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WGN tries but fails

crainbebo said:
Are most people just getting news nowadays from Facebook? Radio? Newspaper (in some places)? Even the ranch hand who lives in Wyoming, 25 miles from the nearest town? I'm curious to know what it's like in rural America.
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I don't consider where I live rural (it's suburban). But there is no local news to me in any professional sense.

There is no radio news. Everything on radio is produced by TV stations.
There is effectively no newspaper. The regional newspaper owned by Gannett long ago put the local Ma & Pa newspaper out of business, and now Gannett's paper has cut the reporters who were assigned to the suburbs.
And the TV news is incredibly shallow, especially outside the main city in the market. Searching for the name of my suburb on the Nexstar station website reveals the following 5 stories from July:

1. Local fish restaurant enduring shortage of catfish
2. High school student to compete in regional archery competition
3. Man convicted of battery in a case from 2019
4. Pet supply chain, with a location in my town, collects donations for humane society
5. No fireworks related calls for local fire department on Independence Day

Tell me if you would spend hours a week watching the news in order to hear THOSE stories.
 
seatownmedia said:
WGN is in a tough spot. Newsnation has a tough outlook because of competition.
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Nexstar could reposition Newsnation as a streaming only outlet.

I know Nexstar in San Francisco setup KRON-ON and Los Angeles KTLA+ as subscription TV News apps for TV Sets that don't have an OTA tuner and they run on Roku OS or Amazon Fire, or Android TV OS. I can see Nexstar's other Owned station considering this move at some point though.

ktla.com

New KTLA+ streaming app now available for free on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV

KTLA is introducing KTLA+, its new streaming video app for smart TV platforms that has officially launched on Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV devices. In addition to regularly scheduled live news…
ktla.com ktla.com

emmysf.tv

KRON Launches Bay Area's First Commercial-Free, 24-Hour News App - NATAS SF/NorCal

A revolutionary local news and streaming video subscription service for mobile, desktop, tablet and OTT platforms, including Apple TV and Amazon Fire, has been launched by KRON 4 in San Francisco. Called KRON-ON, the new app is the Bay Area’s … Continue reading →
emmysf.tv emmysf.tv


In the case of San Francisco and Los Angeles it's a case of Nexstar competing against CBSN local edition for viewers.
 
seatownmedia said:
WGN America is a loose competitor to CNN and Fox. They are attempting to compete but the result is dismal. Newsnation will never compete with the big boys. I will give them credit for trying but they will likely fail.
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With these new news outlets you have to ask yourself the milliion dollar question will it be around in twenty years from today? What about ten? I think the answer with newsnation is a resounding no. The same can be said for radio. Will mark levin be around 20 years from now? how about hannity? tucker carlson maybe.
 
Syfy said:
With these new news outlets you have to ask yourself the milliion dollar question will it be around in twenty years from today? What about ten? I think the answer with newsnation is a resounding no. The same can be said for radio. Will mark levin be around 20 years from now? how about hannity? tucker carlson maybe.
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How is "20 years from today" a "million dollar question"? The news outlets don't represent plucky entrepreneurs risking everything on a pioneering concept, nor are today's Goebbels wannabes positioning themselves for anything beyond 2024, or maybe even 2022. The corporations running the news outlets will just lay off everyone involved with them if they don't perform, write off the loss, and try something else. The propagandists? They'll either become official spokespeople or chameleon themselves into voices of some other cause, whatever they can latch onto that will enrich them most.
 
CTListener said:
How is "20 years from today" a "million dollar question"? The news outlets don't represent plucky entrepreneurs risking everything on a pioneering concept, nor are today's Goebbels wannabes positioning themselves for anything beyond 2024, or maybe even 2022. The corporations running the news outlets will just lay off everyone involved with them if they don't perform, write off the loss, and try something else. The propagandists? They'll either become official spokespeople or chameleon themselves into voices of some other cause, whatever they can latch onto that will enrich them most.
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So your saying that newsnation is only planning on being around only until the 2024 election? Why not launch it closer to the next election if that was the case say 2022? They obviously are looking at trying to be a successful channel for the long term hence why I made the statement.
 
