NewsNation Launch Thread

[Georgie56 2,097]

Dean Reynolds is out.

[Newsjunkie24 133]

7 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

Dean Reynolds is out.

 

Wow. Maybe he still wanted to work during the election as he was fired by CBS in the midst of it and retire sometime after Biden's inauguration. 

[ScottJ 91]

14 minutes ago, Newsjunkie24 said:

 

Wow. Maybe he still wanted to work during the election as he was fired by CBS in the midst of it and retire sometime after Biden's inauguration. 

The article says he signed a six-month contract with NewsNation to take him through the inauguration,  so this isn't a surprise. 

[jrh1985 53]

41 minutes ago, ScottJ said:

The article says he signed a six-month contract with NewsNation to take him through the inauguration,  so this isn't a surprise. 

So not a Bombshell, Good!

[newsman123 63]

I mean.. if the gig was a good one, he would have likely stayed and re upped. I think he saw the ship sinking and said no thanks. 

[ScottJ 91]

17 minutes ago, newsman123 said:

I mean.. if the gig was a good one, he would have likely stayed and re upped. I think he saw the ship sinking and said no thanks. 

This quote makes it sound like Nexstar didn't offer him a contract renewal.

Quote

“It just ran out. I’m totally fine with that. I have nothing but gratitude for them,” he said, adding: “But I get why the timing looks kind of funny.”

Which makes sense from the company's side of things. Now that the election is over, there's no reason to pay an experienced political correspondent like Reynolds when they can hire someone younger/more inexperienced/cheaper during a time when interest in politics won't be as high as it was in the last few years. I'm sure NN won't lose a significant number of viewers because Dean Reynolds isn't on anymore.

[polyiguana 14]

I thought that was what Michael Shure was for - general national reporting (Rich McHugh for investigations, although clearly he needs more practice in front of the camera). Dean doesn't travel, and I haven't seen Joe Khalil leave Washington, but all the other correspondents, and the weekend anchors travel.  

[mrschimpf 641]

The listings for the first weekdays as NewsNation are out, and outside the new additions in primetime (and a repeat of Banfield after the West Coast re-loop)...no real changes to the schedule. The early morning infomercial/God block remains unchanged, along with the block marathons of JAG, Blue Bloods, and In the Heat of the Night. DailyMailTV airs at 3am, and it looks like Last Man Standing is off the schedule.

 

Still wondering how their weekends will be scheduled, though.

[tvtime07 149]

14 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

The listings for the first weekdays as NewsNation are out, and outside the new additions in primetime (and a repeat of Banfield after the West Coast re-loop)...no real changes to the schedule. The early morning infomercial/God block remains unchanged, along with the block marathons of JAG, Blue Bloods, and In the Heat of the Night. DailyMailTV airs at 3am, and it looks like Last Man Standing is off the schedule.

 

Still wondering how their weekends will be scheduled, though.

I remember reading an article saying that the network will honor the remainder of their syndicated contracts. Sort of odd from a branding perspective but then again progressive-leaning Freeform remains attached to the hip of Pat Robertson and The 700 Club for all eternity. 

[Newsjunkie24 133]

1 hour ago, tvtime07 said:

I remember reading an article saying that the network will honor the remainder of their syndicated contracts. Sort of odd from a branding perspective but then again progressive-leaning Freeform remains attached to the hip of Pat Robertson and The 700 Club for all eternity. 

 

Seems like Last Man Standing is the first show to have its contract run out.

[Wildish 7]

It's a pretty messy rollout though, waiting til they all ran out and premiering with a full schedule would have been better. This is just confusing and reads as a hail mary or something they're not sure of. It's almost like they don't want to go all in on news, cause they're scared.

[Nelson R. 186]

20 hours ago, Newsjunkie24 said:

 

Seems like Last Man Standing is the first show to have its contract run out.

Just checked and it will still be on WGN locally in Chicago, at 8 and 8:30 CT. So obviously it was two separate contracts.

