Future Of The Evening News, Chapter 79

In his review of evening newscast changes, USAT’s Peter Johnson says “CBS is not alone in its willingness to buck tradition — to a limited extent — in a genre that has stuck to it for years. At NBC and ABC, re-evaluations also are underway.” It’s a must-read. Here are a couple highlights:

> The evening newscasts are “held captive by a 30-minute broadcast, a constrained budget and a commitment to ratings,” CNN’s Lou Dobbs says. “It’s lamentably true: They are drifting toward irrelevancy.”

> “The advantage that cable news has had is the viewers’ ability to watch news whenever they want it,” says CBS ratings chief David Poltrack. “New technology will give more people the opportunity to watch our programming. If we can free up the broadcast and make it more ubiquitous, we think viewership will increase.”

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