Executive Session with Marci Burdick

Schurz Sees Value For All In Duopolies

The SVP of Schurz Communications says her company’s duopolies benefit not only the stations' P&Ls, but also their communities. "You can get the back-end efficiencies, but you still have to have robust competitive products for the station to grow long term." She also explains why Schurz has been quiet in the post-recession station trading market and discusses the success she's had with Rentrak as a Nielsen alternative.
TVNewsCheck,

Marci Burdick makes no apologies for the TV station duopolies in which she is involved as SVP-electronic for Schurz Communications, the 139-year-old small-market newspaper publisher and broadcaster based in South Bend, Ind.

In fact, she contends that — at least in her world — they benefit not only the stations' P&Ls, but also their communities. Even in Augusta, Ga., where Schurz's NBC affiliate WAGT takes a subordinate role in a duopoly with Media General's ABC affiliate WJBF, the arrangement works for all. "You can get the back-end efficiencies, but you still have to have robust competitive products for the station to grow long term."

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Just before the recession, Schurz increased its bet on broadcasting and began implementing its duopoly strategy. It bought two stations in Wichita, Kan. (CBS affiliate KWCH and CW affiliate KSCW) in separate deals and it bankrolled a duopoly partner (ABC affiliate KSPR) for its NBC affiliate in Springfield, Mo. (KYTV). During the recession, it agreed to the duopoly in Augusta with Media General.

The eight-station TV group also includes CBS affiliate WSBT South Bend, where it also operates the daily paper; CBS affiliate WDBJ Roanoke-Lynchburg, Va., and NBC affiliate KTUU Anchorage. In addition to the TV stations, Burdick also oversee 13 radio stations and two small cable systems in Florida and Maryland.

In this interview with TVNewsCheck Editor Harry A. Jessell, Burdick also expresses her optimism for 2012, explains why Schurz has been quiet in the post-recession station trading market and discusses the success she's had with Rentrak as a Nielsen alternative.

An edited transcript:

How's the new year shaping up?

It looks like 2012 will be a very healthy year with NBC affiliates having both the Super Bowl and the Olympics. We continue to see automotive coming back. Really, 2011 was the story of two halves. The last half of 2011 was far more robust, particularly for automotive, than was the first half of the year and we think, with the Toyota/Honda recovery, that will most likely continue into 2012.

How are you positioned for political?

We don’t expect to hit the records that we saw in '08 and '10, but it looks like it’s going to be a good year. We have one of the super states in Virginia and we’re seeing political spending starting early there. Missouri, which is no longer a presidential super state, nonetheless, has a big Senate race. [Sen.] Claire McCaskill [D] is up for reelection as is the governor [Jay Nixon (D)]. So that looks like it will be big. Those are probably our two biggest. [Sen.] Dick Lugar [R] has a challenge so Indiana will be healthier than it normally is.

You have launched weather multicasting channels in most of your markets. How are they doing?

They do pretty well. They certainly have a good margin on them, and we have tried to use them innovatively. For example, in Wichita, Tornado Alley, the team there has done some really interesting things with a couple of small built-in cameras. When severe weather is approaching, but long before you would ever break in for coverage, they basically just go live with their weather guys who kind of do play-by-play on their forecasting. They just talk to the audience in a very informal way and tell them what’s going on up until those storms move in and we go wall-to-wall on all platforms.

What about some of the new multicasting networks? Have you picked up any of them?

We haven’t done any of those yet.

Are you looking at them?

We’re always looking. I can’t say we have really had any active interest in any of them to date, but that's not to say we won’t.

What about online?

We are extremely pleased with our online businesses. In many of our markets, we’re often the No. 1 local news site or we’re very, very close. In Wichita, four years ago now, they launched a site they call CatchItKansas, which is solely and exclusively high school sports. It is probably the deepest, richest local sports site out there. It just continues to set page view records.

I just got a press release last week saying that you have renewed your contract with Rentrak for its set-top audience measurement service in Wichita and added Roanoke and Springfield. How are you using the data?

Wichita was the first television station client of Rentrak. We started out with the intention of renewing Nielsen, but we could not come to an economic agreement that made sense for us. While we don’t reveal economic data, it’s fair to say that at that point Wichita’s Nielsen cost was higher than all of our other stations combined. We felt that was unreasonable and untenable. We did a lot of research on what else was out there and made the very tough and scary decision to go with Rentrak. You know what? We’re not afraid anymore.

Continued on page 2…
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Comments (3) -

Oldbroadcaster Nickname posted 6 months ago
|
To say "In fact, she contends that — at least in her world — they benefit not only the stations' P&Ls, but also their communities. Even in Augusta, Ga., where Schurz's NBC affiliate WAGT takes a subordinate role in a duopoly with Media General's ABC affiliate WJBF, the arrangement works for all. "You can get the back-end efficiencies, but you still have to have robust competitive products for the station to grow long term." Her world? There are many communities being hurt by this....and local jobs are outsourced. It is greed....not the public interest.
BrandGA Nickname posted 6 months ago
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Duopolies always look good on paper, especially to upper management but the real fact is that one station's brand will suffer and in the end be the red headed step child of the pair. Employees do not work more efficiently and the quality of news stories do not magically get better, in fact more errors are made that result in loss of income, agency confusion and client dissatisfaction. The FCC got it wrong when they allowed this to happen and unfortunately its too late to put that genie back in the bottle.
Kermitshouse Nickname posted 6 months ago
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How are some local stations supposed to survive as stand-alones in small to medium markets where the revenue has dried up? Do small markets really need 3 or 4 6 o'clock newscasts? The economics simply don't work. Without duopolies, those stations would go under.

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