[CalItalian2 92]

On 2/19/2021 at 7:14 PM, mrschimpf said:

The listings for the first weekdays as NewsNation are out, and outside the new additions in primetime (and a repeat of Banfield after the West Coast re-loop)...no real changes to the schedule. The early morning infomercial/God block remains unchanged, along with the block marathons of JAG, Blue Bloods, and In the Heat of the Night. DailyMailTV airs at 3am, and it looks like Last Man Standing is off the schedule.

 

Still wondering how their weekends will be scheduled, though.

Yes there are changes to the schedule. For one, the (west coast times) 5 PM news will now repeat at 9 PM. A 4 HOUR OLD NEWS! LOL! Bad enough that it was 3 hours old.

 

Now spots running on non-WGN America channels for NewsNation not mentioning WGN America nobody will never know where it is. Not that they did before.

 

LOVE those ratings from this past weekend! One of the lowest EVER! There are more crickets in my backyard than that are watching FAILED NewsNation! Just sell the damn channel to someone, Nexstar.

 

Edited February 23 by CalItalian2

[RCA TK47 185]

Plain & simple, NewsNation is late to the ballgame.  There's no Presidential campaign/election going on, no Trump Twittering in the White House, no real salacious stories going on right now, etc.  It's going to be hard for them to get any traction to build viewership in this slowing news cycle right now.  The average viewer just has no reason to make it 'appointment viewing'.  The news market is already saturated as it is.  And offering up a four hour old newscast for those of us on the west coast?  Um... no.  Nexstar should've taken WGN in a totally different direction other than news.... but...  Nexstar's other problem is that they don't have a library of programming to broadcast like NBCUniversal or ViacomCBS does.  On your cable/dish lineup, WGN/NewsNation is like that weird guy at the end of bar that nobody talks to.... just taking up space.  There could be a hot babe sitting there instead!

[ABC 7 Denver 896]

12 minutes ago, RCA TK47 said:

Plain & simple, NewsNation is late to the ballgame.  There's no Presidential campaign/election going on, no Trump Twittering in the White House, no real salacious stories going on right now, etc.  It's going to be hard for them to get any traction to build viewership in this slowing news cycle right now.  The average viewer just has no reason to make it 'appointment viewing'.  The news market is already saturated as it is.  And offering up a four hour old newscast for those of us on the west coast?  Um... no.  Nexstar should've taken WGN in a totally different direction other than news.... but...  Nexstar's other problem is that they don't have a library of programming to broadcast like NBCUniversal or ViacomCBS does.  On your cable/dish lineup, WGN/NewsNation is like that weird guy at the end of bar that nobody talks to.... just taking up space.  There could be a hot babe sitting there instead!

And they aren't the last one going to be trying to find viewership in especially with a Conservative slant. There are two other Conservative opinion networks slated to open in the next year or so. So consider that Fox News, Newsmax, OANN, NewsNation, and two additional networks are vying for the same 30% of Americans. This is increasingly appearing to be an allegory of the fractured GOP.

[mightynine 48]

If NewsNation had come out of the gates with exclusive stories that they had enterprised on their own - ones that would've led those stories to be talked about on other outlets and given them basically free pub - there might've been a different story here. But they never bothered, just giving viewers a somewhat staid newscast with little of thousands of reporters they loved to mention in the build-up.

 

Now? It'll slowly fill out the schedule with reheated news, some more opinion and either become a milquetoast attempt at being not quite as right as Fox or try to go even further right and fight for the sliver of that audience slice with OANN and Newsmax.

 

With the reveal Bill Shine has been there since the beginning, their claim of bias-free is suspect, so it'll be that much harder to grow their news side, if they even really want to since we know Compton isn't happy with the results so far.

 

Ultimately, NewsNation will limp along, helped by carriage agreements drawing minimal eyeballs, or filling the time between local newscasts on Nexstar's sites or on an app if the company decides they want to make one too.

 

I do wonder if Compton's leash is getting shorter with the flop sweat growing on this product.

