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Lori Matsukawa retires....

I was in Seattle last weekend and watched a little bit of the 5PM news on both KING and KOMO before heading back to LA.

I've thought the world of Lori Matsukawa and her skill as an anchor over the years. She was seamless no matter who she worked with ... from her years with Allen Schauffler on weekends to even more years working late nights (and more) with Dennis Bounds.

Ubiquitous on the evening KING 5 newscasts for more than 30 years, quietly biding her time waiting for Enerson to step down.

But she worked best in a traditional, hard news focused newscast. This is the KING 5 we knew and loved, but is not the KING 5 of today.

Her recent pairing with David Espinosa-Hall wasn't good. He was shown the door. Mark Wright is an extremely talented anchor, but their chemistry hasn't quite clicked.

As KING 5 gets softer and softer editorially under TEGNA guidance, Matsukawa has looked more uncomfortable on air.

She doesn't want to chit chat or do small talk, and it shows. If she's going to talk, she wants to be asking follow up questions to the reporters on air, and that's it.


On Monday, at around 5:10, they were in the newsroom with Michelle Li as she was going over some social media question and Mark and Lori were bantering back and forth with Michelle. It was a very strange segment to be in the first ten minutes of the 5PM flagship newscast, and the look on Lori's face was "god let's wrap this up and get on with the news."

And now, just a few days later, her retirement announcement. She's 62 ... you'd have to think she would have kept working a few more years ... but I suspect this is as good a time as any to move on for her.
 
KMan said:
It says in the announcement Joyce will be taking the slot.
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Sorry, I missed that. As for your 2nd post, I agree. Lori has looked uncomfortable for years. She is really a good talent. Too bad. KING continues to evolve...but not for the better.
 
So we know Joyce is moving to evenings but who would take her spot in the mornings? Could Mimi move from 7-9am to 4:30-7am and could Cam move from traffic reporter to 7-9 am? Or could they be searching for a replacement from outside?
 
Wishing Lori all the best. What a career! I can see why she wants to leave. Dennis was forced out, so was Jeff, she was left with Mark Wright and David Espinosa-Hall. KING has been a disaster since TEGNA bought out Belo. The move to SoDo has done nothing but push them into dead last. The classic objective of a news anchor is to REPORT. THE. NEWS. Don't be creeping onto Instagram to see who's been posting pictures, who's been tweeting on Twitter, who's 'trending' on whatever. Their recent approach just hasn't worked, and their competitors are laughing all the way to the bank.
Our Yakima stations while they suck as a whole, don't spend 10 minutes on social media 'trends.' We don't care, they don't either.
 
JoseRM303 said:
So we know Joyce is moving to evenings but who would take her spot in the mornings? Could Mimi move from 7-9am to 4:30-7am and could Cam move from traffic reporter to 7-9 am? Or could they be searching for a replacement from outside?
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My first thought was Mimi Jung sliding to 4:30am to 7am. and Cam taking over the 7-9am. However, I suppose they could hire someone new as well. Here in Phoenix, TEGNA recently added a morning anchor, Rachel MacNeil, from Houston. Oh yes, and there's Amity on the weekend mornings who could move into one of the spots...or they could try to hire Julie Francavilla back....I really miss seeing Julie on tv.
 
formeraa said:
My first thought was Mimi Jung sliding to 4:30am to 7am. and Cam taking over the 7-9am. However, I suppose they could hire someone new as well. Here in Phoenix, TEGNA recently added a morning anchor, Rachel MacNeil, from Houston. Oh yes, and there's Amity on the weekend mornings who could move into one of the spots...or they could try to hire Julie Francavilla back....I really miss seeing Julie on tv.
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I still remember when Joyce Taylor anchored both KING & KONG newscasts, 4:30-9. Possibility for Jung until Addrisi is moved in (with Whittenberg?), Addrisi and/or Misciagna.
 
KMan said:
Here's an article about Matsukawa's retirement:

https://www.vashonbeachcomber.com/n...lasting-legacy-on-asian-american-journalists/

It notes that she was offered the buyout package 2.5 years ago, but as had been reported on this forum, only one eligible person in each "category" could take the buyout. Dennis Bounds took it for the anchor category, so she had to keep working.
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Yep. And Lori's husband retired a year ago. So, it works out perfect for her!

For those who haven't watched it yet, there is a great youtube video linked off of KING5.com where Joyce "interviews" Lori about her life, career, and what she plans to do. It's a 30+ minute video, but it's well worth watching. And Joyce mentions jokingly that she has only been waiting 30 years for the evening anchor chair.
 
formeraa said:
Yep. And Lori's husband retired a year ago. So, it works out perfect for her!

