LA Anchor Suspended for On-Air Tribute to Fired (?) Colleague

[Mark Jeffries]

On Wednesday, Nexstar-owned LA CW affil KTLA said that weekend morning news co-anchor Lynette Romero had abruptly left the station after 24 years--on Saturday, her co-anchor Mark Mester did a five-minute tribute to Romero, strongly hinting that the station general manager was responsible for the insensitive way her exit was announced (a station-written item read by entertainment reporter Sam Rubin, no one else allowed to mention her name and no opportunity for Romero to give an on-air farewell)--management responded by suspending Mester for an unspecified period:

https://www.thewrap.com/ktla-mark-mester-suspended-lynette-romero-on-air-goodbye/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking_news_6997047

And there's your new owners, CW.

[Bob Jersey]

A media-watch site heard from "sources at KTLA," who said that the GM went in on Sunday to 'splain that Romero had another job offer, and that I'm not going to stand in her way... the newsroom was reportedly then treated to breakfast burritos...

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2022/9/18/ktla-makes-weekend-visit-to-the-newsroom (link)

B

[Mark Jeffries]

And KTLA has now fired Mester for his actions:

https://www.thewrap.com/mark-mester-fired-ktla-news-anchor-support-lynette-moreno/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking_news_7018797

[Kevin M.]

I cannot state what occurred with Moreno in her specific circumstance, but I can tell you that in general terms, the LA stations have all lowered the salaries of on-air staff to the point where it is no longer tenable to leave a mid-market station to go to LA. I liken it to schools across the country with salaries so low that veteran teachers won’t work there, so the faculty is made up almost entirely of first or second year teachers with little to no experience. 

Field reporters are traveling to scenes alone, setting up their own cameras and satellite hook-ups, often putting themselves at risk when covering stories in bad neighborhoods. The budgets are covering only what most people watch local news for: car chases and the weather (weather graphics are funded at great expense, not meteorologists). 

Fritz Coleman has a very industry specific podcast which is often very depressing to hear, but the comic turned former weatherman has guests from local media and it’s usually the same story retold. They used to have a budget, now they do not. If you aren’t willing to accept doing more work for less money, you’re out. 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Kevin M.]

Lynette Romero, aka the woman who left KTLA, will work mornings at NBC LA, aka KNBC. 

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/lynette-romero-joins-nbc4-as-anchor-for-today-in-la-morning-newscast/2993528/?fbclid=IwAR142NcP9V0V8naj47akkUccEbHafYNw56zgNWmMN5GOP0lNXvI1cByGdY4#l8knjl4t8d311pft5xm

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Steve Timko]

On Fri, Sep 23, 2022, 10:53 AM Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:

The budgets are covering only what most people watch local news for: car chases and the weather (weather graphics are funded at great expense, not meteorologists). 

In our market, the highest paid broadcaster is a weatherman, but that could be a small market phenomenon.

Newsroom downsizing was a theme of "Broadcast News" in the 1980s.