Meredith Local Media Group and WorldNow have completed the launch of ten redesigned local stations’ websites. All of the stations are owned by Meredith and published on a WorldNow platform.

The sites were launched in a span of three weeks beginning last month. The redesign gave each site improvements across multiple platforms, including video and mobile capabilities, advertising sales tools and production of original editorial content.

“The launch of the sites is our first step toward cementing Meredith’s leadership position among local media in their markets,” WorldNow senior vice president Melissa Hatter said. “We look forward to a number of advancements over the coming months that are focused on providing the best user experience on multiple platforms for continuous growth.”

The stations with relaunched websites are: WHNS, WGCL, WNEM, WSMV, WFSB, KPHO, WSHM, KVVU, KPTV and KCTV.

KVVU anchor Dave Hall recalls walking in to the Las Vegas-area Fox affiliate for the first time in 2001 and thinking, “I really need to fire my agent.”

“The newsroom was cramped, the set was hideous and the equipment was dated,” Hall writes on the KVVU website. “The first few weeks were rough. I hated the job, hated the city and hated my daily commute.”

Hall went from promotions writer (with no promotion-writing experience) to sports anchor (which he calls “unfulfilling”) to morning anchor, a position he was offered in 2006. “My boss called me into his office, which was an instant red flag for me,” he wrote. “Are they canning me? Shipping me out to some tiny market in Montana? He had something far worse in mind: our morning newscast.”

Five years later, Hall writes that dropping his “ball and stick” mentality and transitioning into hard news was difficult, but worthwhile. “I can look back and definitively say it was the smartest decision I ever made,” he notes. “They’ve been the best 10 years of my life.”

KXTV weekend anchor Lorraine Blanco is leaving the Sacramento ABC-affiliate after just a year with the station. She anchored her final KXTV newscast this weekend.

Blanco, who grew up in northern California, joined KXTV in May of last year after seven years with Las Vegas Fox-affiliate KVVU. She has been anchoring the station’s 6 and 11 p.m. weekend newscasts in addition to reporting throughout the week.

“Just finished anchoring my last newscast at News10,” Blanco tweeted on Sunday. “Feelings bittersweet. The future is wide open.”

Blanco, a graduate of UCLA, got her start with KABC. Read more

Moments before the start of Sunday’s Super Bowl, the NFL demanded that Las Vegas Fox-affiliate KVVU scrap a handful of local ads that it planned to air during the game.

The NFL, ever-diligent in trying to distance itself from gambling, forced KVVU to dump five 30-second spots from Station Casinos, according to AOL News.  Station Casinos owns 18 casinos in southern Nevada and was set to pay KVVU a reported $360,000 to broadcast the spots during the big game.

“We had a conversation before the game with Fox which informed the station it could not air the spots,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told AOL News, confirming that the league blocked KVVU from airing the ads. Read more

Meredith Corp., which owns 12 local stations across the country, announced today that revenue for its Local Media Group is up nearly 30% from a year ago.

Meredith reported results for its second quarter and the numbers show that local TV stations continue to provide steady gains for broadcasting companies.

Meredith’s Local Media Group brought in $97 million during the quarter, with an operating profit of $39 million.

Meredith chairman and CEO Stephen M. Lacy said that the company is “extremely pleased” with the results and predicts “continued long-term growth.”

Much of the success can be attributed to a spike in political advertising.  Meredith owns stations in areas that were key battlegrounds during the 2010 election season, including KVVU in Las Vegas and WFSB in Hartford.  Non-political advertising, however, was up 3% from last year.