Confirmed: WBRE/WYOU loses VP
Beale's Bites has confirmed that John Dittmeier is no longer vice president at Nexstar's WBRE/WYOU duopoly. Well-placed sources say employees were called into the newsroom, as news director Ron Krisulevicz read a memo stating Dittmeier was gone. Whwther he was fired or not is unknown, so e-mail me if you know. Tim Busch, a senior VP at Nexstar, has replaced Dittmeier for now.
Dittmeier's departure comes after several recent high-profile firings and resignations at the duopoly. From WBRE, weather forecaster Vince Sweeney and sports anchorman Jason Knapp were fired. WYOU anchorwoman Diane Lee and sports anchorman Sid Michaels both resigned to take other jobs.
Several tipsters have previously said Dittmeier was initially brought to Wilkes-Barre to improve morale. After the past few months, it looks like he failed.
Dittmeier's departure comes after several recent high-profile firings and resignations at the duopoly. From WBRE, weather forecaster Vince Sweeney and sports anchorman Jason Knapp were fired. WYOU anchorwoman Diane Lee and sports anchorman Sid Michaels both resigned to take other jobs.
Several tipsters have previously said Dittmeier was initially brought to Wilkes-Barre to improve morale. After the past few months, it looks like he failed.
posted by Howard Beale at 8:10 PM
27 Comments:
Behind his Beaver Cleaver grin, the truth is John Dittmeier is mean-spirited and not too bright. He's a bean counter, not a broadcaster, and he never connected with (or even took the time to know) his staff.
Now that his reign of "error" is over, the question that remains is whether 28 and (especially) 22 have the resiliance and the resources to move forward.
A great many good people have been hurt and shoved aside, and for what?
Nothing like a clean house...
Improve morale? Are they kidding? This guy didn't even come down to the other floors. He had NO concern for any employees and was the worst GM I ever worked for and believe me, I worked for some bad ones. I don't think he ever met or knew 90% or more of the employees there.
Improve morale? Are they kidding? This guy didn't even come down to the other floors. He had NO concern for any employees and was the worst GM I ever worked for and believe me, I worked for some bad ones. I don't think he ever met or knew 90% or more of the employees there.
Tim Busch, Acting GM? Did you ever meet Tim Busch?
BUSCH: "I'm Tim Busch, rush chairman, damn glad to meetcha."
BOONE: "That was Tim Busch, rush chairman, he's damn glad to meetcha.
An empty-suit salesman.
What's the official word out of Nexstar? What line are they feeding the employees? How's morale now?
Improve morale? I was there under both Larry and John- Larry ALWAYS said hi and was pleasant. I would walk by John and he would never even pick his head up to say hi.
I'm so glad I got out of there when I did. Too many good people have been hurt- I hope they get rid of more of the trash there.
Is there a GM on the 22 side of things these days? And what impact might this have on Randy Williams?
What about that joke Randy Williams, he SHOULD be next to go flying out the door.
Is WBRE is going down the same road as the Planters Peanuts building? Tear it down and rebuild from the ground up. That's all folks!
Larry may have said hello to his people, but he didn't know who any of them were. When I was at WBRE, I saw Larry in the newsroom twice in two years. Ditt is/was the same way. Good riddance to both of those losers.
They chased out Diane Lee and Sid Michaels...who's next? I feel sorry for poor Candice Grossklaus and this Eric Sheiner fellow.
Poor guy does not know what he is getting himself into! When it comes to Diane Lee, she had been looking for months. She's the smartest one of the bunch to jump ship.
Poor Sid, they kept him in the dark for so long. If I were him, I'd have been looking long ago, like Diane was.
Now all they need is a new operations manager that actually does some kind of work, and they'll be set!
4:29pm:
Randy has over 20 years in the business, and is doing very well.
How many years did you have before you washed out ? Loser.
