WTVG’s Carey fed up with TV news

WTVG’s Carey fed up with TV news
Like many broadcast journalists in their late 20s/early 30s before him, Jim Carey came upon a crossroads and decided to explore a new career path.“I’m ready to try something else,” he said. “I think I’m a little burned out on the business.”TV news, he says, has become too predictable and relies too much on manufactured drama.“It’s like we [in the industry] make a big deal out of everything,” he said.When asked for an example, Carey did not hesitate. “The weather,” he said. “An inch or two of snow now isn’t what an inch or two of snow used to be.”
Jim Carey: WTVG reporter tired of "the daily grind" of TV news.
Zoom Carey, 31, wasn’t specifically criticizing his station – WTVG-TV, Channel 13, where he has spent the past 5½ years – but rather the market as a whole. (WNWO-TV, Channel 24, for example, upped the ante in August when it began branding itself as “Toledo’s Weather Station.”)While he understands news coverage – be it weather, school levies, or presidential visits – is often dictated by what the competition is doing, Carey believes in-depth features, which he considers to be his strength, are getting “squeezed out by stories that are controversial.” The situation is not unique to the Toledo market, he said.Carey’s contract expires at the end of the month. He and his wife, Gina, who works in a behind-the-scenes role at WTVG, plan to move to the state of Washington, where his parents and three siblings live, and conduct a job search from there. He would like to work in public relations in either Seattle or Portland, Ore.“I have a couple of irons in the fire,” he said. “I haven’t sent anything to television stations, but that doesn’t mean I won’t.”He said there’s only a 10 percent chance that he’ll stay in the TV news game. He was offered a one-year contract by WTVG, but turned it down. “I’m just tired of the daily grind,” he said.WTVG news director Brian Trauring acknowledged that constant deadlines take their toll. “There’s no question you have to have a lot of passion to be in this business,” he said. “Some people thrive on the daily deadlines; for other people, after a certain period of time, it becomes too much.”Carey admitted that losing his Saturday anchor position in early 2004 – when the station hired former WTOL-TV, Channel 11, anchor Bill Hormann – made him start contemplating his future in TV news. But the biggest factors, he said, were the desire to move closer to his family and the frustration over consultant-driven newscasts.EXPANDED ROLE: WNWO is using Tom Bosco as a “third anchor” for its 5 p.m. newscast, joining primary anchors Jim Blue and Jennifer Stacey, according to news director Jonathan Mitchell. He will be seen regularly in the 5:30 and 6 p.m. newscasts as well. Bosco is co-anchor of the station’s two-hour morning newscast.