The Future of Network News

[LanceyHoward]

CBS has recently by an offspring of Larry Ellison's son and he has already hired Bari Weiss, a conservative critic of the "liberal" media, as the "Editor". Personally I think that the richer you are the more expensive your toys. Bezos bought the Washington Post, Musk bought Twitter and now this kid buys CBS and can deliver his version of the news.

But I have a question that perhaps some of the other members of this board who work in local television can answer. The CBS Morning and Evening news have been the number three in their timeslots for decades. It is also my understanding that a local evening newscast generally outperforms a network broadcast. Local morning newscasts seem to be competitive against the network morning shows. CBS, along with Fox, have a very large number of owned and operated stations. In fact, both companies are up against the limit for the number of stations they own.

Fox does not program a network news program. Why would it not make economic sense for CBS just to shut down the news division and turn the time over to their owned and operated stations? CBS could keep a few reporters to cover Washington and a couple other hot spots and provide material to their affiliates, CBS would probably want to keep 60 Minutes, which still pulls in good ratings, and which I understand operates as a separate entity the rest of the news division anyway.

 

[DanOregon]

I can't figure out media moves in general. In most cases it seems "the play" is to keep what you value and chuck everything else, or "spin it off." Discovery seemed more interested in acquiring WB to grab "True TV" than to run a movie studio or CNN, and now the CEO seems eager to split off the movie and TV businesses. He wants to run the movie business. NBC is eager to shed its cable operations.
CBS is in such a weird place. It used to be they blamed their poor performing morning ratings on bad primetime, and people not changing their channel. But the network has been the most watched for a couple of decades now.
But it also comes in an area of massive erosion in live TV viewership.

 

[dixiehack]

My impression, probably false, is that network morning shows were one of the few remaining areas where third place still meant pretty good ratings relative to everyone else.

CBS has never been able to make headway against the GMA-Today duopoly, whether it was with a copycat “light” program or hard news. Honestly the only time it ever broke through before 10 am was with Captain Kangaroo.

 

[DanOregon]

Ratings don't matter. Do they pencil out is what matters. Fox News viewership today averages 3.3 million viewers. It's growing while the overall pie is getting smaller. Sure, 90 percent of its viewers are outside the 24-54 Demo, but MSNBC posts a similar 90 pct figure.
TV news is going in the same direction as the local newspaper.

 

[LanceyHoward]

My impression, probably false, is that network morning shows were one of the few remaining areas where third place still meant pretty good ratings relative to everyone else.

When I said third place I was referring to its rand among network morning shows, not against all available options. I would guess that the local Fox afflatus showing local news generally beats the CBS morning show but I am not sure.

 

[DanOregon]

Media in 2025: The Year Authority Became Performance

Colby Hall seems to be one of the few people seeing the forest from the trees these days. Just going through the Journalism thread "topics" is depressing enough. In some ways, Olivia Nuzzi might be the "Journalist of the Year" for being the perfect embodiment of the where the profession is at these days.

 

[I Should Coco]

Media in 2025: The Year Authority Became Performance

Colby Hall seems to be one of the few people seeing the forest from the trees these days. Just going through the Journalism thread "topics" is depressing enough. In some ways, Olivia Nuzzi might be the "Journalist of the Year" for being the perfect embodiment of the where the profession is at these days.

That's a good -- and depressing -- read.

He really hits the nail on the head here: "The result is a political media environment designed to make audiences feel morally vindicated rather than better informed. Curiosity now reads as weakness. Pausing to think sounds like hedging. Saying “I’m not sure yet” feels disqualifying, an awkward development for a profession built on not knowing yet."

 

[Liut]

It is dead. Has been for a long time.