Category Archives: Broadcast

Forum Communications awarded rights to broadcast North Dakota high school activites

Posted on by
Reply

By Tom Mix

VALLEY CITY, N.D. – When TV viewers flip on the North Dakota high school state tournaments next year, they will see new faces in the broadcast booth.
After a three-decade long run of being televised on the North Dakota NBC Network, the broadcast rights for the state’s football, boys and girls basketball and boys and girls hockey state tournaments were officially awarded to Forum Communications in April.
Forum Communications, which owns ABC affiliates WDAY-TV in Fargo, N.D., and WDAZ in Grand Forks, N.D., has already started planning several parts to the upcoming broadcasts, the key one being on-air talent.
“The inner workings are certainly underway,” WDAY sports producer and assistant programming director Stacey Anderson said. “In house we have Dom Izzo and Jody Norstedt, who both have play-by-play experience and we have Pat Sweeney up in Grand Forks at WDAZ.
“We have pretty large stable of broadcasters that can do play-by-play. We are confident in the talent we have already in place.”

North Dakota High School Activities Association logo

The North Dakota High School Activities Association Board of Directors officially approved the television contract by a unanimous vote. The contract runs through the fiscal years of 2013-14 to 2017-18 and is worth $680,000.
The last time WDAY-TV broadcasted a NDHSAA state tournament event was 1982, however the station broadcasted the first three Dakota Bowl football championships starting in 1993 prior to that event being added into the NDHSAA television rights contract.
“These North Dakota High School Activities Association state tournaments are some of the top-tier events in North Dakota and we are really excited about having them and putting them on TV,” Anderson said.
“I think it’s a great day for the NDHSAA, WDAY, WDAZ and ABC sports in North Dakota.”
Anderson did not know how the tournament broadcasts would be split up among the on-air talent and said that could depend on which teams qualify for each tournament based on coverage-area regions.
Television stations KBMY in Bismarck, N.D., and KMCY in Minot, N.D., both ABC affiliates and owned by Forum Communications, will air NDHSAA state tournament programming in the western part of the state.
KBMY and KMCY do not produce live news broadcasts so highlights and pre-tournament team feature stories from teams in the west will be funneled to Fargo through several methods.
Anderson said a working agreement with CBS affiliates KXMB in Bismarck and KXMC in Minot will provide highlight footage from the western part of the state. Those stations as well as WDAY and WDAZ will produce features on select teams that qualify for the state tournaments.
WDAY-TV also broadcasts several Minnesota boys basketball section tournament games, which Anderson said the station plans on retaining.
One part of the contract that was discussed Tuesday was that the NDHSAA will not be able to allow other media outlets to televise or internet stream games during a Forum Communications state tournament broadcast.
Anderson said Forum Communications doesn’t recognize the NDHSAA as a media outlet, so as an association, it can stream footage of state tournaments to the Internet. However, it will not be able to hire another media outlet to produce those webcasts.
“That was a big thing for us,” NDHSAA board president Scott Ulland said of the web streaming flexibility. “We want to look into what else we can do for our patrons and our students in regards to webcasts.”

Tom Mix is a reporter at The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He can be reached at tmix@forumcomm.com or at 701.241.5562.

WDAY-TV, WDAZ, KBMY and KMCY and The Forum are all owned by Forum Communications Co. Forum Communications is a multimedia information company based in Fargo, and owns dozens of newspapers, websites and television and radio stations in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Forum Communications Co. taking newsgathering to new heights

Posted on by
Reply

Jim Manney (left), Forum Communications video manager, and Chris Dorsey, Forum Communications director of multimedia accounts and digital advertising, show the quadcopter, a remote-control aircraft, or drone, that was used for fly-over flood coverage. Photo by Rylee Nelson

