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Scripps stations, news service establish TV bureau to cover conflict with Iraq

March 17, 2003
 

CINCINNATI – The E. W. Scripps Company’s broadcast television group and the Scripps Howard News Service have established a news bureau to provide the 10 Scripps television stations and their viewers with live coverage of the conflict with Iraq. The Scripps TV news bureau is located in the news service’s Washington D.C. headquarters and is coordinating television coverage by Scripps broadcast and print journalists who are on assignment in Washington and in the Gulf region of the Middle East. The goal in establishing the bureau is to take full advantage of news reports and editorial resources that Scripps newspapers and television stations have dedicated to cover the conflict.Television reporter Tim Malloy and photojournalist, Eric English, both from Scripps-owned WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach, Fla., are covering the conflict for the Scripps station group. They are with the U.S. Army’s 416th Engineering Battalion in Kuwait near the Iraqi border.The television bureau also is coordinating telephone reports and the routing of still photographs to Scripps television stations from Scripps Howard News Service war correspondent M.E. Sprengelmeyer and photographer Todd Heisler. Sprengelmeyer and Heisler are reporting from the Middle East for the 21 Scripps daily newspapers and about 400 other news service clients nationwide. The Scripps newspaper division has 11 reporters and photographers in the Gulf region. All are filing stories and photographs for Scripps newspapers, television stations and Web sites.”We’re committed to expanded news coverage of the developments here in Washington and overseas,” said John Lansing, senior vice president/television for Scripps. “The new television bureau gives our stations the ability to provide our viewers with the best possible coverage of the events unfolding in the Middle East.”Peter Copeland, editor and general manager of the Scripps Howard News Service, said creation of the television bureau enhances the news service’s coverage of the growing tensions in the Gulf. “Helping coordinate coverage for our television stations expands the news service’s ability to tell the stories that matter to the people back home,” said Copeland. “This is the same news organization that sent Ernie Pyle off to war. Now, with coordinated television coverage, we’ve added another dimension.”Vicki Montet, previously news director for WSOC-TV, the Cox-owned television station in Charlotte, N.C., has been brought on board by Scripps to coordinate, consult and oversee the operation of the Scripps TV news bureau. Scripps broadcast journalists are using the latest television news technology to file live reports from the Gulf, including video satellite phone. CNN, which has an agreement with Scripps, has been instrumental in helping move the live reports from Kuwait to the Scripps television stations. The Scripps stations – six ABC, three NBC and one independent – are concentrated in the top 50 market and reach 10 percent of U.S. television households. The Scripps station group includes WXYZ-TV, Detroit; WEWS-TV, Cleveland; WCPO-TV, Cincinnati; WMAR-TV, Baltimore; WPTV-TV, West Palm Beach, Fla.; WFTS-TV, Tampa, Fla.; KNXV-TV, Phoenix; KSHB-TV, Kansas City, Mo.; KJRH-TV, Tulsa, Okla.; and KMCI-TV, Lawrence, Kan.Besides broadcast television stations and newspapers, The E. W. Scripps Company has interests in national television networks, interactive media and television retailing. Scripps operates four cable and satellite television programming services and a home shopping network. All of the company’s media businesses provide content and advertising services via the Internet.Scripps Networks brands include Home & Garden Television, Food Network, DIY — Do It Yourself Network and Fine Living. Home & Garden and Food Network each can be seen in about 80 million U.S. television households. Scripps Networks is home to three of the Internet’s most popular Web sites – foodnetwork.com, hgtv.com and diynet.com. Scripps Networks programming can be seen in 25 countries. The company’s home shopping subsidiary, Shop At Home Network, markets a growing range of consumer goods directly to television viewers and visitors to the Shop At Home Web site, shopathometv.com. Shop At Home reaches about 46 million full-time equivalent U.S. households.In addition to the Scripps Howard New Service, Scripps also operates United Media, which is the worldwide licensing and syndication home of PEANUTS and DILBERT.