Posted by chicagomedia.org on February 05, 2009 at 15:42:42:
Sip of the new Ch. 2
News chief Kiernan gives viewers a taste test with coffee coverage
BY LEWIS LAZARE | Sun-Times Columnist
February 5, 2009
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When last we spoke to Jeff Kiernan in December, he had just been named news director at the beleaguered CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2. A Munster, Ind., native, Kiernan was in his visionary mode then, talking in general terms about what makes a successful local newscast. He could speak with some authority on the topic because he had boosted news ratings at two CBS TV stations in Boston, where he was news director for just 18 months before being summoned to help in Chicago.
When we caught up with Kiernan on Wednesday, he had been in the trenches here at WBBM for more than two weeks, and we wanted to find out his thoughts now about the challenge he faces. Clearly Kiernan realizes the task is formidable. The WBBM news director has spent some of his short time here scoping out the competition, as well as laying the groundwork for a new era in his own news department.
Kiernan has found a certain sameness in the local newscast content at other stations. So that has made him more determined than ever to immediately start rethinking WBBM's local news product in a way that distinctly distinguishes it from the sameness he sees all around.
Kiernan talked to us in an earlier conversation about the importance of "relevance" in newscasts, and one example of how he's already started to offer more relevant content on WBBM newscasts popped up on the station's 6 p.m. newscast Tuesday. The story in question concerned the news that Consumer Reports magazine had rated low-priced Eight O'Clock ground coffee tops in flavor.
CBS reporter Derrick Blakely took that news and ran with it -- and a bag of the top-rated coffee beans -- to a local diner, where in a blind taste test the coffee was served up to patrons, whose reactions Blakely captured on camera. "We want to give the sense we're discovering things in our city along with our viewers," Kiernan explained.
Kiernan also is proud of Dana Kozlov's report on Tuesday's 10 p.m. newscast about a sexual molestation case in the tony suburb of Naperville, where two young kids were criminally charged with assaulting one of their peers. All three, it turns out, are still attending the same school.
Kozlov's piece proved a chilling insight into the goings-on in an upscale suburb and the awkward way the local school system is handling the situation.
As Kiernan settles into his new job, more about the news on WBBM will change. Of course, one of the most visible changes that could happen would involve a shift in the anchor lineup. But Kiernan knows that is a hugely delicate subject. And he doesn't want to go there yet. At least not with us. He said he's still looking at the product his news department puts out there. Still getting a feeling for the market. Still weighing his options. But one thing he doesn't want to do is blow everything up before he's sure that's justified.