What was supposed to be the online home of merged WTVJ and WPLG is no more. As of today WPLG’s website is called Local10.com again, the JustNews.com brand has been killed.
JustNews.com went live on 12/11/2008 back when WPLG parent company The Washington Post Company (then known as Post-Newsweek) thought they had WTVJ in the bag and ready to go. The two stations were expected to merge everything from newsrooms to their online presence. Twelve days later however on December 23, 2008 it was announced that Post-Newsweek is backing out of buying WTVJ, the inability to secure funding due to the tightening of the credit markets was cited as a reason although many would argue the significant push back against the merger from local politicians and others in South Florida played a significant part in derailing the merger.
The “new” Local10.com is, so far, looking the same. They’ve only replaced the logo and JustNews.com redirects to Local10.com. JustWeather.com remains
i always thought justnews.com was a stupid news title. glad to see local 10 back! Atlease they havn’t branded themselves ABC Miami (yet..)
Michael I think you’re right, I don’t think that proposed merger had anything to do with why they switched to JustNews.com All Post Newsweek stations went to oddball domains like that at the same time where the station wasn’t really identified. KPRC for example switched to click2houston.com WDIV was Clickondetroit.com WJXT was News4Jax.com WKMG was clickorlando.com and WPLG was Justnews.com It looks like Post Newsweek is just moving away from that format!
I’m a little late to this convo since I just noticed this (I’ve been in New York since January) but I’m SO happy about this! I always used to type in local10.com anyway even when it was officially “justnews.com” out of protest, hah.
I really like the name Local10. There’s something special about it. There’s nothing special about NBC6 so I don’t care that it’s NBC Miami now. In fact, I like it better.