In my personal opinion, it is completely unfair to consider NewsNation a fail less than one year after they launched (as a newscast). I think it is self-evident that there are those who literally want NewsNation to crash and burn, because Nexstar had the idea of creating a news channel. I think we can all agree that any start-up has to make changes as time goes on with plenty of room for improvement -- and this is no different. They are undoubtedly experiencing growing pains and people should keep that fact in mind. I also think it is also unfair to tie NewsNation directly to the decline of WGN America.
WGN America had seen better days before Nexstar, to put it mildly. And now Nexstar is injecting new life into the channel under the new NewsNation brand. As much as people want to say otherwise, WGN America was not going to survive long-term without major changes. And now Nexstar is making changes that, in my opinion, puts the channel on the best possible path to being successful. I personally would've preferred that they kept the WGN America name, at least nominally, to maintain continuity of the brand. But nonetheless, I think NewsNation has a solid concept and they are well on their way to fulfilling their mission.
I agree that NewsNation cable feed should be more accessible to digital users, but we should also remember that they have to turn a profit and just making it free over the Internet, while trying to be successful on cable, can short-circuit their success on cable.
Finally, referring to the NY Times piece, I think it is ridiculous to suggest NewsNation has some kind of unique bias. I'm sure if the shoe was on the other foot, the NY Times would have no objections. I perceive NewsNation as being objective and trying to be fair. There is no such thing as a perfect news outlet. But I would say NewsNation is among the best on cable right now for straight news.