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 journalism.

That's because WWOR-TV, one-half of News Corp.'s station duopoly in the Big Apple, sliced its long-running 10 p.m. newshour in half, then moved it to 11 p.m. so that Williams could occupy that hour. (Her Debmar-Mercury syndicated show runs live at 10 a.m. over WNYW-TV, the other News Corp.-owned station in town.) Result: what remains of WWOR's nightly news now competes at 11 against ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates. Remains is an apt term here--the night before Williams' debut, WWOR dropped its weekend primetime newshours.

This is no isolated story in this most unusual of unusual media recessions. You can't 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 Williams' debut, Fox Chicago affiliate WFLD announced lights out for The Ten, its late-evening newscast. Earlier, NBC's Chicago station, WMAQ, put the kibosh on its popular Sunday morning news block. In the most extreme case so far this year, WYOU-TV, CBS' toehold in Wilkes-Barre, 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 another.

Moreover, 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 appreciation.

The 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 single-digit decline in local sales this year, around 8%, on top of one last year, according to many forecasters, has turned into double-digit quicksand. Magna's revised outlook, detailed in a conference call Monday, estimates 18.6% 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 2011.

For years, local news and public affairs programs were the dividing line between local broadcast and cable TV. One medium had them, the other didn't, 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 all-news cable channels like New York 1 or News 12 rise up, role reversal appears in view.

What's 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 NBC's board might get riled up this fall if Jay Leno's primetime talk/variety hour doesn't spark ratings.

Maybe it's 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 it's 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 possible.

You bet it's 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 later.

Simon Applebaum is producer/host ofTomorrow Will Be Televised, the weekly Internet-distributed radio program covering the TV scene. Simon cal be reached at simonapple04@yahoo.com.

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