I know I’ve already blogged about this so I’ll keep it short and sweet. The January sweeps television ratings came out this week, and once again WJZ (Baltimore’s CBS affiliate) is riding high with the No. 1-rated nightly newscast.

WJZ’s 11 p.m. newscast drew a household rating of 8.8, while WBAL (Baltimore’s NBC affiliate) drew a 6.7. (ABC affiliate WMAR drew 2.2 for its late night newscast and FOX affiliate WBFF drew a 4.4 for its 10 p.m. newscast.)

After this fall’s experiment, Jay Leno will soon be off the air at 10 p.m., but the damage has been done. Compare WBAL’s 6.7 with what it drew last May, when it was the No. 1 nightly newscast: then, the station had a 10.2 rating. WJZ had a 9.7.

Now the real recovery test for NBC affiliates starts when the network broadcasts the Winter Olympics beginning next week. Jordan Wertlieb, WBAL’s president and general manager, told me during an interview last month he believes NBC has the ability for a quick turnaround.

“We’re glad to see they’ve been reactive to local stations,” he said at the time. “Of course we always hope the rating goes back up.”

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I imagine executives at The Baltimore Sun will be watching this one.

In newspapers’ ongoing battle in the digital era, The New York Times is biting the bullet and will be the first major daily to charge for frequent access to its Web site. The paper is rolling out the plan in early 2011 and plans to allow non-subscribing visitors to the site a certain number of free articles per month. After that, you have to pay for site access for the rest of the month.

We don’t yet know how many articles will come for free and how much the access will cost, but The Times is the first paper in the nation to try this model. I imagine it’ll be watched closely by other major papers around the country as everybody is struggling with how to keep afloat in this business.

Back in the olden days, advertising was easily most newspapers’ top revenue stream while subscriber fees typically paid for ink and paper. But over the last decade subscriptions have fallen as readers have found they can get basically the same content online. And over the last couple years (thank you Recession of 2008), advertisers have practically fled the market.

Solutions over the last year or so have included, layoffs, redesigns, printing on fewer days, going to online only. Remember the Baltimore Examiner? Remember when The Sun was thicker? Those days are gone and as The Times tries to forge ahead, I wonder who will follow.

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There’s no need to rehash the Tiger Woods saga of the last two weeks — unless you’ve been living under a rock since Thanksgiving, you know about the golf pro’s transgressions that have been causing a media circus for 14 days and counting.

But since we’re all about the money here, I will rehash what’s been going on with Woods’ sponsors. Early on in Tigergate, a handful of his sponsors including Nike, Procter & Gamble’s Gillette and videogame maker EA Sports came out with statements of support for Woods and said their thoughts were with his family.

But then came the parade of mistresses. At last count there were at least seven but that still appears to be a growing figure. And along with that, sponsors have fallen silent. Well, all except for PepsiCo, which claims its recent decision to drop a Gatorade product named for Wood’s wasn’t related to the scandal.

Riiiiight.

I talked to Baltimore ad firm TBC‘s Howe Burch this week about the potential sponsor fallout from Tigergate and he says this is only the beginning. Burch takes issue with those who say Woods’ transgressions have made him seem more human.

“I find that to be a misguided perspective on the whole thing,” said Burch, a former marketing executive with Fila and Reebok. “Tiger was affiliated with big blue chip brands and any brand that is successful is built on a foundation of trust…Tiger has violated their trust. They did not sign up for someone who is duplicitous.”

Burch said other examples this year like Michael Phelps getting caught smoking pot or Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino admitting to an affair don’t even come close to the damage Woods is causing to his once-untouchable image.

“[Phelps] certainly violated that trust with his sponsors but not nearly to the egregious extent that Tiger did,” he said. “Tiger has been unfaithful but not as a single instance. There’s a pattern here of purportedly nine or 10 girlfriends over 10 years marriage. It’s not as if he made a mistake — the guy has…violated his marriage vows. I think that’s a lot more sacred than a 23-year-old kid who gets caught doing what a lot of other 23-year-old kids do.”

USA Today reported this week that no commercials featuring Woods have appeared on prime-time TV — cable or broadcast — since two days after Woods’ accident. The last commercial was a 30-second Gillette spot featuring Woods and New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter and aired during NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Before the incident, that commercial had aired eight times in November alone.

Burch also noted the argument can be made that Woods’ sponsors who make men’s products will stick by the golfer because their market may not find his transgressions as offensive as others. However, he said, guess who does most of the shopping for men? Yup — women.

“My wife was a big Tiger fan and she is absolutely disgusted by his behavior and doesn’t want to have anything to do with him or a brand he represents,” Burch said. “I think people need to be more aware it’s not just men who need to be considered.”

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Owens is also the host of Baltimore’s longest running Public Affairs show, 2 The Point.

After longtime reporter (and recently turned anchor) Terry Owens announced he would be leaving WMAR, the station is in the interesting position of not having an anchor from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. in less than two weeks. (Hat tip to David Zurawik for breaking the news.)

Owens is the second anchor to take a buyout at the station after Mary Beth Marsden took one last week. Her last day is Dec. 2.

