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: Shelby Holliday wised up and left Channel One News for a job at Bloomberg TV. Former Channel One executive producer Jim Morris works at Bloomberg and probably had a hand in connecting with Ms. Holliday. Although Ms. Holliday helped commercially exploit millions of schoolchildren since 2010, and she should rightfully feel...
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From Jim Metrock: Channel One News has a long history of bad decision making. At one time Channel One believed it was a good idea to give sex advice to kids. A young woman named Peggy Li was hired by Channel One around 1997 and evidently they gave her total freedom to do whatever...
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Required reading for Houghton Mifflin’s CEO Linda Zecher and SVP CJ Kettler. http://adem.alabama.gov/programs/land/landforms/CRTInd.pdf From Jim Metrock: Channel One thought that they could quickly and painlessly remove millions of dollars of equipment disposal fees from their balance sheet (before they were acquired by Houghton Mifflin) by dumping the disposal costs...
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From Jim Metrock: This is the current Channel One contract with schools as of July 21, 2014: Network Participation Agreement General Terms This Network Participation Agreement (this “Agreement”) sets forth the terms and conditions pursuant to which the subject school (the “School”) is entitled to participate in the Educational Network (the “Network”)...
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From Jim Metrock: The lazy, crazy days of summer have taken their toll on Channel One News. The company has a section of its Channelone.com website called “Interact.” The section sounds more engaging than it really is. Most of the content consists of simple multiple-choice quizzes or slideshows. Below is a screen shot of Channel One’s...
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From Jim Metrock: During the summer months Channel One News doesn’t film any newscasts. Why don’t they do their news program on their website for young people who look to Channel One News to keep them informed about the world? Doesn’t Channel One News seek to “encourage students to...
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A peek behind the curtain reveals Channel One News is shooting blanks. Subscription curriculum product is DOA. Few will pay for this amateurish effort.
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From Jim Metrock: The hip hop education publisher Flocabulary has ended their relationship with Channel One News according to a spokesperson for Flocabulary. Channel One News featured Flocab’s Week in Rap every Friday. This helped Channel One fill up its Friday show with content it did not have to create. When it...
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Houghton Mifflin’s quest to enter classroom advertising business will draw ire of teachers. 1992 Resolution still NTCE’s position. From Jim Metrock: Early on, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) passed this resolution opposing Channel One. This position statement is as strong as it gets. The NCTE urges teachers...
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