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New WROC Website

B

Baldecki

Guest
Just wondering if anyone has gone to the WORC website lately. I hadnt but then i saw they changed it and its called "RochesterHomepage" now. Personally I think it is a horrible website. I go to websites for a quick look a news and weather, not to learn about rochester lol. I also find out odd the website was rolled out around the same time as WHAMS news, awesome, website. I thought a website like this was already tried in rochester and failed. When channel 13 had IKnowRochester.com, its like the same thing as channel 8 has right now but just a different name. IT obvivously didnt work with channel 13, so what makes channel 8 think it will work?
 
This website is clearly geared towards pushing ad revenue, rather than the station's news (or other on-air) product. They have it all wrong. People don't come to a website to see ads with a little bit of news. They visit news websites where they MIGHT click on an ad. Or they might not. But in the end, a news-dominant site builds your reputation with people and enhances your overall brand. That's always better in the long run than a quick ploy to make people think they're getting "legitimate" real-estate information or "real" financial advice, when you're really directing them to paying sponsors -- because most people are smart enough to know it's just a ploy.

At least when WOKR tried out iKnowRochester.com, the web was still a relatively "new" thing. Different TV stations, radio stations and newspapers were trying out all sorts of different ideas as they searched for the best way to transition their "traditional" offerings into the online world. Some ideas worked, others -- like that one -- did not. It's too bad the folks at WROC (or maybe Nexstar HQ) didn't consider that.

My prediction... they'll make a few quick bucks off this as the sales department is excited about it, and they trick clients into thinking the website overhaul will draw lots of traffic. And it may get attention from people checking it out. But the novelty will wear off, visitor numbers will go down, and eventually the station will go back to making it a "station" website rather than a "city portal" website. Two years or less.
 
Excuse me, but which new WROC website are YOU looking at?
Compared to the previous website, which posted only ONE NEWS story on it's home page, this new site has
SEVEN local news items posted!

I agree the grey blue colors gives it a dull look, and there are no pretty pictures or bios of the TV people for
the self absorbed tv fan to fawn over...but do not worry I am sure it will come in time.

I did like the look of the former WROC website a lot better than this one, and think it does need a lot of cosmetic improvements but atleast I don't have to click on the local news link anymore to get the top stories.
 
It's awful... it looks like they are trying to build some sort of community website, but people are fickle and know a shill when they see one. The D&C is trying to do something along the same lines, without understanding the first thing about building online communities. It reminds me of WXXI pledge drives during Red Dwarf, when a 60+ woman told viewers with a straight face, "don't be a smeghead, pledge now!" As if she had the first clue what she was saying....

Bloggers usually bore me to tears, but at least they get the concept of an alternative to mainstream media. Watching traditional corporate media try to hop the bandwagon is almost always laugh out loud funny.
 
It looks really bare to me. It doesn't promote the station or much of anything. Can't they get anything right?

WROC has been a joke for years, it's really sad.
 
This is a riot !

Phillip Dampier said:
It reminds me of WXXI pledge drives during Red Dwarf, when a 60+ woman told viewers with a straight face, "don't be a smeghead, pledge now!" As if she had the first clue what she was saying.
Click to expand...

I almost fell off my computer chair laughing out loud over this remark. How true it is that a few people who went before the cameras during pledge drives had no idea what the hell they were talking about. Over the past few years however the station is using more employees than they are "outsiders" just because of what you wrote.

I was fortunate and never had to do TV pledge drives (Personally I don't think the front office wanted me to and I wasn't about to volunteer either).

What I always found amusing is the concept of running alternative programs during fundraising drives. You know what I mean like the Rolling Stones. The idea was to get people who normally don't want public TV to see these programs and donate money. However you should have heard the phone calls I used to receive in the newsroom from regular viewers. They were PO that their regular shows were pre-empted for some guy who uses dish soap to get rid of bugs in the garden. Then, when the pledge drive is over and the station went back to its regular shows, those who watched the specials were upset that the Stones were not on.
I always sent the calls to the front office to let them handle it.

