Local News: The New Endangered Species - Tomorrow Will Be Televised - MediaBizBlogger

As Wendy Williams launched her syndicated daytime talk show Monday she picked up a double run in New York at the expense of local TV journalismThat39s because WWORTV onehalf of News Corp39s station duopoly in the Big Apple sliced its longrunning 10 pm newshour in half then moved it to 11 pm so that Williams could occupy that hour Her DebmarMercury syndicated show runs live at 10 am over WNYWTV the other News Corpowned station in town Result what remains of WWOR39s nightly news now competes at 11 against ABC CBS and NBC affiliates Remains is an apt term herethe night before Williams39 debut WWOR dropped its weekend primetime newshoursThis is no isolated story in this most unusual of unusual media recessions You can39t go a day without reports of a TV station somewhere cancelling a newscast or putting anchorpeople reporters sportscasters and weathercasters to unemployment pasture A few hours after Williams39 debut Fox Chicago affiliate WFLD announced lights out for The Ten its lateevening newscast Earlier NBC39s Chicago station WMAQ put the kibosh on its popular Sunday morning news block In the most extreme case so far this year WYOUTV CBS39 toehold in WilkesBarre Pa dropped all newscasts and issued a press release saying the move was endorsed by the public in one sentence then acknowledged it was a pure savings play less than 1 million annually not dictated by public sentiment in anotherMoreover WYOU kicked their news staff out the door without even a line in that press release a line thanking them for serving the community for so long with their coverage One low blow for appreciationThe trigger point for all these decisions is clear a collapsed advertising sales environment The big spenders in the big categories local stations leaned on for revenue year after year autos and everything associated with them financial services travel stopped spending A singledigit decline in local sales this year around 8 on top of one last year according to many forecasters has turned into doubledigit quicksand Magna39s revised outlook detailed in a conference call Monday estimates 186 less local TV revenue for 2009 No quick turnaround news from them either At best Magna executives say sales for both network and local TV will rise again the second half of 2011For years local news and public affairs programs were the dividing line between local broadcast and cable TV One medium had them the other didn39t so broadcast had the upper hand in generating a public trust with the public Now as these local news cutbacks happen day after day and local allnews cable channels like New York 1 or News 12 rise up role reversal appears in viewWhat39s surprising in all this is the lack of concern at least publicly about this by all parties local station management broadcast network affiliate boards and the public Maybe NBC39s board might get riled up this fall if Jay Leno39s primetime talkvariety hour doesn39t spark ratingsMaybe it39s time for every network affiliate board to make the survival of local TV newscasts a top priority coming up with strategies that insure newscasts are the last place for cost cuts no matter what the ad environment is Maybe it39s time for people to express their appreciation for local news in stronger terms and be encouraged to communicate that message to station owners in any way possibleYou bet it39s time Local TV news is in danger of going the way of the dinosaur and the way of some major city newspapers that started 2009 in business and are not around this summer Disagree Do so at the risk of losing news now stations laterSimon Applebaum is producerhost of Tomorrow Will Be Televised the weekly Internetdistributed radio program covering the TV scene Simon cal be reached at simonapple04yahoocomRead all Simonamp8217s MediaBizBlogger commentaries at Tomorrow Will Be Televised MediaBizBlogger

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Local News: The New Endangered Species - Tomorrow Will Be Televised - MediaBizBlogger

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Simon Applebaum

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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Local News: The New Endangered Species - Tomorrow Will Be Televised - MediaBizBlogger

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