Let the Freelancer do it
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Will the Tegna buyouts have an impact on stations ratings?
Let's look at Tegna's KSDK in St. Louis. As FTVLive told you, station Weather Anchors Cindy Preszler and Mike Roberts both took the Tegna buyouts.
Some inside the station felt that both Anchors felt they had to take the buyouts, or both would have "been screwed" when their contracts came up.
So, between Preszler and Roberts, the two had a combined almost 40 years of experience between them.
So, where does the KSDK go from here?
The station does say that it plans to hire some new Weather Anchors, which will likely but much less experienced and a lot cheaper.
KSDK GM Marv Danielski says the bulk of the forecasting work will fall to the remaining KSDK meteorologists, Scott Connell and Jessica Quick.
Danielski said freelance meteorologist Ric Kearbey will continue to take shifts.
So you give up 40 years of experience and hand it off to a freelancer.
Welcome to the future of TV news folks.
