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: Our Wastin’ Time & Tax Dollar$ Award is back and Parkway High School in Bossier City, Louisiana is our first winner for 2015. Congratulation to Dr. Nichole Bourgeois the principal of Parkway High, and her Board of Education members Billie Jo Brotherton, Brad Bockhaus, Frank Kelly, William Lott,...
Read More »
A: “No” From Jim Metrock: Channel One News isn’t inspiring many students. This post was put up on December 8. Today is December 11 – three days later. Channel One claims over 100,000 “likes” on Facebook, yet only three people have commented. I am sure more will comment in the coming days, but I doubt Channel One will attract...
Read More »
From Jim Metrock: This post is from Channel One’s Facebook page. I viewed their FB page today (November 21,2014) and worked my way back in time. I wanted to see the highest number of responses any one post received. Channel One is still claiming “nearly 5 million” in its audience. So one would think...
Read More »
From Jim Metrock: Ms. Monica Burns quit classroom teaching and is now a saleswoman. She is writing articles for Channel One’s website. Ms. Burns is praising Channel One and plugging the controversial Common Core national standards whenever she can. It makes sense that she is gushing about how wonderful Channel One is. After all,...
Read More »
From Jim Metrock: On September 29, 2014, and on several other dates, Channel One News ran a commercial for their parent company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. HMH publishes books aimed at the youth market. This ad is for a book called How to Catch a Bogle. The commercial is cheaply made. It must have...
Read More »
Should schools be responsible for introducing news to children? http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2014/09/16/39365/should-schools-be-responsible-for-introducing-news/#comments
Read More »
Houghton Mifflin’s Channel One News intentionally shows students executioner holding knife before beheading. Why show any pictures of this brutal act of terrorism? Is Houghton Mifflin CEO Linda Zecher pushing Channel One to get edgier with kids? From Jim Metrock: The good news is Channel One News did not use the word “beheading” in...
Read More »
From Jim Metrock: Kocinski, Hanson, Evans, and Rulli Sounds like a law firm. Unfortunately, these young people didn’t choose the law for a career. They chose instead to earn a paycheck by commercially exploiting schoolchildren. These are the remaining reporters for Houghton Mifflin’s Channel One News. Shelby Holliday as I reported before left Channel...
Read More »
HMH quarterly earnings conference call: Progress made coming out of bankruptcy. Channel One News not mentioned by HMH CEO Linda Zecher. Channel One and other acquisitions will have “no impact” on company in short term. Total cash paid out for three companies, including Channel One: $9.5 million. (Channel One was sold for $240...
Read More »
