Late Pacers slump didn’t slow season-ticket renewals
The season-ticket renewal rate for next season is around 93 percent, and season-ticket sales are 15 percent ahead of last season, said Todd Taylor, the team’s chief marketing and sales officer.
Communications
Articles
Radio personality Vaughn files suit against WTLC parent
Kelly Vaughn alleges in a federal discrimination lawsuit that Radio One showed preferential treatment to male co-worker Amos Brown by firing her but retaining him after they worked on an outside project.
North Central grad returns to anchor WTHR weekend news
Naomi Pescovitz will helm the Saturday and Sunday editions of “News Sunrise,” beginning July 9.
Author John Green sees earnings boost as movie debut nears
Indianapolis author John Green has sold more than 10.7 million copies of his novel “The Fault in Our Stars,” suggesting royalty earnings of more than $6 million, before the movie deal and merchandise sales.
State courts to switch to e-filing system in 2015
Officials soon will seek competitive bids for a single statewide e-filing manager. Paper records likely will be phased out so clerks won’t be burdened with overseeing two filing methods.
Lawyers fret over enforcement of advertising rules
Indiana attorneys stay up at night worrying that their ads will run afoul of state rules that they consider unclear and unevenly enforced. But there’s a solution in the works.
Sponsor logos creep into local TV newscasts
The increasingly common move to help generate more revenue further lowers the traditional barrier between news and advertisers. Marketing experts say the value for sponsors is questionable.
Angie’s List namesake extends company brand with nationwide how-to segments
Chief Marketing Officer Angie Hicks-Bowman spends an hour and a half each month recording consumer-advice segments hat are downloaded by more than 100 television stations around the country and incorporated into their own consumer news segments.
Lilly’s latest sales strategy: the soft sell
Eli Lilly and Co. thinks it has a secret weapon to return to growth. No, it’s not a new blockbuster drug—although Lilly will most likely have several new products hit the market this year and next. Rather, it’s an unorthodox, softer approach put into play by its U.S. sales force.
Small biz program to tackle lack of Web savvy
The program Fight for Small will teach Indiana business owners how to wield social networks, customer review websites and the rest of the Internet to their advantage.
Chief of staffing company becomes Angie’s chairman
John Chuang, co-founder and CEO of Boston-based Aquent LLC, fills the role of retiring Angie’s List director Keith J. Krach of California, who is CEO of DocuSign.
Command center being built at WRTV will run 19 stations
Media giant E.W. Scripps is building a multimillion-dollar master control facility at its WRTV-TV Channel 6 that will control all 19 of Scripps’ U.S. television stations. The control hub will bring about 10 additional jobs to WRTV’s 1330 N. Meridian St. campus.
WXIN-TV ups ante in local news arms race
Fox59 now faces the challenge of filling airtime for two new newscasts, and the question of whether viewers even notice or care about repetition across shows.
Alcohol industry fights teen drinking
“We don’t serve teens” is underwritten by the Wine & Spirit Distributors of Indiana, Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers, Indiana Licensed Beverage Association, Indiana’s Budweiser Wholesalers and the Indiana Restaurant & Lodging Association.
WRTV scores big in broadcast awards
The ABC affiliate has been on a roll since new owner E.W. Scripps began making desperately needed investments in news and other operations. Scripps bought WRTV and eight other McGraw Hill stations in 2011.
Emmis mag sues New York Times over editor hire
Texas Monthly, the award-winning magazine owned by Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications Corp., says the Times hired away its top editor to join the newspaper’s magazine division before his contract expired.
Bloomington brewer taps Indy ad firm, French designer to recast beer labels
Upland recently hired Indianapolis ad agency Young & Laramore to help streamline and unify its varied packaging themes.
Colbert to replace Letterman in late-night slot
The Comedy Central star will take over for the Indianapolis native on CBS, dumping his phony conservative persona for an approach with wider appeal.
Hip-hop still on top, but Emmis crowds next spots
Three Emmis Communications Corp. stations in February were near the top in local radio ratings, behind only Radio One’s No. 1 rated WHHH-FM 96.3, in the broad category of listeners age 6 and up.
Stations take news wars into wee hours
WTHR-TV Channel 13 recently stole a page from WXIN-TV Channel 59’s winning playbook by adding a 4 a.m. newscast. WXIN pioneered the ultra-early trend locally in 2009. But with a second station now on at 4 a.m., who is watching television at that hour?