The Detroit Free Press has formed a unique partnership with CBS-owned WWJ-TV, Channel 62, to launch a 5-7 a.m. weekday program that will offer heavy doses of weather and traffic updates, as well as news gathered by Free Press journalists.
The new program will be called "First Forecast Mornings" and will include Free Press Express news segments.
"We're more than a newspaper, we're more than a Web site. We're an information provider on many different channels, and television is just a natural evolution for us," said Paul Anger, Free Press editor and publisher. He added that the partnership with WWJ "is considered unusual, if not unique anywhere."
Mike Brookbank, who will anchor the Free Press news reports, said the program will break the mold of traditional TV broadcasts by offering smaller bits of news with more frequent weather and traffic reports -- information he said early risers with little time want.
Brookbank, a Free Press employee, said he'll deliver a summary of top headlines about every 15 minutes and will note how viewers can find more information at freep.com or in that morning's newspaper. He'll highlight exclusive Free Press investigations, news, community highlights and behind-the-scenes reporting from top sporting events.
With the new broadcast, WWJ and the Free Press will be entering a market with long-running news programs and aiming to sway viewers to a new broadcast.
"It is a challenge to get people to change their habits," Brookbank said. "You know that you have to deliver a product that people are looking for."
Paul Prange, director of programming and community affairs for WWJ, said the program will be tailored to the kinds of content people want most in the morning, including constant updates on road conditions with traffic reporter Randy Bhirdo and weather forecasts by meteorologist Lori Pinson.
"It's weather and traffic without waiting," Prange said. "We're really just trying to deliver the base information people need."
During the news segments, Brookbank will shift live at times to the Free Press newsroom via a webcam and talk to freep.com editors about the morning's developments and what readers are saying on the site.
As well, Pinson said she and Bhirdo plan to keep each update fresh and different as weather and traffic changes.
"We're just really preparing you for your work day," she said.
Paul Anger may be the only editor in America who is doing something other than cutting personnel. And to think that the Beacon rejected him in 1997.
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