Action in Jackson
Big changes over at WDBD Jackson. While reporting a story about WTVX West Palm grabbing TheLaw.TV recently, I saw that Leigh White was in the sales department at the Four Points Media station, not heading up Fox affiliate WDBD in the #90 DMA–as she’d been when B&C’s Market Eye “visited” Jackson for the first time in May.
Yesterday, the Mississippi newspaper Clarion-Ledger reported that the station, now owned by Jackson Broadcasting, and offshoot of upstate New York’s Roundtable Broadcasting, sacked 10 full timers and suspended the hours of several part-timers. New GM Marc Jaromin, who’s the Roundtable president, also put a weekend newscast on ice until further notice.
“This is nothing more than a right-sizing that’s in line with the industry at this time,” he told the paper.
The station plans to expand its “weekday product” and add an evening newscast “in the near future,” reports the Clarion-Ledger, who says Jaromin came on board late last week.
WDBD launched a 9 p.m. news in January.
Broadcasting & Cable Newsletter
The smarter way to stay on top of broadcasting and cable industry. Sign up below
Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.