PEW MEDIA REPORT CARD: 2010:
Network News
What is occurring in network evening news
now is not something apocalyptic.
The situation, as one industry observer described it, is glacial, not
tectonic.
An erosion, not a collapse.
For the year, network news audiences had
fallen 500,000 more from the year before,
less of a drop than in many years but nevertheless a continuing decline.
Most of the
losses came at ABC’s World News,
down 444,000 viewers year to year.
NBC Nightly
News actually grew by 65,000 viewers.
CBS
Evening News remained in third place. The
year ended with a change at the ABC anchor desk, with Diane Sawyer
replacing Charles
Gibson. As usual, the new anchor attracted a sampling of curious new
viewers, increasing
audience numbers, however briefly. Sawyer’s arrival meant that, for the
first time,
two of the three nightly network newscasts were anchored by women.
For all
the erosion in network
TV news
audiences, an average of more than 22 million
Americans
still tune in to the three commercial network news
broadcasts each evening, five times the
number of
people watching the three cable news channels at any
given moment in prime time, when far more
people are home at in front of their TV sets. And
another 1.2 million watch the
PBS
NewsHour.
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And some programs are growing.
The late-night news program (ABC) Nightline saw audiences
increase 9%.
There are new worries about the networks’
morning news programs, which are
now following the trend of the nightly newscasts.
A little less than 13 million
people watch the three
network morning news programs.
For years after evening numbers began
to fall, morning shows were a bright spot, audiences growing for several
years and then stable
for several more. That is now changed. In 2009, morning news audiences
fell for the
fifth straight year. The biggest drops, again, came at ABC for
Good Morning America.
The problems in morning news are important.
The morning shows have represented a growing share of network news
revenue thanks to
the greater number of hours of morning news – two to four hours,
depending on the network -- produced each day.
ECONOMIC CLOUT: Cable News Riding High
The
economics of network news are
challenging but the problems may
be more tied to the
structure of the financial model
than to ratings. Broadcast
network revenues come almost
entirely
from advertising, while cable
channels get half their revenue
from subscription fees from
cable operators. By our
reckoning, two of the three news
divisions could claim a profit
for
2009, ABC and NBC, though all
three network news divisions
instituted cutbacks in costs
and personnel, and ABC’s cuts
are becoming increasingly steep.
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Newspapers, including those online, saw ad revenue
fall 26 percent during the course of 2009,
bringing the total loss over the past three years to
43 percent, the study reported.
Local
television ad revenue fell 22 percent in 2009 --
triple the decline that occurred the year before
-- while radio was down 22 percent.
Magazine
ad revenue, meanwhile, dropped 17 percent, and
network TV was down 8 percent.
Online ad revenue overall fell about 5 percent.
Only
cable news, among the commercial news sectors, did
not suffer declining revenue last year,
the report found.
The
problem the networks have now is
one that is hard to escape as
long as they are bound by the
confines
of the network broadcast model.
And if the networks lean on
local stations to share some of
the revenue they
receive from cable operators for
carrying their programming,
there is a limit to what can be
gained.
Sooner
rather than later, other
platforms like the Web or video
streaming will need to become a
more integral part
of the networks distribution and
revenue strategy, a
strategy NBC has already largely
developed
and reaped benefits from.
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J61 CLASS
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:
From now to the end of the semester, watch broadcast news coverage
daily.
Start by picking a network newscast to watch. Each week choose a new
network.
Watch their network newscast weekdays at 5:30 pm or go online the
network news website.
NOTICE: Network newscast emphasize facts, information and understanding
why that's important to all.
Network journalists (correspondents) are less personal or folksy in
style...More straightforward.
The network news writing MUST be clear, EASY TO GRASP, and factually
accurate.
 Learn
more:
Pew Research Report
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