When WBFF-TV dropped its morning anchorwoman Jennifer Gladstone May, I wrote that the news had a familiar ring to it.

Across the country, TV and radio outlets are in the midst of a cost-cutting effort that is reshaping the industry and offering few hints of when - or if - it might end. Locally, TV stations are downsizing anchor desks, cutting overtime and looking at new models of content-sharing as ways of coping with a harsh economy.

The latest Baltimore station to move in that direction is WMAR (Channel 2), Baltimore's ABC affiliate, where Mary Beth Marsden is now anchoring the flagship 11 p.m. newscast alone, and station mangement says it has no plans to add a co-anchor.

Furthermore, with the recent departure of Rob Carlin, the station no longer has a full-time dedicated sports reporter, and is using free lancers for coverage. And don't look for any late news at all on Saturday nights on Channel 2 this fall. With ABC football games running late, General Manager Bill Hooper says there is not enough of an audience available to justify the newscasts.

Continue reading "WMAR-TV: More downsizing at the anchor desk" »

Posted by David Zurawik at 5:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (40)
Categories: Local TV News
        

WBFF and WTTG, the Fox TV affiliates in Baltimore and Washington, respectively, led all area stations in Capital Chesapeake Bay Region Emmy Award nominations announced this week. Each has 21 nominations.

WJLA-TV, Maryland Public Television and WUSA-TV follow the leaders with 14, 13 and 12 nominations, respectively. Comcast SportsNet has 10.

The winners will be announced June 6.

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Posted by David Zurawik at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Local TV News
        

There is more local news on TV than ever before. And while that should be good news for viewers, it's not so terrific for people working in the industry as 1,200 jobs were lost last year and salaries declined by 4.4 percent in 2008.

Half of all the TV stations in America made a profit with their newscasts, and as the economy tightened, managers expanded the airtime for local TV news.

Those are among the findings of the 2009 Radio-Television News Directors Association/Hofstra University annual study released Sunday at the group's convention.

"It's clear that stations are banking on local news to carry them into the future," Bob Papper, director of the survey and professor and chair of the department of journalism at Hofstra University said in a release. "Television is clearly suffering from the same stress as the entire economy, but stations are by no means giving up on local news."

Continue reading "Local TV news: jobs lost, but more airtime than ever" »

Posted by David Zurawik at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Local TV News