Who will be first to dump Noon news?

[chrisnh]

Many people have suggested that one way to cut costs is to ditch the Noon news. Which station, if any, will be first to do so? The desired audience demographic is AT WORK EARNING MONEY, leaving shut-ins and the unemployed to watch. None of them are rushing to the lovely, happy, waving people at The Jewelery Exchange.

I think a solution is to dump the newscasts and send the morning people home early.

Those who just have to have some news program to watch at high-noon can hop on over to NECN I suppose.

[doubleyoubeezee]

4 probably will. They'll probably dump Saturday AM news like KYW did, too. CBS' yearly layoffs have yet to come, so we'll have to stay tuned to see the damage...

[bostonmediaguy]

I think you're more likely to see the 5pm newscasts go before the noon. Midday does skew older --- but there are advertisers coveting that demo (retirement homes, pharmacies, home repair, etc). The 5pm has been dumped by stations in several markets. Miami in particular, where both the ABC and NBC stations no longer air the late afternoon newscast. WPLG, the ABC station, saw ratings for its 6pm soar (though the new 'Dr. Phil' lead-in helped).

[anchorguy]

I agree that the 5pm broadcasts are more likely to be cut before the noon news. The noon news does skew older, getting to a demo that might not be up at 5am or later in the day. My suggestion would be to get rid of the 5 and create an hour long 6. Then air the national news at 7.

The current 5-630 news block extremely repetitive. It has become too much like a formula with Story A, Story B, Story C, Weather Tease, Commercial, Story D, other headlines, Weather, Sports, Kicker, repeat. Something needs to be shaken up. Maybe have a 6p news, then the national news and then try a seven o'clock?

[chrisnh]

I agree with the consensus regarding the 5pm newscasts. In the 'old days' you could count on the news starting at 6 and lasting till 7, leading into the national news. When and why that paradigm went away, I have no idea.

[anchorguy]

Yea -- it would be interesting to see American TV move towards what the UK does, with news from 6-7 and then at 10.

[chrisnh]

Rudat's departure from Ch. 7 may signal that WHDH will be first to abandon weekend newscasts. If the 6pm weeknight newscast stopped being 'appointment TV' long ago, these weekend shows actually never were and never will be.

[theaguy]

Ch. 7 is not going to drop any weekend news. news is their cash cow. Before they cut any news they will drop any highly paid reporters and replace them with younger and cheeper talent.
They have doen this before. if they were interested in eliminating news they would not have started at 10;00pm news on Ch 56.

BTW, ChrisNH what is your fixation with discriminations suits/ How often have personalities in this market suied thier staion. I an think of 2. Gary Armstrong and Mike Mcklin. it is pretty hard to prove a case when you are not the only one let go.

[newvet]

First of all, the cost to produce the noon newscast is minimal by utilizing people from the morning shows. It's also highly unlikely many stations would give up the 7-8pm early access time period for network news or local news. If there is decent syndicated programming (Chronicle is an exception here), it's more cost effective to run that programming. Also, stations can sell ad time for multiple or blocks of newscasts not just a particular newscast whether weekday or weekend.

[kvn]

More Chronicle type shows, less regurgitation of the same news stories... thats the ticket!!