Florida TV Station Gives a Web Name to New Morning TV Show

Being in Chapter 11 sure isn’t slowing down Tribune, including for two of the company’s South Florida properties: the Sun-Sentinel newspaper and the CW affiliate serving Miami/Ft. Lauderdale.

A year ago WSFL-TV moved in to the Sun-Sentinel newsroom. And the publisher of the newspaper added the title of general manager of the TV station. Now, as Broadcasting & Cable reports, the combined newsroom launching a morning news program that will air from 5am-9am called SouthFlorida.com/Live. The show’s rehearsals are being streamed on the show’s homepage right now with a launch set for Monday morning. Writes Michael Malone:

As the name indicates, the program will offer multiple interactive elements; viewers can interact with its hosts via text messaging, Twitter, Facebook, the phone or a real-time chat window on SouthFlorida.com. “We’re going to be where our viewers are,” says WSFL Miami Director of Local Programming Jose Suarez. “There are a lot of ways to engage our talent.”

This may signal what’s to come in other cities where Tribune owns a newspaper and TV station.

Ten days ago, Tribune announced it was merging TV and newspaper outfits in Hartford. It’s also planning to merge newsrooms at cable channel CLTV and WGN in Chicago. “This is the future of media,” Tribune COO Randy Michaels says. “Bringing these media properties together will enable us to bring more resources to our news coverage, improving and expanding what we can offer readers, viewers and advertisers in the area.”

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.