By Rylee Nelson
Forum News Service

FARGO, N.D. – Forum Communications Co. has enlisted new aerial perspectives to provide its readers and viewers with over-the-top coverage of the 2013 Red River Valley flood.
Fly-over video captured by way of a remote-control aircraft, or drone, shows the swelling river from a unique angle. This unique approach to reporting the big story is now catching national attention.
In the past few years, high-definition, durable cameras have become increasingly available. And while the use of drones has been somewhat controversial in fields such as law enforcement, the devices are being used in a variety of ways — by outdoorsmen, extreme sports enthusiasts, and in this case, by news gatherers.
Chris Dorsey, director of multimedia accounts and digital advertising for Forum Communications, has been flying his quadcopter, mounted with a GoPro, high-definition video camera, to provide a unique view of the flooding. The idea began from a personal interest of Dorsey’s to simply fly remote-control aircraft. From there, he and Jim Manney, Forum Communications video manager, put together a plan to use the aerial machine for video on InforumTV.com, a video-focused news website owned by Forum Communications.
“The whole idea stems from the idea to take our viewers to a place they have never been. A place they couldn’t go,” Manney said.

Jim Manney (left), Forum Communications video manager, and Chris Dorsey, Forum Communications director of multimedia accounts and digital advertising, demonstrate the quadcopter, a remote-control aircraft, or drone, that was used for fly-over flood coverage. Photo by Rylee Nelson

The rather small idea has gained big attention from national audiences this week. Even the Weather Channel commented on how neat the idea was, Dorsey noted. Several national media outlets have contacted Dorsey and Manney to use the video in their own broadcasts.
For Dorsey and Manney, it’s a matter how far they can go to bringing new and unique perspectives to viewers.
“Video is such a huge part of where we are going … it is information for the public. This is evident in our investment in InforumTV,” Dorsey said, noting that the quadcopter may be used for other story coverage in the future, such as the Fargo Marathon or even a RedHawks baseball game.
Still, Dorsey and Manney say they are well aware of their boundaries when it comes to the use of the personal aircraft. To begin flying the device, they had to be in contact with the FAA to make sure they were following drone law. They also say they want to respect people’s privacy. You won’t find them flying over anyone’s fence.
Video of the Red River flooding is available on www.inforumtv.com.

Rylee Nelson is a Forum News Service reporter stationed in Fargo. He can be reached at rnelson@forumcomm.com.

InforumTV.com is owned by Forum Communications Co. Forum Communications is a multimedia information company based in Fargo, and owns dozens of newspapers, websites and television and radio stations in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Forum Communications Co. debuts video-only website InforumTV

Posted on by
Reply

Robin Huebner goes through a test run of an InforumTV webcast in the video studio of The Forum building in Fargo. InforumTV launched today at InforumTV.com. Photo by J. Shane Mercer / The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead

By Shane Mercer
FARGO, N.D. – The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead and WDAY-TV and radio today launched the InforumTV website with three live morning news webcasts anchored by Robin Huebner.
Plans are to eventually offer top-of-the-hour updates throughout the workday.
Huebner’s webcasts will air at 9, 10 and 11 a.m. Monday through Friday on Inforumtv.com. The site will also have the capacity to deliver news live from the field.
InforumTV will be a separate site from The Forum’s Inforum.com website, and focuses strictly on video.
There are plans to develop a morning show for InforumTV, said media manager Jim Manney, who heads up the video department at The Forum.
Manney said InforumTV will also produce and webcast live talk shows in the future.
“It’s a place for us to deliver news, information and entertainment to readers, viewers and listeners,” Manney said.
He has big dreams for the site.
“I can see it becoming, at some point, a 12-hour-a-day network,” Manney said. “It’s very ambitious, I know, but it’s something that I think will definitely happen over the course of the next few years.”
In addition to the live offerings, the site will be home to “the nearly 27,000 videos that Forum Communications Co. has shot,” Manney said.

