMAR’s small audience, he said. The ratings for the station’s 11 p.m. newscast badly trail those of NBC-affiliated WBAL and CBS affiliate WJZ. FOX 45’s late newscast, at 10 p.m., also usually has higher ratings.
“It gives your sportscast more credibility when you have a person delivering it,” he said. “There’s a lot to be said about maintaining that trust with your viewers.”
But he acknowledged it’s hard to argue with the financial upside for WMAR and said this move is a growing trend around the country. A Scripps-owned station in Palm Beach, Fla., also began using local radio hosts to produce its sports segments last year.
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