Sinclair's Scott Livingston on Storytelling Supported By Scale

Kathy Newbergeramp160 You started at Sinclair well over 20 years ago as a news photographeramp160 How has the company and your role there evolvedScott Livingstonamp160 The job hasn39t changedamp160 Yes my role has gone from telling a story to setting strategy and direction and from 28 people at our first news operation in Baltimore to thousands across the country today but the principles remain the sameamp160 Local news is at the heart of Sinclair We39re committed to excellence to telling stories with a strong emotional impact and telling stories that matter and to alert protectamp160and empower our audiencesNewbergeramp160 Sinclair is about to become a much larger companyamp160 What39s the impact of scale on the news businessLivingstonamp160 We currently have 72 local news brandsamp160 We have the infrastructure in place that we can share content and then we can aggregate content across the national Sinclair footprintamp160 If news happens anywhere we have the ability to tap into and share that developing situation with our audienceamp160 And when we acquire a station we don39t assume we have all the answersamp160we don39t have a monopoly on what39s rightamp160 We learn from our stations and then we build and share best practicesNewbergeramp160 It sounds like a significant investment at the local levelLivingstonamp160 We are committedamp160 Look at WJAR in Providence as an exampleamp160 We acquired that station two years agoamp160 They are the NBC affiliate and No 1amp160in the marketamp160 We looked at their operation and made a significant investmentamp160 We put in a new studio including a new set new control room new trucksamp160 We renovated the news roomamp160 We invested more than two million dollars because we knew that it was a competitive marketplace and we wanted to make sure that we39re still the No 1 playeramp160 And we areamp160 We dominate every news periodOur best success story is KSNV in Las Vegasamp160 We acquired that station a little more than three years agoamp160 They were in third place in every time period We put a plan in placeamp160 We had a ninetyday plan a sixmonth planamp160and a 12month planamp160 We went from third place to first place in every news period amp160It was because we were able to be hyper focused leverage the resources from across Sinclair and develop a strategy and expectations for excellence with the local teamamp160 We39ve improved on every levelThat is a story that really never gets told about usamp160 If you look around the country at the successamp160and the investment that we39ve made in Las Vegasamp160in Seattleamp160in Washington DCamp160in South Bend Indianaamp160in Amarillo and we have a beautiful new facility in Beaumont TexasYou may hear about the one or two markets where we39ve had to do a news share between stations to remain competitiveamp160 Butamp160the real story is that we39re committed to news and regardless of the situation we figure out a solutionamp160 Typically that solution is making a major investment in the local marketplaceNewbergeramp160 Can you share any examples of the stories you39re telling at the local levelLivingstonamp160 When Hurricane Harvey hit Texas we moved Sinclair personnel from across the groupamp160 Our Beaumont station was able to produce three and a half days of continuous coverage of the hurricaneamp160 They got 50 inches of rainamp160 We were able to stay on the air because of the commitment in the local marketplaceamp160 We were able to pool those resources to help the local station be there for viewers in a time of crisisWe are very fortunate to have many talented folks working for usamp160 One of my favorite stories that we produced across the group was at WJLA Washington DCamp160 Jay Korff and Kevin Drennen produced Left Behindamp160a documentary that was streamed on all our websites based on all the items left behind at the Vietnam Veterans39 Memorial in Washingtonamp160 It was really powerful emotionally it had great writing great photography andamp160creative editing That is an area that we really focus on amp160making that emotional connection to our storytellingamp160amp160And that39s being recognized by the industryamp160 Just in 2017 we39ve taken home 386 awards including Associated Press Awards regional Emmy Awardsamp160and other statewide awardsamp160 In October KTULamp160in Tulsa was awarded a national Edward R Murrow Award for best newscast for their coverage of the Terence Crutcher shooting and KOMO in Seattle received a national Murrow Award for best sports featureamp160 We earn these types of awards by providing factbased balanced news that is important to the viewerAnother example of a Sinclair news investigative initiative is Project Baltimore an ongoing investigation of the public school system in the Baltimore areaamp160 A WBFF and Sinclair team of investigative journalists led by Chief Investigative Reporter Chris Papst uncovered a potential grade fixing scandal manipulation of crime data questionable spendingamp160and protocols and deplorable conditions in some city schoolsamp160 The Project Baltimore unit will continue to look into the Baltimore City and County School systems and report on the successes and failures of these enormous government entitiesamp160 We will hold leaders accountable and be an advocate for peopleamp160 That39s part of our core missionNewbergeramp160 All that doesn39t leave much time for quotworklife balancequotLivingstonamp160 That39s a challengeamp160 But certainly you need to have some balanceamp160 I definitely try to carve out quality time quality family timeamp160 I39m a runner it39s good to take a break and go for a run for an hour and it helps clear the mind and reduce stress because with news it is 247amp160Click the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

Click to Make Your 2025 Contribution to Support the MediaVillage Education Foundation

Sinclair's Scott Livingston on Storytelling Supported By Scale

Author

Publish date

Channel

Archived in

Kathy Newberger

The Ad Council, Huntsman Mental Health Foundation and Amazon Announce “The Mind Set” to Support Mental Health - Ad Council InSites

More Videos:

Click to Make Your 2025 Contribution to Support the MediaVillage Education Foundation

Sinclair's Scott Livingston on Storytelling Supported By Scale

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Kathy Newberger

The Ad Council, Huntsman Mental Health Foundation and Amazon Announce “The Mind Set” to Support Mental Health - Ad Council InSites

The payment was successful

Cookies