Media Watch

"Hey, look! KXAN is broadcasting from a Starbucks," you think to yourself. But, silly you, it's just KXAN's new set, which debuted last week with as much hoopla as local TV can muster. The set is the linchpin of a far-reaching rebranding campaign for the NBC affiliate's news department, the ritualized skin shedding and rebirth that stations periodically undertake when their news product starts tanking in the ratings. Give it a new slogan, build a new set, change the lighting, cue up new music, pump up the graphics, tighten the anchor babe's blouse, and roll out the new era.

In KXAN's case, the new set is part of a revamping of the news strategy. In September the station will drop its weekday 4pm newscast and launch a 5pm show, putting it in head-to-head competition with its main rivals. It's also adding a noon show and bulking up staff, with the addition of a reporter and producer, as well as a Web producer, according to general manager Eric Lassberg.

KXAN's rebranding follows a year in which the general manager was fired and veteran reporters streamed from the station, amid reports that the news director, Bill Seitzler, nicknamed "Wild Bill," was sensationalizing the product and driving news staff crazy. Seitzler eventually "left to pursue other opportunities" after less than a year, signaling the inevitable rebranding effort.

After much marketing research, consultant reports, and deep soul-searching, the puppet masters of KXAN have redubbed the station – drumroll, please – the tension must be killin' ya – "Austin News." That's not to be confused with "Austin's News Station," which is KVUE-TV, the ABC affiliate and recent ratings king. Or "News 8 Austin," which is Time Warner's local cable channel. And it's not "Your Central Texas News Leader." That's the old slogan.

The goal was to find a slogan to "simply identify" the station, Lassberg said. "It doesn't get any more simple than 'Austin News.'"

According to the station's promotional materials, "Austin News" "redefines" local coverage. "It's not a slogan – Austin News is a promise to provide clear, concise coverage of the stories important to you," the station's website proclaims. And, best of all, it means swell new "Austin News" baseball caps for all the reporters.

For weeks, KXAN ran ads touting the imminent dawn of the new era, due on July 2, but, well, stuff happens, and July 2 came and went without the grand unveiling. Management blamed it on the weather, the horrific run of really bad showers that KXAN quickly dubbed "Summer Flood '07." Not only was it a weather story, the holy grail of TV news, but it occurred in the Hill Country, where KXAN has set up a one-reporter bureau, attempting to establish its far-reaching news tentacles. (OK, so it's "Austin News … but Marble Falls News, Too.")

The station dove into storm coverage with zealous glee, offering nonstop coverage, team coverage, and double-whammy, triple-split-screen coverage with a helicopter roll-in, showing that when it comes to weather, no one can make steady rain into a storm of imminent horror and death quicker than KXAN. The station's coverage was way over the top, but at least the news department showed that it was serious about displaying a little hustle, at least when dealing with weather stories.

Weather is the primary battleground of TV news these days, the one thing people will tune in to watch, according to the focus groups and omnipresent consultants. With that in mind, Jim Spencer's new weather command center is somewhere between Dr. Strangelove and the flat-screen-TV department of a Best Buy. Spencer is an ever-smiling gnome invoking the power of VIPIR from his evil lair, which includes 10 TV monitors, plus a giant screen and a computer monitor (take that, all you lame-ass nine-monitor weather centers!).

The rest of the set seems drab and familiar compared to Spencer's digs. The anchors stand in front of round minipodiums of white wood and blue and orange splashes, surrounded by large-screen TVs displaying pulsating video.

KXAN anchors will be standing around quite a bit on the new set, apparently under the belief that they will now seem more active and vibrant, as illustrated by their standiness. Eventually some KXAN anchors will sit, according to news director Michael Fabac, but the new chairs haven't arrived yet. "Some of the anchors like standing," Fabac said, adding that he doesn't have a preference, as long as the anchors feel "comfortable."

There has been no definitive research to prove that TV news audiences crave anchors who stand, but it is a sure differentiator from the competition. ("You know, KXAN, the station where they stand.") In similar fashion, there is no real evidence that a new set guarantees long-term success, but it does grab the attention of channel-grazing viewers, who may stop long enough to mutter, "What the hell is that?"

That will give the ratings a temporary bump and make management look like geniuses, but it does little to make good on the promise of "redefining" news coverage. Viewers might stick around if KXAN were presenting a newscast that breaks from the relentless cookie-cutter format that finds stations covering almost all the same stories at the same time with the same one-interview, news-lite approach. But Fabac said there would be no fundamental changes in the station's news philosophy, beyond the emphasis on "Austin News." "It's not meant to be dramatic change; it's meant to be an evolution," Fabac said.

In fact, beyond the relentless weather reports, KXAN's first newscasts under the new marketing slogan featured the usual mix of press-release rewrites, crime news, and house fires where no one was hurt – presented as "exclusives," "developing stories," and "special reports" found "only on KXAN." Last Thursday's big story was an "investigation" of homeland security construction plans found in the Dumpster behind the station, including an exclusive interview with the KXAN employee who found the documents.

"Same team, same devoted coverage, just some new shots, new lights," anchor Michelle Valles gushed on opening day, apparently unaware of the "new era" talking points.