For those who haven't watched it yet, there is a great youtube video linked off of KING5.com where Joyce "interviews" Lori about her life, career, and what she plans to do. It's a 30+ minute video, but it's well worth watching. And Joyce mentions jokingly that she has only been waiting 30 years for the evening anchor chair.
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Yes, I saw that. Lori is a class act.

But the bottom line is KING is not performing in ratings for the most part. They can show gains, but they can't show #1's in many dayparts. I still say compared to other Tegna stations of similar size, (Denver, for example), they look weak. Even Spokane's Tegna KREM looks better than KING does. What is the fix?
 
I watched the tribute KING5 did at 7PM Friday night on Youtube earlier this afternoon.

It was really well done and highlighted the amazing career she has had at KING. Had she been behind anyone other than Jean Enersen, she would have had a much longer run as lead anchor much earlier in her career. But she made the best of it.

While the special focused on her "special reporting assignments" we shouldn't forget about the years she spent as a general assignment reporter for KING. When she was weekend anchor in the 1990s, she reported for the evening news three nights a week (when she wasn't filling in at the anchor desk) on everything from politics to breaking news.

And through the 2000s, on any night Jean and Dennis were both working, she was a studio or breaking news reporter for the 5PM and 6:30PM newscasts. She was at her best doing breaking news from the field for the evening newscasts ... how many nights did Dennis or Jean toss to Lori "reporting live from SkyKing" high above something - a protest, a bad car accident, a flood, or whatever. And she'd give a report - concise but structured, and then toss it back to the studio.

Two other tidbits from the tribute I was unaware of...

When Lori first came to Seattle at KOMO, she anchored the first version of KOMO's morning news with, of all people, Tony Ventrella. I had always assumed she had just been a general assignment reporter at KOMO in those early days ... I'd never seen any footage of her tenure there. Also, I thought that Lynn Espinoza launched KOMO's first morning news program (Morning Express) a few years later in the mid 1980s and was unaware of this edition.

She also mentioned that in the mid to late 90s, she did have an offer from one of the networks to be an LA based national correspondent but turned it down as her husband was working at NWCN and her son was settled in at his elementary school. As we've often discussed around here, Seattle is(was) a destination for news talent, and many people, including Lori, have turned down higher profile national roles to stay in Seattle.

Really an incredible career.
 
KMan said:
When Lori first came to Seattle at KOMO, she anchored the first version of KOMO's morning news with, of all people, Tony Ventrella. I had always assumed she had just been a general assignment reporter at KOMO in those early days ... I'd never seen any footage of her tenure there. Also, I thought that Lynn Espinoza launched KOMO's first morning news program (Morning Express) a few years later in the mid 1980s and was unaware of this edition.

Really an incredible career.
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Yes, I remembered this KOMO newscast with Lori and Tony. IIRC, it was one of the first alternatives to KING 5 Morning News with Don Madsen and Larry Schick. It was a somewhat lighter newscast than KING, which made sense because GMA was lighter than the Today Show at the time.

Lori was a ground breaking anchor in Seattle. She will be missed. And see if this rings any bells to longtime Western Washington viewers: "Will the last longtime employee leaving KING 5 please turn out the lights?".
 
formeraa said:
Yes, I remembered this KOMO newscast with Lori and Tony. IIRC, it was one of the first alternatives to KING 5 Morning News with Don Madsen and Larry Schick. It was a somewhat lighter newscast than KING, which made sense because GMA was lighter than the Today Show at the time.

Lori was a ground breaking anchor in Seattle. She will be missed. And see if this rings any bells to longtime Western Washington viewers: "Will the last longtime employee leaving KING 5 please turn out the lights?".
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You may be rhetorical here but of course...someone put a billboard near Boeing Field in the early 70’s with that expression due to huge layoffs. Of course Seattle survived and thrived thereafter and KING likely will too but they definitely need new leadership and game plan.
 
With Lori's retirement, who's the longest tenured KING employee? Joyce? Rich? Glenn? In fact how many KING employees have been there over 20 years? My guess is it less than half of the current employees. Maybe that the same at the other three stations.
 
DMK said:
With Lori's retirement, who's the longest tenured KING employee? Joyce? Rich? Glenn? In fact how many KING employees have been there over 20 years? My guess is it less than half of the current employees. Maybe that the same at the other three stations.
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Joyce hasn't been at KING continuously.

I believe both Rich and Glenn started in 1986.


KIRO's vets - Raible, Horne, Porter all started before that in the early 1980s.

KOMO's vets - Pool, Eldridge and Connie Thompson also predate 1986.
 
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