WJLA to take over TBD.com

By Washington Post editors

This story has been updated.

Allbritton Communications will reorganize its fledgling local news site, TBD.com, by naming a new boss for the operation, and restoring the Newschannel 8 name to the cable TV station it rebranded as TBD TV last summer, Paul Farhi reports.

The reorganization represents a retrenchment, and in some ways, a retreat from the original vision of TBD, which has been closely watched as an experiment in local news coverage online. TBD was envisioned a new multimedia brand, incorporating traditional broadcast TV, cable TV and the Web.

Instead, the reorganization disclosed to staff members today will restore the old identities to Allbritton’s various media properties. TBD.com will remain, but Allbritton-owned WJLA, Washington’s ABC-TV affiliate, will get its own Web site once more.

1:21 p.m.

WJLA-TV station is taking over the local news Web site TBD.com, according to a source within Allbritton Communications, parent company of the two media organizations.

TBD.com launched Aug. 9. It had cross-promoted its work with TBD TV, the cable news channel formerly known as NewsChannel 8.

Allbritton, based in Arlington, also owns WJLA-TV. Bill Lord, station manager, will take over operations.

The move comes just three months after Jim Brady, who oversaw the creation of the local-news Web site TBD.com, left the site saying he had differences over broader strategy" with top managers.

Brady sent out a series of tweets Wednesday responding to the move:

I love my @TBD peeps, but the "everything will be OK" tweet does not reflect how people feel. They can't say it, but I can. Not good news. Jim Brady

jimbradysp





