Tuesday, February 10, 2009

WSJ: Local TV stations confront a "fuzzy future'

Once treated like royalty by broadcast networks, many local stations are scaling back original programming, cutting down on weekend news shows and trimming staff, The Wall Street Journal says today (paid subscription usually required). "Nationwide, 2009 TV-station ad revenue is projected to fall 20% to 30%, according to Bernstein Research," the WSJ says.

Across its 22-station broadcasting division, Gannett has been cutting costs by eliminating pricey news anchors, hiring "one-man-band'' reporter-videographers, and consolidating work such as graphics production.

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3 comments:

  1. TYPO in blog post "Journal" missing "l" at the end.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! To everyone else: Please don't be shy about pointing out stuff like this; I rely on all of you to be my copyeditors!

    ReplyDelete
  3. As a employee of one of the Gannett owned TV stations, I wish it was true that we cut some of our overpriced and overblown anchors - it might actually make us relevant! The real question is whether we will be sold. Some of the Gannett TV stations are actually doing well in this economy - much better then our newspaper counterparts.

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