I know this response has nothing to do with Channel 8's website but I wanted to comment anyways. As for 8's website I saw it and was not impressed. But then again a number of media outlets have overhauled their websites in recent years and to me they seemed more geared towards featuring ads than information.
 
Re: This is a riot !

Mark Giardina said:
Over the past few years however the station is using more employees than they are "outsiders".
What I always found amusing is the concept of running alternative programs during fundraising drives. You know what I mean like the Rolling Stones. The idea was to get people who normally don't want public TV to see these programs and donate money.
Click to expand...
It is common for public stations to air special programming during pledge drives in place of the regular bevy of shows they normally air.
As for WXXI using their staff for pledge drives some of them don't do that bad of a job. Try adlibbing for ten minutes and see how difficult it is. The only person that forces me to use my TV mute button is when the station's manager is on. He sounds so stuffy and his voice reminds me of Thurston Howell III.
 
Mike Sheridan said:
It looks really bare to me. It doesn't promote the station or much of anything. Can't they get anything right?

WROC has been a joke for years, it's really sad.
Click to expand...

I agree. I went to the website to see the on-air talent, and there is no access to it. You really want your website to promote the station, and it doesn't do that. Channel 8 is seriously lacking in identity.
 
That is by far the worst TV station website I have seen, save for My39 in Burlington, Vermont and WUAB My43 in Cleveland, Ohio. At least there is a trace of a TV station on the WROC website. The WUAB website is pretty much a community portal with a single promo for the station on the bottom of the page. You can't even get a program schedule for WUAB from that site - you have to go to sister station WOIO's website to get that.

Anyways, about WROC...for starters, they could stand to put the WROC logo on the home page!
 
Nexstar did the same thing with the website for thier Wilkes-Barre/Scranton duopoly. The combined WBRE/WYOU website is called PA Homepage or something like that. It sucks just as bad, if not worse, than the new WROC website. Sook the Schnook strikes again. ::)
 
Forget the website; the real decline is the on-air product.

Biscuits McGillicuddy said:
Nexstar did the same thing with the website for thier Wilkes-Barre/Scranton duopoly. The combined WBRE/WYOU website is called PA Homepage or something like that. It sucks just as bad, if not worse, than the new WROC website. Sook the Schnook strikes again. ::)
Click to expand...
Why are people so concerned about Channel 8's webpage? Instead I would be more concerned about the decline of their news product. There was a time when the station had a group of professionals who actually went out and broke stories ahead of the competition. Now you just have a group of 20-something beauty queens, whose last gig was at a TV station in Podunk PA, who wouldn't know a story if it bit them in their collective rear ends. Add to that their Assignment Editor, if the station has one, doesn't think out of the box. Instead he/she picks up the morning faxes, sees what news conferences are being held that day, and chooses what assignments to hand out. I've given up on Channel 8. There is no hope for that station as long as Nexstar owns it. And even if another company came in and purchased Channel 8 the odds are they would continue to pinch pennies.
 
Did anyone notice the [EDIT] the D&C did for 8's new website in Sunday's paper?


[EDIT-offensive content]
 
Anyone who doesn't think a station's website is important just doesn't get it. More and more people are going on-line to get their news. If the site is an extension of the on-air product and it stinks--people will judge the entire station that way. As far as 8's site goes...it is not terribly suprising that it is that bad--their news product is also poor, and on the cheap. That entire station needs to just start over--top to bottom and figure out if they are serious about being a player--if they are serious about doing news, changes need to be made.
 
I haven't been watching WROC per say, but I have been watching their 10pm newscast on Fox 31 and I think they put on an entertaining and informative newscast (as compared to the 10pm news in Syracuse). Does the 10pm newscast suffer the same problems the 5pm, 6pm and 11pm news on WROC? Examples please.
 
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