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: This past weekend Channel One went live with a new look to their website. There is little new content on the new site; most of the changes are merely cosmetic. Nothing stood out to me that would make parents and educators feel more favorable towards Channel One. Indeed, Channel...
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From Jim Metrock: Strauss Zelnick loves to sell violence. The video game Grand Theft Auto has been very good to Mr. Zelnick. His company ZelnickMedia owns the company that makes GTA and Red Ded Redemption depicted in the poster behind Mr. Zelnick. Mr. Zelnick is also the man calling the shots, so to speak,...
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From Jim Metrock: In February Channel One removed Kent Haehl from his CEO position because he couldn’t turn the company around. Each year under his “leadership” Channel One went further into the abyss. (Mr. Haehl is now “CRO” of the company. I believe this means Chief Risk Officer . I don’t believe...
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My Twitter chat flopped. From Jim Metrock: You knew it was going to be a disaster when they announced it: “We’re hosting a live Twitter chat with Maggie, Scott and Shelby on Wednesday, June 5th, at 3pm EST (12pm PST) They’ll be talking about some of their favorite stories and experiences from this...
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From Jim Metrock: There are four remaining anchors at Channel One News. In May, Jessica Kumari left the company, leaving Julian Dujarric, Maggie Rulli, Shelby Holliday, and Scott Evans. Summer is the time for Channel One employees, if they can, to find work elsewhere and leave behind the controversial, youth marketing company. I...
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Channel One News published this script in May. We don’t know the day it was shown to students. Students: Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! Scott: What is up! I am Scott Evans. Shelby: And I am Shelby Holliday. Scott: And we’re here at Goose Creek High School in...
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From Jim Metrock: Channel One News went dark on Friday, May 31. They are done for the 2012-13 school year. Historically Channel One’s broadcast season ran through the first week of June, but… when the money is running low, you gotta do what you gotta do. Channel One is in awful shape. Christopher...
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From Jim Metrock: It angers me when Channel One uses young people to perform in a promotional piece like this. These young middle school students wouldn’t be so cheery shouting out “Channel One News starts right now!” if they understood the toll Channel One has taken on their education. These students lose up to...
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From Jim Metrock: Channel One News regularly plays music from rock and rap bands during their classroom TV show. They shouldn’t. Helping to interest schoolchildren in new rock, pop and rap artists is not the stated purpose of Channel One News. Channel One got into schools (disproportionately into schools in lower-income communities) by promising...
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From Jim Metrock: The people that make decisions at Channel One News thought that teens, preteens, and even elementary school-age children needed to know about this celebrity/drug story. The headline for the story appeared on Channelone.com’s home page on May 24. Who’s to blame: Channelone.com managing editor Karen Knapstein and current CEO Ms. CJ...
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