Station vice president and general manager Bill Hooper said the station is not revealing who has taken a buyout until they are final, but he did say the two anchors are the only ones that have “signed the paperwork” for a buyout. The buyouts began this fall and close in a couple weeks (Hooper would not be more specific).

Owens has been the anchor of the 5:30 p.m. nightly newscast for the last two years and a reporter for the 11 p.m. broadcast. He has been with the station for 15 years. Marsden anchored the 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts and has been at the station for 21 years.

Hooper said Channel 2 would not be ready to announce their replacements until the buyout period is over. He said those who sign the buyout paperwork now still have the chance to change their minds before the period’s close.

“All that creates lots of moving…parts,” Hooper said. “We certainly have a plan. We want to move forward but didn’t want to announce anything until we’re done with that. Because, for example, Terry moving, that makes us move to plan ‘A,’ number two.”

And on top of the overhaul, WMAR’s ratings have been consistently in the bottom tier of Baltimore’s four network affiliates. But — aside from the sentiment of it all — I wonder how much two anchors leaving will matter in the grand scheme of things?

In this climate where viewer loyalty is slipping and ratings are becoming more dependent on the primetime lead-in to the newscast, I don’t know if any fewer people would watch WMAR after this month than they do now. But maybe the station can use it as an opportunity to rebrand itself with fresh faces and an aggressive marketing campaign.

But then again, buyout season usually means a business doesn’t has oodles of resources to spend on that kind of promoting. Will WMAR seek to make a big splash or just work on getting by?

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Oprah Winfrey may be off broadcast airwaves next year, but her next venture into cable makes Silver Spring-based Discovery Communications Inc. a big winner.

Winfrey’s announcement last week that she would be ending her talk show after 25 years next year rocked not only audiences but entertainment industry as a whole. As one of the biggest brands of our time, Winfrey’s incredible ability to zap through filters and make her audience and talk show guests feel as if they are best friends, is part of what’s created her unstoppable appeal over the years.

Starting in 2011, Oprah’s new media life will be running her “own” network in a joint venture with Discovery. The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) will debut next January to approximately 80 million homes on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel. The venture also will the Web site, Oprah.com.

“There is no bigger brand in media than Oprah Winfrey,” David Zaslav, Discovery Communications president and CEO, said in a statement. “She has changed the broadcast landscape and how people consume television…Discovery Communications has a tremendous partner in Oprah, and we look forward to bringing her and her creative vision, programming and unique voice to…OWN.”

Yeah, I bet they do. Discovery has grown over the years from a documentary-based network to the creator of original programming and now operates 10 cable networks in the U.S. TLC and the Discovery Channel are the most watched, with Discovery ranking as the 14th most-watched cable network this year and TLC ranking 18th. Over the years Discovery has attempted to ramp up its Health Network programming and branding to appeal to a wider audience but it’s mostly medical-based shows only capture so much audience attention.

Re-branding the network as OWN could revolutionize that part of Discovery’s business. We don’t yet know if Winfrey plans on having a talk show on the network, but a statement from Harpo Productions seems to indicate that will be the case.

And if Discovery is the big winner here, surely the losers are local affiliates that air Winfrey’s syndicated talk show (in Baltimore that’s NBC affiliate, WBAL). Winfrey’s 4 p.m. show leads right in to local newscasts at 5 p.m. The effect may not be as great as the Leno Effect during primetime, but stations must be concerned.

What do you think of Winfrey’s move? Who is the biggest winner?

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I found this video while trying to confirm the details of a story I wrote the other day about Baltimore developer Pat Turner. Turner turned out to be the highest-profile witness called by the prosecution in the trial of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon. Turner, the state said, gave Dixon gift cards meant for the needy, and Dixon used them for her own personal uses. Earlier this week, the prosecution described a close relationship between the mayor and Turner’s wife, Jeanine, who first met at a real estate conference in Las Vegas. Then on Thursday, during closing arguments, the prosecution described Turner as a “matter-of-fact man” who tells the truth and keeps meticulous financial records. As it turns out, Turner’s photographer wife Jeanine, is also fairly matter-of-fact.

The above video was posted as a teaser to a photography exhibit Jeanine had at SubBasement Gallery in Baltimore. Taking us through her artwork, she starts by saying flatly,

“Hi, I’m Jeanine Turner, and I’m an artist”

She goes on to describe how she became an artist, starting with a little pocket digital camera that her husband bought her, and upgrading to better and better cameras, which she used to photograph Silo Point, her husband’s luxe condo project in Locust Point:

About six years ago, my husband bought me a camera. A little digital camera, something you can stick in your  purse. And I loved it. I took pictures of everything, but mostly my drunk girlfriends. And anyway, so from that, he, the next year for Christmas he brought me another camera, and then the next year he bought me then another camera, and another one and another one, I mean, he just every year I got a better camera, and I was very excited. So then he bought this amazing building. It is a grain silo, and it is in Baltimore, and I started taking pictures of it.

The rest of it is just as good. As we await the jury’s verdict, I encourage you to enjoy this.

