Channel One News is a youth marketing company whose main purpose is to get advertising to a captive audience of impressionable schoolchildren. The company loans a school TV equipment in exchange for the school’s contractual pledge to show students a daily, 12-minute, hyper-commercial, TV program called Channel One News. Students lose one hour a week of schools time, which equates to one lost week of instructional time (32 hours) per year. No educational organization endorses the use of Channel One News.
Channel One has fallen on very hard times. Once they claimed over 8 million students were under contract. Since 1997 they have continued to lose schools and now they claim “nearly five million” students and the true figure is probably lower.
In May 2014, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt acquired Channel One from ZelnickMedia the makers of the ultra-violent Grand Thief Auto video game series. Houghton Mifflin did not disclose the purchase price.
At the end of 2014 most of Channel One’s full-paying advertisers have abandoned the program.
From Jim Metrock: I detest Channel One News for a lot of reasons (as do many, many parents, educators, school administrators, and members of the general public). You can go through the many pages of this website to read why. Today’s Channel One News report on the death of Fidel Castro is just the latest reason to...
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Dear Mr. Jason Bowers, Mr. Pat Schymanski, Ms. Brenda Stocker, Ms. Christine Ulrich, Mr. Jeff Christoff, I write you to ask your board to consider ending the showing of Channel One News in your district. Channel One is a very controversial “kiddie” marketing company. How controversial? New York, Channel One’s home state, has...
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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Announces Third Quarter 2016 Results Why Shares of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co. Plunged Today / The company came up far short of expectations and drastically cut its full-year guidance. From Jim Metrock: Things are bad at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Today the company lost 22% of its stock value and that...
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Public gets clue to Channel One’s shrunken audience numbers. From Jim Metrock: Every four years Channel One News conducts a mock Presidential election. This year Channel One has declared Hillary Clinton the winner, but the bigger news is how few students participated in this year’s election. In 2004, Channel One claimed 1.4 million students voted....
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From Jim Metrock: In 2014 Linda Zecher wanted to acquire the remaining assets of Channel One News. People shook their heads. Channel One was a pariah among many American educators and parents. The company would not contribute much to Houghton Mifflin’s revenues and certainly not to its profits. Also surprisingly, Ms....
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Controversial Channel One News continues to promote their value-neutral philosophy. No absolutes at Channel One News. Nothing is right or wrong, nothing is acceptable or unacceptable. It all depends on what YOU think and the social context in which the decision is made. From Channel One’s Hall of Shame: Kids, do you...
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Jim Metrock: Channel One News is continuing to have difficulty attracting schools to their subscription service. Now the youth marketing company is offering a free two-week trial. Channel One would not be making this offer if schools were beating down their door to sign up.
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From Jim Metrock: Yes, those lovable, wannabe journalists at Channel One News are back. Well, not all of them – Maggie Rulli left months earlier. Are students excited about seeing their favorite on-air personalities back on their classroom screens? I don’t think so. As you see, in two days the Facebook post announcing, “Channel...
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“ANNOUNCEMENT: Channel One’s New York offices are moving this week. As of Monday, October 8th, we will be located at 1440 Broadway, 17th Fl., NY, NY 10018. Our new phone # is: 212-204-3700; Fax: 212-204-3960. All e-mails remain the same. Please make note of the change.” From Jim Metrock: That was 2001. Sinking revenues...
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From Jim Metrock: In 2014 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) had a lot of people scratching their heads when they acquired the burned-out, remaining assets of Channel One News. Only two years before, Houghton Mifflin emerged from an embarrassing bankruptcy. Why did HMH acquire Channel One when this controversial youth marketing company had little chance of adding...
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