Victoria Lim Leaves WFLA-Ch. 8 Friday

She knows it sounds strange; leaving a job in the country's 13th-largest TV market with no real alternative arranged.

Stranger still, she's leaving a gig she describes as the best job in her newsroom: serving as a consumer reporter/multimedia journalist/newspaper columnist for WFLA-Ch. 8, TBO.com and the Tampa Tribune.

But come 5 p.m. on Friday, Victoria Lim will walk away from all of it, ending more than a decade working at Newschannel 8.  And she doesn't have much of an explanation ready.

"I've been lucky enough to spend the last 20 years in a newsroom...but I've given up a lot of myself," said Lim, who started working part-time in newsrooms right out of high school. "I'd like to take al ittle breather. Instead of living for work, I'd like to work to live."

It's no secret that times have been tough for folks at WFLA, recently. A year which began with the suicide death of meteorologist John Winter also brought changes in technology which resulted in layoffs among the technical crews and an October announcement from owner Media General that Third Quarter broadcast revenue would drop 26 percent compared to the previous year.

Still, while other on air reporters have grown frustrated at the lack of opportunities to anchor -- WFLA has the longest-tenured anchors in the market -- Lim said she had the only job she ever wanted, cranking out stories for WFLA, a weekly consumer column for the Tribune and occasional multimedia stories for TBO.com. A non-compete clause in her contract will keep her from working for any other TV station for one year.

WFLA News Director Don North said efforts to convince Lim to stay went all the way up to the company's headquarters in Richmond, Va. Even now, he notes, if she called him at 11:59 on Sunday -- her contract expires at midnight -- he would take her back.

"I'm not sure if she's even exactly sure why she's leaving," he said. "Maybe it's just gotten to the point where she wants to try something new."

Lim nearly left the station five years ago, when she and then-news director Forrest Carr had difficulty during contract negotiations and word leaked to local TV news web sites. Now, the station is losing its only on air Asian American personality, as others complain the station has done little to hire new journalists of color.

The reporter says she's looking forward to finishing the semester teaching as an adjunct professor at the University of Tampa and University of South Florida -- actually spending Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's with her family for the first time.

"I still love journalism and I still love the beat," said Lim, a stone sports fan who notes her other dream job would be working for HBO's Real Sports investigative series. "But it's about life. I'd like to see what that's like, now."    

Comments

[dreaming]

Oh well.

On a different note, Eric, take a look at the Trib's Ikea store opening package today. Now, Ikea is to newspapers what Krispee Kreme donut shops once were: automatic fodder for fawning stories and free ads.

Still, I've seldom seen a more blatant suck up than this Ikea package which is clearly aimed at getting the hurting Trib on the Ikea advertising gravy train, both for the Orlando store and the one opening in Tampa soon.

I wonder if readers understand the bald-faced ploy that this represents? And if they did, would they be a little disturbed at being fed 'news' in the guise in free advertising?

[ron mexico]

who cares
hows bob hites kid doing

[me]

It must be nice to be able to quit a job ...and know that you won't want or need a new one anytime soon!! Most people don't have this luxury. I wish I could even entertain the idea of doing this!!

[Scott]

She's hot....i wish I could hook up with her. ;-)

[Eric Deggans]

Much as Victoria probably appreciates random leering online, can we keep the comments to something a little more substantive?

[me]

Ohh god..vicki...don't go, Please,please,please stayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! first Rod Carter ....now this...boo hoo hoo!!! Is this better Eric?

What do want us to say? geez!!

[Eric Deggans]

Me -- my comment wasn't referring to your earlier comment. You raise an interesting point about money.

But I really don't want people coming onto the blog and talking about how hot local anchors are. I'm just not interested in that conversation, and its really not what the blog post was about.

[me]

Eric,

I found the statement about Bob Hites son even more offensive than the one your referring to, Didn't you? I mean that was a low blow about Bob's son. Anyway .... have a nice day I'm out!

[Ron Mexico's Mother]

Does anyone actually watch local news anymore?

[Reality]

The reality is old people like news. Local news is even better, because they can find out all the juicy gossip to talk about at the senior center.

[Larry Hampton]

All the local stations are in BIG trouble in their News programs. More people are tuning out and tuning in to Cable Shows that compete, namely MSNBC and CNN. That and the fact that local stations have cut back Sports reporting, while cable's ESPN and FOX have increased their sports coverage, spells doom for most local news. The day of the high paid News Anchors in the smaller markets is soon to be extinct. Vickie's problem was Vickie. Stuck in a slot, without the skills or the look to move up.

[Phil]

Figures...The station is losing an intelligent , articulate anchor but we are still stuck with Gayle Guyardo bumbling her way through the morning newscasts. Thank God for MSNBC and the St. Pete Times!

[Scott]

Ok, Eric....I'll not mention her looks. So tell me, beyond her looks (and that of others), what does local news offer me? Stories that have been running on Bay News9 all day long? Stories from the day before? Monotonous drone from a talking head that has no pizzaz or excitement? Tell me, Eric....other than a pretty face, a stale story, or a boring delivery, what do they offer? My opinion is that they offer nothing. Their audience has slimmed due to internet and cable. Their target audience, the senior citizen, is shrinking in numbers in the bay area.
So, I meant no offense by posting about Victoria being attractive, but tell me, what else does News Channel 8 have to offer a 40 something like me?

[Eric Deggans]

Hey, i'm not here to defend WFLA or any local news operation.

Everyone here has made some very good points about what local TV news offers. Often, they don't have the reporting staff to do much more chase the biggest stories of the day, throwing in some crime coverage, sports scores and the occasional enterprise story.

Though their audiences are larger day-to-day, they face the same audience erosion and ecnomic pressures as newspapers.

Ideally, what TV news offers is immediacy. But if you were trolling the internet on wednesday, you saw detailed reports on nick bollea's arrest before the local newscasts began.

Scott, I don't have an answer for you. And fortunately, because I don't work for WFLA, I don't have to.

[Pam]

Speaking of Gayle Guyardo ....If she has One more baby!! ... Geez!! She's spitting them out like tick Tacs!!

[Faye]

At least she can afford them. She also has a husband and she seems to be happy. Are you jealous? This is what a family is about. She can have as many children as she and her husband want because they do not depend on the system to take care of them. So, how many can you afford?

[?]

wow! Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed!! Geez!!

you must have ten kids ...This obviously struck a cord with you!

[Bryan]

We will never have top rated news commentators in our market because we can't afford the salaries they command. Other than perhaps Bob Hite, those that we have couldn't make it in major markets. News programs consist mostly of commercials and weather forecasts by forecasters who can't predict rain when it's actually raining and prefer to "beat the drums" about some storm thousands of miles away that might hit the bay area in the distant future. Unfortunately it's always been and always will be that way so use the internet for your real news and weather forecasts.

[dreaming]

um, believe it or not, tampa IS a major tv market. in fact, it's the 12th biggest in the country.

its bigger than miami, denver, seattle, phoenix, san diego, milwaulkee etc etc. see for yourself...

http://www.mediainfocenter.org/compare/top50/

you may not realize it, but the tv anchors in tampa collect very big bucks, and i mean well well into six figures. of course, they are not WORTH it. but that's a different story.

[Eric Deggans]

Just to be clear: tampa is now the 13th-largest mrket. we fell down a notch when phoenix grew at a faster rate than we did.

And I mention the ranking in the second graph of this blog posting...

[ari]

Do you think this station will now hire more minorities to fill Lim's vacancy? Supposedly 30 years ago, more of a minority presence in newsroom was to occur, but has that really happened?