BusinessReport.com

Todd Ross isn’t waking up at 2 a.m. any longer to co-anchor WBRZ’s popular 2une In morning newscast with Whitney Vann, but he’s still putting in long days at the local ABC affiliate. Ross has been promoted to fill the newly created position of assistant news director and is also pulling double duty anchoring the station’s 4 p.m. newscast.

It’s quite a change for Ross, who joined the Channel 2 staff in 2000, but it’s a move the 35-year-old newsman has been anxious to make.

“I’m really interested in management and hope to be a news director some day,” Ross says. “So when this opportunity became available, I jumped at the chance.”

Ross’ promotion comes as the station is exploring new ways to expand its audience through the Internet and WBTR, the local cable channel it just acquired. Station Manager Rocky Daboval says WBRZ is planning to provide current local information and programming on the new station once the transition is complete this summer.

How much of that content will come from existing WBRZ staff and how much will come from new talent remains to be seen. What is clear is that having another manager in the newsroom will give the station more opportunity and flexibility.

Taking Ross’ place behind the morning desk is veteran newsman John Pastorek, who had been anchoring weekends. Ross, meanwhile, is keeping his on-air presence by replacing anchor Michael Marsh, who has a full plate anchoring the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts.

While the on-air changes at Channel 2 may be the most visible, there have been changes behind the scenes as well. The station recently restructured its sales and management duties, promoting veteran sales rep Steve Storey to the position of sales manager. Storey has been with WBRZ for 25 years and has played an integral part of many special WBRZ sales projects.

DOTD launches ad campaign

Speaking of local airwaves, if you’ve wondered what’s up with the recent spate of ads dealing with traffic safety, they’re part of a DOTD public-service campaign.

In case you’ve missed the TV spots, they’re folksy 30-second commercials that cover vague, traffic-related topics like pedestrian safety and the importance of observing traffic signals. DOTD launched the campaign last month and is quick to point out that the money to produce the spots didn’t come from the department’s limited pool of highway maintenance and construction dollars. Rather, it was courtesy of the Federal Highway Administration, which was practically giving away $500,000 grants to states that promote traffic safety.

“If we had not taken advantage of it, we wouldn’t have gotten that money, so it made sense to take advantage of it,” DOTD spokesman Mark Lambert says.

Local advertising agency The Graham Group certainly thinks so. It won the hefty contract to produce the campaign, which consists of print ads and six 30-second commercials, each of which will air one month for the next six months.

Publication targets aging boomers

A new publication targeting baby boomers is showing up in select mailboxes this week. Called Savvy and Sage, it’s the latest of dozens of local lifestyle magazines to try to make it in the Baton Rouge market.

The 36-page bi-monthly made its Baton Rouge debut this month and is the brainchild of Shreveport businessmen Greg Locke and Matt Cohn, a Baton Rouge native and LSU grad. They’re basically franchising the magazine they launched in Shreveport last summer. It took off there and later in Dallas, where its thick, glossy pages and full-color ads appealed to the “retirement set” the publishers are targeting.

All three magazines will share the same editorial content, with only about 10% of the articles pertaining to local topics. All the ads, however, will be local.

The publication is starting out with a circulation of 16,000. But if you’re not in the target demo, you might have a hard time finding one: More than two-thirds of the magazines are going directly to select homes, with only 5,000 going to racks in local coffee shops and stores.