• NBC News is launching a company-wide initiative examining gun violence, gun legislation and gun ownership. All NBC News programs, as well as MSNBC, CNBC and NBC news Digital, will provide programming for the initiative, which is being called “Flashpoint: Guns in America.”

• “Dateline” had a very strong Friday night. Leading in to “Rock Center” at 10 PM, the two-hour edition of the program had its best total viewership rating since September of 2011, with seven million viewers.

• NBC news is partnering with the US Patent & Trademark Office and the National Science Foundation on an educational video series, ‘Science of Innovation.” Ann Curry will host the series, which highlights innovators and inventions. It will be available to NBC affiliates and schools across the country.

It is cold in New York. Really cold.

At 7:30 morning it was 9 degrees Fahrenheit in New York City, not counting wind chill. The frigid weather kept the crowd that would normally gather around “Today”‘s Rockefeller Plaza studio smaller than normal. Rather than let their biggest fans freeze outside, the crew of NBC’s morning show decided to invite them in to escape the chill, all 26 of them.

Some of the fans even made it into a segment about families who have differing views on how warm the thermostat should be set.

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Rockefeller Plaza will once again turn into Democracy Plaza in the final week of the 2012 elections. The plaza will be the backdrop for Decision 2012 coverage for NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, NBC News Channel, and WNBC in the week leading up to the election.

On election night, a giant map on the Rockefeller Center skating rink will be filled in as each state goes for either Obama or Romney while red and blue banners representing the electoral vote will climb the front of 30 Rockefeller Center.

Democracy Plaza will be free and open to the public beginning next Tuesday until election day with several interactive exhibits for visitors including replicas of the Oval Office and the White House press briefing room, a video booth and caricature artists roaming the plaza.

MediaPost reports that NBC News (specifically NBC News Digital) is planning a shift away from advertising targeting demographics (i.e. adults 25-54, women 18-49, etc) and towards “personas” of news consumers, with names like “Always On,” “Skimmers,” “Veterans” and “Reporters.”

The news consumer personas, which were developed by NBC’s sales and research teams in conjunction with a variety of third-party research suppliers, essentially cluster news consumers into four main groups, based on how passionate they are about news and how much they utilize digital media to access it.

MediaPost also reports that NBC is planning to launch new advertising creative that blurs the line betwen editorial and advertising content. Update: NBC takes issue with that report. More below.

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The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presented NBC News president Steve Capus with the Board of Governors Award in Philadelphia last week. Capus began his journalism career in Philadelphia.

“We often hear how the business of news is on the decline,” Capus said in his acceptance speech. “Sure, these are challenging times for any news organization, but they are also times of great opportunity to move the needle on important issues.

We are just weeks from the 2012 presidential election, and as journalists, it is our job to make sure the electorate is informed about the issues, the policies, the perspectives and the candidates,” he added. “Every day, I press my producers on the need to drive at the heart these issues, and to hold these candidates accountable—not just to 8-second sound bites, but to thoughtful discussions about their plans to shape this country.”

Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are in New York City today delivering major speeches — several in fact.

All three of the general cable news channels carried the morning’s first two speeches — Romney’s address to the Clinton Global Initiative in the 9amET hour and Obama’s address to the U.N. General Assembly in the 10amET hour — in their entirety.

While Obama spoke live at the U.N., his taped interview with “The View” was about to air on ABC while another taped interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie was being played at Education Nation, NBC’s annual multi-day gathering focusing on education challenges and solutions. Guthrie’s Obama sit-down aired shortly after 10:30amET, leading in to Romney’s live interview with Brian Williams at the summit.

TVNewser stopped by the Romney appearance at the New York Public Library, home of the third-annual Education Nation. “There are more burly people with weapons in this building right now than ever before — but enough about Steve Capus‘ senior staff,” Williams joked before he introduced Romney.