According to the TL "Dr Phil" is also leaving WBRE -- 28 was outbid by the folks at FOX56
John Dittmeier was a guy who really cared about his people. He never had a bad word to say about anyone and i for one will miss him!
Fired is the word I heard.
How many times did you guys from news go up to say hi to people in sales?? It works both ways, you know. Everyone there has a job to do, and if they are doing what they are supposed to, they don't float around to other departments for chit-chat. John was there at all hours working... he was always polite and friendly to me, and took much time and concern with me if I ever had any issues. And before you all jump to conclusions... I was not a manager, just a simple Nexstar peon. Good luck to John. It seems Nexstar corporates will cut ANYBODY down!
Good riddence John D! You were nothing but a corporate puppet. You were two-faced to your employee's and your wife thought she was entitled to special priveleges. I saw it personally.
After what they did to Diane Lee and now, poor Sid Michaels, I really don't care if they fired Dittmeier or if he left on his own.
They should keep the on-air talent and replace EVERY manager. Then, and only then will they be able to fix the problems. The on-air talent and production employees need to have a better deal than to put up with inept and inconsiderate management.
"Channel 50" has less of a family feel, less of a shared purpose than anyplace I've ever worked.
The turnover is constant, and no one is ever introduced around the building. I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone in the hallway or the lobby and had to ask "Does HE work here?"
8:59PM obviously worked on the third floor. John Dittmeier was never in the newsroom and didn't know the names of 99% of the off-air people.
Throwing a couple of parking lot picnis every summer (and forcing people to attend) doesn't build teamwork or foster unity among total strangers.
A few random thoughts here. What did they "do" to Diane Lee that they didn't do to everyone else? She left of her own free will, which was a very smart move. Sid was cooked, he knew it, and started looking. He got lucky. Good.
Dittmeier's firing should give everyone on this blog(and in the community)an excellent idea just what the hell Nexstar is all about. Dittmeier's a boob, one who they used as a fool to do some dirty work. Clearly, firing and forcing out those who were was not his idea, it came from corporate, and all the while corporate knows he's about to be set out with the trash within a few weeks. Nice outfit, don't you think?
Oh, and big money says Krispy knew all about it all along. Just so we don't miss any of the players here, let's ID corporate as Sook, Busch, and the new corporate ND, Chris Manson, who is the architect of this mess. Can't wait for that November book.
John Dittmeier was a guy who really cared about his people. He never had a bad word to say about anyone and i for one will miss him!
I'll give you one thing, you got guts. That aside, my suggestion is that you adjust the dosage, you're getting too much of the punch in your system. Ditty was a typical Nexstar suit; empty, heartless, bottom-line only.
I DID work on the third floor...and as I posted previously, the guy could never look me in the eye- would never say hi to me at all...
What goes around, comes around...
Quite frankly no one really cares what you think.
Hey, genius, you care, you cared enough to come here and challenge those comments. Fool.
Hey, Denis, here's the deal; a fake name is about the same as staying anonymous, get it? You mention slackers - that outfit is full of slackers, and it ain't the slackers' fault, the fault lies entirely with guys like Dittmeier, who Nexstar just seems to love, if only for brief periods of time. He sucked, he was disliked, accept it. Oh, let's address those picnics of his. Most employees HATED, HATED them. They referred to them as "Dumpster Dives." Why? Fercrissakes, most of the cooking/eating was within six feet of the parking lot dumpster. Yeah, that's really smooth. Nexstar is poison, and Ditty brought his portion of poison to WBRE/WYOU. He needs to do some soul searching.
"Denis" said...
Being a manager is a tough and often thankless job
What job nowadays isn't?
If you're a manager, your job is to handle both the buisness AND people. That's what you get for the title and significant bump in pay. If you ain't a people person, you ain't doing your job. Even the worst (like some at Nexstar) will pawn off the trivial matters of personnel to middle managers. Employees need to have an ear to bend in management. Otherwise they spend all their time on blogs.
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