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Sunday Newspaper TV Inserts

P

Pistol Pete

Can anyone recall the names of any of the listings services that once provided TV inserts for Sunday newspapers?

During the 1980s, there appear to have been at least two producing inserts for Southern New England - three, if you count one that seems to have used TV Guide's listings verbatim (probably owned by the same company). The inserts had generic titles like TV Week and don't bear a copyright notice or any indicator that they were produced by the papers' parent syndicates, though papers owned by the same syndicate may have used the same vendor.

Thank you.
 
At one point, the upstate New York papers all produced their own Sunday TV magazines (the Rochester Times-Union, the evening paper until it closed in 1997, only published six days a week and ran its TV supplement with the Saturday paper--so did the Buffalo Evening News, until it rolled out a Sunday edition in the late 1970s). Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse all put together their own TV/radio inserts with program guides from the regional stations and editorial content pulled from a combination of local interviews with local radio and TV personalities and wire service features from AP, feature syndicates and/or UPI.

They were all actually pretty accurate and competitive with TV Guide. Buffalo papers included listings from stations in Buffalo, Rochester, Toronto, Hamilton and Erie, PA. Rochester carried listings from Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse stations, while the Syracuse supplement included listings from Syracuse, Rochester, Binghamton, Watertown and Utica.
 
The one that ran here in Pittsburgh for many years in the old Sunday Press
was called the "TV Graphic".

Never understood what was so "graphic" about it, aside from a handful of
black-and-white screen shots from upcoming shows.
 
and some newspaper made 2 version of the TV guide. Metro and State.. Both the Detroit News and Free Press had a version for papers sold in the Detroit Metro Area (with the Detroit, Lansing, Toledo, Windsor, and Sarina Listings) and one for Outstate (with nearly all of the TV stations in Michigan). The one published by the free Press was called the TV Book.
 
the indianapolis star has its own tv insert on the sunday paper.and always had its own as far as i know.

now if you want the exact same insert it costs a quarter extra to get it in the sunday paper.it`s getting absurd .things cost more and you get less from newspapers.

is`t the way to get more customers be a better service ?not give less for more?it`s like they plan to go down the financal drain by design.
 
I seem to recall a company in Glens Falls, NY that collected
this data and supplied it to newspapers.

Although I didn't get to see it unless I was in a library, my
favorite was the Milwaukee Journal insert; IIRC, they had
every station in Wisconsin.
 
I seem to recall a company in Glens Falls, NY that collected
this data and supplied it to newspapers.


Yes I remember that company. I know they supplied the listings to most of the Upstate NY Sunday newspaper inserts. Don't know if they were nationwide. They were good but not in the same league as TV GUIDE.
 
therealjm12 said:
I seem to recall a company in Glens Falls, NY that collected
this data and supplied it to newspapers.


Yes I remember that company. I know they supplied the listings to most of the Upstate NY Sunday newspaper inserts. Don't know if they were nationwide. They were good but not in the same league as TV GUIDE.
Click to expand...

I think that would be TV Data, which eventually became Tribune Media Services IIRC...they supplied some papers north of the border too...ironically, TV Media, based out of Ottawa, has made a lot of inroads stateside in recent years-a bit of a reversal from TV Data :)
 
I thank everyone for responding to my question.

From what I gather, the bigger city papers put together their Sunday TV inserts in house from a variety of sources. The smaller city papers must have obtained theirs from packagers who added local TV listings and ads to otherwise generic material.

In both cases, the TV listings themselves appear to have been compiled and supplied by a handful of outside vendors, who may or may not have been in the business of actually producing the inserts. Bluenoser mentioned TV Data, now Tribune Media Services; bpatrick said they operated out of Glens Falls, NY. There must have been at least one more - it may vary by region - because I've noticed discrepancies in listings for the same date between CT papers whose coverage areas overlap.

At some point, TV Guide must have gotten into the act - supplying listings to its chief competitors - because the New Haven Register's Sunday insert listings are verbatim copies right down to the typographical errors!
 
I would really like to see the old fashioned "TV Guide looking" TV sections come back.

Atlanta replaced theirs years ago with a 6 page insert. The print is so small, not much
larger than a phone book.
 
"Do any papers still do TV inserts?"

So many channels on so many cable and satellite systems, many don't try. But the New York Daily News still does, both daily (a two page chart) and on Sunday (an insert with seven days' listings and feature articles on shows and stars, largely compiled and written in-house because they're big enough to do it). They cover all the NYC and surrounding area OTA stations plus all the principal premium channels and standard-tier cable channels, several dozen in all.
 
the indianapolis star does but they now charge a quarter more for the same insert that was free before.
 
firepoint525 said:
Most newspaper subscribers (Sunday subscribers in particular) are probably more interested in the coupons anyway! ::) Think "extreme couponing"!
Click to expand...

they may be more interested in the coupons but the tv listings would be nice too.and not for an extra charge.

if newspapers are losing customers shoudn`t the way to deal with it is give better service,not less?

the indianapolis star quit putting daily listings in the paper long ago.
 
The Des Moines Register still has a Sunday TV section. I saw it this morning for the first time in years. Back in the 60s they listed every station in Iowa, plus markets adjacent to the states. Later, they had 2 or 3 editions, with stations grouped geographically.

I don't know if they have different editions now, but the edition I saw in northwest Iowa defied logic for the stations listed:

CBS KCCI Des Moines
KMEG Sioux City
KQHA Hannibal
WHBF Rock Island

NBC WHO Des Moines
KWWL Waterloo
KTIV Sioux City
WOWT Omaha

ABC WOI Ames/Des Moines
WQAD Moline
KTVO Ottumwa
KAAL Austin

FOX KDSM Des Moines
KPTM Omaha

plus KFPK (Ion-Des Moines) and KDMI (This TV/My Network TV, Des Moines). I think there may have been a generic "CW" listed.
 
jh said:
The Des Moines Register still has a Sunday TV section... I don't know if they have different editions now, but the edition I saw in northwest Iowa defied logic for the stations listed...
Click to expand...

Has the makings for the crappiest TV section ever -- only the commercial outlets for Des Moines and purely random listings for adjacent markets. It's as if they don't even try. Also, did they have any PBS listings? If not, I rest my case.
 
North of the border, not a lot of newspapers do Sunday TV sections, opting to do them on either Friday or Saturday (IIRC the only ones to do Sunday is the Toronto Sun and its sister papers in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary). In my local area, here's who does TV listings supplements (or "telecasters" as the local term goes) and when:

Amherst Daily News: 4 page section in sister weekly Citizen-Record
Halifax Chronicle Herald: no (it was dropped several years ago, previously a tabloid section on Mondays; it now runs a daily 4pm-midnight grid)
Moncton Times & Transcript: yes, Fridays (broadsheet format)
Saint John Telegraph-Journal: yes, Fridays (tabloid, mainly consisting of Tribune's Select format)
 
azumanga said:
Has the makings for the crappiest TV section ever -- only the commercial outlets for Des Moines and purely random listings for adjacent markets. It's as if they don't even try. Also, did they have any PBS listings? If not, I rest my case.
Click to expand...

Yes, they had PBS. And a bunch of cable channels. (I don't have it with me, so I'm not sure if those listings make sense.)
 
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