Multimedia developer Ryan Babb works behind the boards in the video studio at The Forum building. Photo by J. Shane Mercer / The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead

Forum Communications is the parent company of The Forum, WDAY and other media outlets in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. New video from these various outlets will be added to InforumTV’s searchable archive as it is created.
“What we want people to do is explore; to jump on the website and search the stories that they’re interested in,” Manney said. “And we want you to kind of get lost and explore and have some fun and see what we have available.”
WDAY News Director Jeff Nelson said the site will enhance what WDAY.com is already doing.
“InforumTV is going to allow us another avenue to get those stories out to people,” said Nelson, who described it as “an opportunity for Forum Communications as a company to really go out and be everywhere with everybody.”
While The Forum has already been producing video for the Web, Forum Editor Matthew Von Pinnon believes the InforumTV venture marks a new emphasis on video newsgathering for the staff.
“If there’s a news event happening, we’ll bring it to people, and we’ll stream it, and we’ll show it,” he said. “It could be a press conference; it could be breaking news, fires, weather, whatever. We can be out in the field and sharing that information with people in real time.”

Bill Marcil Jr. publisher of The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead

Forum Publisher Bill Marcil Jr. sees InforumTV as a “big part” of the company’s future.
“We will still provide the very best platform for news and advertising with Inforum, but by separating the two, we will have a better user experience for the person that just wants video,” he said.
“We will provide not only news updates but local news stories, weather and original content with the ability to go live any time of the day or night,” Marcil said.

Shane Mercer is a reporter at The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, a Forum Communications Co. newspaper.

The Forum, WDAY-TV and InforumTV are all owned by Forum Communications Co. Forum Communications Co. is a multimedia information company based in Fargo. Forum Communications owns dozens of newspapers, websites and television and radio stations in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Bill Marcil Jr. named chief operating officer of Forum Communications Co.

Posted on by
Reply

Bill Marcil Jr. has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Forum Communications Co.

FARGO, N.D. – Bill Marcil Jr. has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Forum Communications Co., which publishes The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead.

Marcil will continue in his role as publisher of The Forum.

“The election of Bill as chief operating officer has been in our succession plans for a number of years,” said William C. Marcil, chairman of the board of Forum Communications Co.

“Bill is the fifth-generation publisher of the family-owned Forum,” he added. “The (Marcil) family’s committed to a locally owned newspaper company, and this succession will enable us to do that.”

Lloyd Case remains president and chief executive officer of Forum Communications.

Forum Communications Co. President and CEO Lloyd Case

The board also re-elected company vice presidents heading divisions:

- Paul Amundson, vice president of digital.

- Dennis Hall, vice president of commercial printing.

- John Hajostek, vice president of finance.

- Steve McLister, vice president of newspapers.

- Mark Prather, vice president of broadcast.

Dennis Hall

Paul Amundson

Steve McLister

John Hajostek

Mark Prather

As the diversity of divisions and delivery platforms indicates, “we’ll deliver the information any way the consumer wishes to receive it,” William Marcil said.

Forum Communications Co. is a multimedia information company based in Fargo. Forum Communications Co. owns dozens of newspapers, websites and television and radio stations in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Forum Communications Co. brings together entire sales force for continuing education

Posted on by
Reply

Forum Communications Co. sales representatives recently attended a daylong continuing education training course in Fargo. The goal was give each sales rep a competitive advantage in their market.

FARGO, N.D. – Forum Communications Co. brought together its entire sales force, including sales representatives from newspaper, broadcast and commercial printing properties, on three dates in early December for sales continuing education during the 2012 FCC Core Skills Workshop.

Dozens of Forum Communications sales reps participated in a full-day course that covered multiple aspects of sales training, with the goal being to give each sales representative a competitive advantage through knowledge of how FCC’s products and services are superior to others.

Lead Trainer Mary Altuvilla of People First Productivity Solutions, a Twin Cities consulting firm, led Forum Communications Co. sales representatives through the training.

The training was organized by Duluth News Tribune Ad Director Roz Randorf, and it was led by Mary Altuvilla, the lead trainer at People First Productivity Solutions, a Twin Cities consulting company.

“By enhancing the skills of the sales representatives,” Randorf said, “we will ultimately educate our customers about the advantages of selecting and using our products and provide them with a top-notch customer experience.”

Forum Communications Co. is a multimedia information company based in Fargo. Forum Communications Co. owns dozens of newspapers, websites and television and radio stations in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.