Exclusive: KREN Taps "Mr. Jerz" To Cover Blogs For Newscast

Apparently the Fourth Estate does extend to the blogosphere, as Reno blogger Ryan Jerz (aka MrJerz.org) has signed on as an on-air community correspondent for the new KREN-27 newscast debuting in December.

His beat? Blogging, of course.

"I love his writing style and I have a feeling that it will translate well into a television/web show format,” explained Kassata Edwards. The KREN anchor/producer said she first discovered Jerz from the recent Reno News & Review (RNR) article on area bloggers, followed his work and, impressed, then approached him.

"Was I surprised?" asked Jerz as he prepared to tape his first segment today. "Yeah, I was. At first, I thought it wasn't serious. I was a bit guarded, talked with Kassata, and decided I would go for it. The most trepidation came from the fact that I wasn't sure about being branded an 'expert.' They have framed it as me being a 'community correspondent,' though, which fits much better with my philosophy of bloggers being reporters of real news, not just commentators on real news."

Although blogging is a world-wide phenomenon (industry expert Technorati currently tracks over 57-million blogs, with the total doubling roughly every 236 days), KREN and its newest correspondent plan on looking to the North State first.

"My focus, if I can do it, will be entirely local," he hoped. "We have access here to city councilmen, legislators, lobbyists, and reporters. Bloggers using that accessibility have the opportunity to become just as relevant as the media companies around here."

With his views featured prominently in the RNR cover story and some well-known (at least in the Truckee Meadows blogging world) dust-ups with other bloggers over "honest discourse" and their sometimes suspect standards of reporting, one might be tempted to think controversy may always be lurking just around the corner. And you may be right, at least occasionally.

"It's been argued that communities thrive on controversy," said Jerz. "Communities may like controversy, but it ultimately dismantles the community. My initial response to this would be no, I will not court controversy. It serves no purpose for what I want to accomplish. But as I think about it, maybe it'll make it in some time. If the most important thing on the local scene is controversial, then it might get a mention."

In the end, though, it's about people becoming more involved in the process of discussion that the Reno blogger wants to foster with his reporting.

"I hope that as a result of me being on TV, more people start blogging and taking part in the conversation," Jerz told us. "Old media wasn't a conversation. It was people telling you what you needed to know. Now we have the ability for someone to pass information along, then others can get involved and make everyone taking part more knowledgeable as a result. I love that it's now recognized that groups hold more knowledge collectively than any one or two 'officials' or 'experts.' Society will be better off because of group knowledge. If I can play any role in fueling that here, I'll call it a success."

Reno TV Market To Gain New Local Newscast

Late-night news watchers will have one more choice come December as Reno's KREN-27 takes the plunge with its first entry into the local news market. And, you won't have to wait for the "News at Eleven" either.

Slated for a 10 p.m. start, the Pappas Telecasting station hopes to take advantage of the hour jump on the other newscasts in town. Plus, with the unique "community correspondent" as part of the regular telecast and webcast, KREN officials are hoping to develop a true local niche.

We caught up with anchor and executive producer Kassata Edwards for a quick email interview where we discussed the nuts and bolts of the broadcast as well as how the staff are hoping to reach a demographic not usually targeted by local newscasts -- the under-30 set.

I saw your webcasts, how long have those been airing?

“News Around The Clock”, our news webcast, has been airing for a week now. I’m anchoring two a day right now (11/15), around 4 p.m. and then an evening edition. By next week we’ll have three a day with the latest headlines, local and national.

When is the debut date of the over-the-air version?

Sometime in early December.

Thirty minutes or an hour?

An hour.

Any tag line (e.g., "Action News", "The news you can trust")?

Northern Nevada’s only primetime news.

Is it a full staff of weather, sports, co-anchor, etc.?

Yes, we’ll have two anchors, weather, a Technology segment hosted by myself, and community correspondents.

I'm assuming it's all local, not like Channel 11 taking San Francisco's KTVU feed.

That’s correct. We are extremely hyper-local, there’s nothing like us around right now. We have our hands in New Media ventures. Our station is state of the art and located in the Meadowood Mall.

I've seen KREN's community correspondent page. How big of a part will it play in the on-air program?

Our community correspondent page will play a huge part in our newscast. That’s a place where if you see something, you can take pictures/video, post it there and we’ll go on air with your story and give you the credit. It’s News of the People, By the People, and For the People. We also have “expert” community correspondents from the Reno community who will be in our newscast.

I'm guessing you are pretty excited about this, so what do you think KREN's newscast will offer that's different from the current local news (besides being the only real local 10 o'clock news)?

I’m super excited about KREN’s webcast and newscast. You don’t see media like this in Reno. Quite honestly, news here is boring, the local newscasts don’t pull me in to watch on a regular basis. Our news will be young, fast, and energetic!!