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As we noted, President Obama granted interviews to CBS News and Telemundo yesterday. The full CBS News interview will air at some point on “60 Minutes,” while the Telemundo interview will air tonight.

That said, CBS News picked out a few juicy parts to feature on its broadcasts early, and NBCUniversal, which owns both NBC News, MSNBC and Telemundo, wasn’t about to let that opportunity slide by.

Clips from Telemundo anchor José Díaz-Balart‘s interview were featured on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” last night, and on “Today” this morning.

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When added up, Fox News had the most-watched 10pm convention coverage over the six days of the RNC and DNC. Despite a dearth of interest from Obama supporters to watch Fox News during the DNC, the network drew big crowds during the RNC.

Fox News averaged 5.34 million total viewers at 10pm topping the three broadcast networks. NBC News drew the most A25-54 viewers, averaging 1.94 million. FNC had the most-watched night of all networks when 9.1 million watched the 10pm hour of Thurs., Aug. 30, Mitt Romney‘s acceptance speech.

• Six-night averages. Cable nets from 10-11pm; broadcast nets from 10-around 11:15pm (varies each night.)

FNC: 5.337M viewers (1.420M in A25-54)
NBC: 5.033M viewers (1.940M in A25-54)
ABC: 3.664M viewers (1.320M in A25-54)
CBS: 3.397M viewers (1.259M in A25-54)
CNN: 3.121M viewers (1.147M in A25-54)
MSNBC: 2.972M viewers (1.012M in A25-54)

Interestingly, Fox News averaged more viewers for its DNC coverage (2.6M) than MSNBC (1.4M) and CNN (1.33M) averaged for their RNC coverage. Overall the DNC was watched more than the RNC on cable, especially among younger viewers:

• Combined primetime (8-11pm) viewing on FNC, CNN and MSNBC:

RNC (Aug. 28-30): 8.611M viewers (2.234M in A25-54)
DNC (Sept. 4-6): 9.390M viewers (2.915M in A25-54)

The New York Times reports on a relatively recent political strategy, being utilized heavily by both the Obama and Romney campaigns: quote approval. Specifically, campaign staffers are briefing reporters, who then have to ask the campaigns which quotes they can use.

The practice actually presents a tremendous opportunity for TV news outlets, as mentioned briefly in the piece.

Both presidential campaigns are keenly aware of what can happen when they speak too freely. Damaging sound bites can live on in the news cycle for days. Mr. Obama’s remark last month during a televised news conference that “the private sector is doing fine” landed almost immediately in attack ads. And Eric Fehrnstrom’s “Etch A Sketch” comment on CNN, about softening some of the harder positions Mr. Romney took during the primaries, continues to haunt the Romney campaign five months later.

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NBC’s Natalie Morales was talking about the issue of jobs at an Education Nation event at the gleaming New World Center in Miami Beach earlier this week.

It’s fitting as Morales has many of them at NBC.

TVNewser caught up with the “Today” show news anchor in the make-up room just before her panel discussion on preparing graduates for the 21st century workforce.

“As a company we see this as part of a wider initiative,” says Morales of NBC’s Education Nation. “It’s a corporate responsibility to try to give back.”

In recent years, Morales has moved beyond her news persona, taking on roles across the Peacock, whether co-hosting the Miss Universe pageant, or Macy’s July 4th Spectacular, or playing the part of fact-checker on “The Marriage Ref.”

But Morales never strays far from home.

“I have several Rock Center pieces in the works and (the Dateline series) My Kid Would Never Do That, which my kid ended up doing that,” Morales laughed.

The series puts children in a variety of decision-making situations while their parents watch the events unfold via hidden camera.

Morales says the challenge going forward, “is finding new ways to do it. I also don’t want to become the person that everybody recognizes. You have to keep the anonymity otherwise kids will see me and they’re not going to fall for it.”

As for her main job at “Today,” Morales admits, “It’s turbulent waters these days with where the ratings are.”

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