KCAL Kicking Into Soccer Coverage With Galaxy Deal
Media
by Claudia Peschiutta
KCAL-TV (Channel 9) has strengthened its hold on local sports by capturing another major local professional sports franchise for its lineup.
Station officials signed a three-year agreement with the Los Angeles Galaxy to broadcast 10 soccer games per season starting in 2003.
KCAL already broadcasts L.A. Lakers, Anaheim Angels, Anaheim Mighty Ducks games, in addition to the annual Los Angeles Marathon and other events.
The Galaxy games will be broadcast on Saturday evenings and include a pre-game show. KCAL plans to add a weekly “Galaxy Update” to its Sunday night newscast and has a partnership arrangement with the soccer team on marketing initiatives, such as game-day and on-air promotions.
“This agreement reinforces KCAL’s commitment to being the leading local broadcaster of sports,” Senior Vice President and Station Manager Patrick McClenahan said in a statement.
Viacom Inc. earlier this year agreed to purchase KCAL for $650 million. The company plans to keep the station’s line-up of news and sports intact, said a local executive with Viacom-owned CBS shortly after the deal was announced.
Mixed Times Ad News
The L.A. Times got both good and bad news with its February ad figures.
The paper’s full-run advertising volume was down 8 percent from the like year-earlier period but part-run, or regional, advertising was up seven percent. Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune saw both categories drop by 6 and 7 percent, respectively. Total advertising inches for Tribune’s newspapers were down 3 percent.
While some are predicting an end to the long advertising slump, Times executives remain in cost-cutting mode. The paper recently rolled out a new, more economical version of its weekly TV Times section.
The Times used to produce 31 versions of the TV viewing guide for different markets but will now produce only four for the entire area.
“Our previous approach to TV Times…had become impractical and expensive given the constant proliferation of TV channels and changes in the cable industry,” Times Publisher John Puerner told employees in an internal memo.
Times Web Registration
Days after the Chicago Tribune began requiring free registration for certain features on its Web site, executives at the Los Angeles Times were considering doing the same.
“Moving to required registration gives an opportunity to get a better understanding of our online audience,” said Times spokeswoman Martha Goldstein.
The move would also allow the newspaper’s advertisers to reach more targeted audiences, she said. An announcement on the matter is expected this week.
The Times and Chicago Tribune are both owned by Tribune Co.
When asked if online Times readers would have to pay to register, Goldstein said: “It doesn’t look like it, right now.”
Barely Reading
Los Angeles New Times is catching commuters’ eyes with a billboard campaign that features a cartoon of a nude woman reading a strategically placed copy of the newspaper. The image is accompanied with the slogan “Coverage that counts.”
“We’re just trying to get the word out a little more and extend the momentum we’ve come into the spring with,” said New Times Publisher Jim Rizzi. The two billboards will rotate throughout Hollywood and the Westside for at least the next six months, he added.
The free paper’s annual “Best Of” issue, released March 7, was its largest ever. While New Times is running fewer pages per issue than the 120 it averaged before Sept. 11, Rizzi contends that the paper is being sold to advertisers more effectively and making gains in the rental and restaurant categories. New Times has expanded its restaurant coverage by adding columns such as “Fat Man,” which focuses on ethnic eateries.
The paper will expand its circulation to 125,000 or 130,000 from 120,000 this fall, Rizzi said.
KCET Gets Connected
KCET-TV (Channel 28) has joined with three other public television stations to produce a weekly program on California issues that will be broadcast throughout the state.
“California Connected” may be the first program in which stations pool their resources to reach a statewide audience. The hour-long public affairs show is set to debut on April 25 and will air on Thursdays from 9 to 10 p.m.
KCET will serve as the program’s headquarters but the station has agreements with KQED-TV in San Francisco and KVIE-TV and KPBS-TV in Northern California.
Executive Producer Marley Klaus, formerly a “60 Minutes” producer, said the show will seek to get Californians to think of themselves as members of the same community and inspire them to get involved in governmental issues.
Participating stations will also air “Get Connected” minutes, daily segments tailored to each region that provide information to viewers about issues affecting their communities.
“We feel very strongly that this is a forward-facing, solution-facing program, meaning we will be focusing on solutions, not blame, and on the future, not the past,” Klaus said.
Shelley Shuts Down
Record-label veteran Barbara Shelley announced she would close her namesake public relations firm this week. The firm’s client list was down to five and there were only three people working in the L.A. office.
In its eight years, Barbara Shelley Public Relations counted the likes of Aretha Franklin, pianist Leon Russell and the LA Weekly among its clients. A former freelance journalist, Shelley spent years working at record labels before opening her PR firm.
Staff reporter Claudia Peschiutta can be reached at (323) 549-5225 ext. 229 or at
[email protected].