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So how bad is Jay Leno’s new show? It’s so bad, a broadcast consultant told me he’s been calling local stations to try and assuage their fears about ratings. (In my story on television news, I wrote about the “Leno Effect” — his show’s poor ratings are hurting the 11 p.m. local television newscasts that follow.)

It’s so bad, the best draw his show could get last week was 5.8 million viewers last Tuesday. Last Monday’s show was the worst of the week, drawing just 4 million viewers. That’s fewer viewers than Fox’s Cops (5 million viewers last week), Cops2 (5.5 million) and CBS’s Crimetime Saturday (5.5 million) which is actually mostly RERUNS of the network’s crime-related shows.

I’m sensing a theme here…maybe Leno needs to add some crime skits to pique viewers’ interest. But that’s not why his show was in Baltimore recently — check out this skit done in Baltimore that aired on Leno’s show last week. (My favorite part is the shot of the lady in the soup shop with a tear streaming down her face.)

The gist of this vignette is Leno lackey Owen Benjamin goes around town to different businesses and creates a one- or two-verse jingle about their store.  The Leno Show has created similar videos for other major cities around the U.S. and it appears as if it’s another way to pander to the major markets where Leno might be able to boost his ratings.

But if you’re not watching the show already, would watching the Baltimore video make you tune in? Seems to me the only thing that could save his show at this point is some kind of wardrobe malfunction or a Jerry Springer-esque mishap to get audiences buzzing and tuning in for the next meltdown.

But then again, as Ari Gold (Jeremy Pivon’s character) said on HBO’s show Entourage – “Drama, this is NBC. They gave ‘Joey‘ 46 episodes.”

Yikes.

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Capitalizing on its appearance in the new Renee Zellweger movie, “My One and Only,” Baltimore’s Peabody Court Hotel has come out with a romance travel package as a salute to the film.

The movie was released two weeks ago and also stars Kevin Bacon and Chris Noth. The film’s story line is based on George Hamilton’s upbringing by his mother along the Eastern Seaboard during the 1950s. To see a shot of the Peabody in the opening sequence of the preview, click here.

“My One and Only” was filmed in Baltimore last summer.

The Peabody’s package includes accommodations for two in a deluxe corner king room, breakfast via room service or in the hotel’s George’s Bistro, valet parking and a late check-out time (2 p.m.)

Has anyone seen the movie yet? How prominently was the hotel featured?

Who knows how much business this package will really stir up, but I do think it’s indicative of how local business here like being associated with Hollywood and the stars that pass through here.

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On Sunday, NBA big man Shaquille O’Neal faced off with Baltimore’s Olympian Michael Phelps in a swim-off for ABC’s new reality show, “Shaq Vs.”

Phelps, an eight-time gold medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and Shaq, a perennial All Star with a playful personality, squared off before a crowd of about 600 at the Loyola College of Maryland.

“Shaq Vs.” debuted last Tuesday, but didn’t make much of a ratings splash among the big four networks; it barely edged out Fox’s “More to Love” (4 million viewers) with a total 4.3 million viewers. That’s less than half of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” (11.6 million) and CBS’s “Big Brother” (8.1 million).

Last week’s episode featured Shaq battling it out with Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger. I imagine they’re hoping for more of a ratings spike with Phelps, whose reputation (good or bad) is more widely known outside of the sports world.

ABC previously partnered with O’Neal on the 2007 summer reality series “Shaq’s Big Challenge,” in which he coached overweight kids on how to develop a healthier lifestyle. After disappointing ratings, however, the show didn’t return for a second season.

I’m not sure if the problem is Shaq or the crowded field of competitors. “America’s Got Talent” and “Big Brother” are some pretty stiff competition to go up against. I expect Phelps’ appearance in this week’s episode should give the show a ratings boost — if not, Shaq could have another dud on his hands.

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Is this as bad as I think it sounds?

The Bank of America, after 16 years of sponsoring the U.S. Olympic team, announced today it is ending its support of the USOC. The bank cited a poor return on investment as its primary reason for cutting the cord, according to the Sports Business Journal.

BofA spokesman Joe Goode called the move “an extremely difficult and emotional decision” according to the SBJ.

“It’s not about the economy, it’s not about reducing marketing, it’s not about TARP support,” he added. “But rather, it’s about the insufficient business results we were able to generate.”

Wow. Let’s take a look-see: according to Nielsen, last year’s Summer Games (Remember them? With the thrill of Michael Phelps going for eight golds and the Chinese woman’s gymnastic team age scandal? That’s good TV!) averaged nearly 27.7 million viewers over 17 days. This year’s Super Bowl hit about 98.7 million viewers in one night.

Of course, when you multiply it out, the 17-day viewership of the Olympics last year totaled 469.2 million, but who knows how many of those daily watchers are repeat viewers?

It appears that even with last year’s opening ceremony in Beijing being television’s first 1 billion-member audience, the Olympics are losing their luster. Who’s fault is this? Is the USOC overpricing its product? Or should we blame the Internet? (After all, it always seems to be a good scapegoat for questions like, “Why can’t newspapers make money?” or “Why aren’t people watching TV anymore?”)

Or is this a dumb move by BofA?

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