I wonder if anyone is thinking 20 years out. It seems most are seeking what can make a big splash now and ride that as long as you can before going to plan B and then plan C. With today's rapid pace of advances, what works now might be an entirely different animal in a decade. Given News Nation, the plan is to build and evolve over time. If that plan works out is still to be learned. Humble beginnings don't always mean failure.
 
Definitely no one at Nexstar is thinking on a 20 year time horizon. Getting business executives to look past one year is tough.
 
Syfy said:
With these new news outlets you have to ask yourself the milliion dollar question will it be around in twenty years from today? What about ten? I think the answer with newsnation is a resounding no. The same can be said for radio. Will mark levin be around 20 years from now? how about hannity? tucker carlson maybe.
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Nobody knows if CNN will even be around in 20 years. Consumer behavior is shifting away from Cable TV, and the revenue model hasn't exactly been figured out for streaming quite yet. The better question is, will NewsNation be around in 2-5 years, or will cable companies simply elect not to renew their contracts (or renew at significantly lower rates, making the network no longer financially viable).

That said, if trends continue (cable programming costing more and consumers spending less) I suspect that video delivered by cable will be a thing of the past within 20 years, and I am not sure traditional OTT providers like Youtube TV will even be around. To the extent that News and Sports programming still exists in a linear form, it'll probably be shifted to a direct to consumer subscription model by then.
 
Syfy said:
With these new news outlets you have to ask yourself the milliion dollar question will it be around in twenty years from today? What about ten? I think the answer with newsnation is a resounding no. The same can be said for radio. Will mark levin be around 20 years from now? how about hannity? tucker carlson maybe.
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Not likely if you are a "News/Talk" or "all news" outlet you have to think of every 2 years as in even number years to step up to be viable as in cover the elections both Midterm and Presidential elections.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
I don't consider where I live rural (it's suburban). But there is no local news to me in any professional sense.

There is no radio news. Everything on radio is produced by TV stations.
There is effectively no newspaper. The regional newspaper owned by Gannett long ago put the local Ma & Pa newspaper out of business, and now Gannett's paper has cut the reporters who were assigned to the suburbs.
Click to expand...
I haven't listened all that carefully but five days a week the first thing I hear when my clock radio comes on (I turn it off quickly) is usually a recording of someone speaking at the county commissioners' or school board meeting. They do have a news operation that seems quite professional for a small town. And the newspaper publishes twice a week.

We rarely get mentioned on the big TV stations but it does happen. The Charlotte Observer, at least the part that is printed, rarely mentions us.
 
I watched a movie yesterday. The listings called it "News Nation". And it said "News Nation" in the lower right corner and news shows were promoted in the lower left corner.
 
I read that when newsnation runs out of the syndicated offerings that were carried over from WGN then it will be nothing but News on that channel.
 
RadioPatrol said:
Maybe NewsNation will just be a national news content provider for the Nexstar owned stations like WPIX, KRON, KTLA and WGN.

Note other Nexstar owned stations like KTXL Sacramento, KSWB San Diego, KGET Bakersfield and KLAS Las Vegas get their national news content from Fox, NBC and CBS respectively.
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www.nexstar.tv

Nexstar Acquires The Hill, a Leading Independent Political Digital Media Platform, for $130 Million | Nexstar Media Group, Inc.

Nexstar Media Inc. acquired The Hill for $130 million (plus working capital adjustments), in a transaction that is expected to be immediately accretive to Nexstar’s operating results. The Hill is the nation’s leading, independent, political digital media platform.
www.nexstar.tv www.nexstar.tv

Consider another scenario NewsNation could be rebranded again as "The Hill" since Nexstar took over a political news site though. This could be something to consider in the next year as we approach 2022.
 
I've said it before but they should have kept the name WGN America for the non-news times or another name of some sort at least until the channel is totally news.
 
anotherguyTN said:
I've said it before but they should have kept the name WGN America for the non-news times or another name of some sort at least until the channel is totally news.
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That would still make no difference in the ratings or people tuning in so why does it matter.
 
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