Financial News Getting Worse for Local Station Owners

[EricStein]

I just don't see Meredith and Belo having a combined news department. These are very competitive companies.

Well, one of these stations used to be on top and the other has never had any traction in the Phoenix market (in modern history), despite signing popular veterans from other stations. Sure, they're competitors, but if the economy doesn't recover, this may be the only way one or both of the station's news presences can survive.

Meredith may be a competitive company, but in their two largest markets (Atlanta and Phoenix), they're far from being so.

 

[formeraa]

Eric --

Don't get me wrong. I agree that there are too many television news departments in this city. (Of course, our friends to the West in San Diego have six full news departments. They must really be suffering over there.)

I definitely believe that 3TV should focus most of its energy in the mornings, where GMAZ tends to do very well. It was curious to me that they laid off Dan and Brad, who were an integral part of that program. It may have been wiser to actually beef up the mornings (go from 4:30am to 10am, for example). Cut back potentially in the evenings.

Similarly, due to the CBS primetime lineup, KPHO tends to be strong at 10pm. I would eliminate the am news (just provide updates during the am). If I were KPHO, I would pare down to am updates, noon, 6:30pm, and 10pm.