Edited February 23 by mightynine

[AJClementeFan69 455]

The writing on the wall should have been seen early on. Just look at this post from one of its consultants.

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2020/9/25/is-this-why-news-nation-went-so-soft-on-trump

 

Full of conservative tropes about how everyone else is biased, "the possibility of a rigged election", etc.

 

And you look at the other aspects. Talent opens, emphasis on WX, anonymous local news talent (sorry--your weekend guy coming from Little Rock is not network level) just goes to show what a clown show it is. They tried to format a national newscast like local news.

 

Instead of being a fresh choice, it's been nothing more than an ego project for Perry Sook and it's unfortunate that so many resources have been and continue to be devoted to this, rather than beefing up its local stations.

Edited February 24 by AJClementeFan69

[polyiguana 14]

Rich McHugh is bringing stories, though. He was Ronan Farrow's producer at NBC, although he is clearly not very comfortable in front of the camera. The nurse practitioners running their own urgent care story got quite a bit of traction among the MD community. The fact that NN can't seem to connect with Spectrum, one of the larger cable providers. to allow them to watch them on the app doesn't help. They've also been posting fewer stories on their Youtube channel, which makes sense as they don't want to give it away for free, but also reduces the possibility that their content could go viral. 

[lugnuts6 60]

I spoke of this once before, but here is my solution , and i'm not a consultant , i'm a viewer like you folks

 and you can agree or disagree, all i ask is for an open mind 

 

 NewsNation as a concept would work, if..and this has been a problem of theirs since its debut, and that is WHY they dont have the program live coast to coast

solution.. you have TWO HQs for the newscast  one  at WGN Chicago & one at the sunset gower studios , the home of KTLA TV , I think they have some studio space that is unused at the moment that could house a west coast NN.

here's an example of a toss  :

 

Ashleigh Banfield: [standing at the big screen]  "before we go lets check in with our west coast newsroom to see what they have as NewsNation continues LIVE , here's  Joan Richter in L.A." [ cut to joan who gives the headlines and then tosses back to Ashleigh]

Ashleigh: Thanks Joan, and thats our program ,stay tuned now for NewsNation West Coast as the news goes LIVE coast to coast and never stops! 

 

Use the template of the early days of CNN [not the present version of CNN which lets face it , is "eau du bovine"]  if it worked for them , it will work for NewsNation. 

 

 

 

 

 

[J1975am 153]

17 minutes ago, lugnuts6 said:

I spoke of this once before, but here is my solution , and i'm not a consultant , i'm a viewer like you folks

 and you can agree or disagree, all i ask is for an open mind 

 

 NewsNation as a concept would work, if..and this has been a problem of theirs since its debut, and that is WHY they dont have the program live coast to coast

solution.. you have TWO HQs for the newscast  one  at WGN Chicago & one at the sunset gower studios , the home of KTLA TV , I think they have some studio space that is unused at the moment that could house a west coast NN.

here's an example of a toss  :

 

Ashleigh Banfield: [standing at the big screen]  "before we go lets check in with our west coast newsroom to see what they have as NewsNation continues LIVE , here's  Joan Richter in L.A." [ cut to joan who gives the headlines and then tosses back to Ashleigh]

Ashleigh: Thanks Joan, and thats our program ,stay tuned now for NewsNation West Coast as the news goes LIVE coast to coast and never stops! 

 

Use the template of the early days of CNN [not the present version of CNN which lets face it , is "eau du bovine"]  if it worked for them , it will work for NewsNation. 

 

 

 

 

 

I like this idea; however, it would have to require a large amount of arm-twisting, if you will, to get Nexstar corporate to approve.....

 

FWIW, Nexstar is impressed with how WGN-TV itself in Chicago is run, but not so much with KTLA in Los Angeles; search FTVLive’s stories on KTLA to get the main idea......

[CircleSeven 1,329]

Well, they didn't have to wait until Monday to redirect wgnamerica.com url to the NewsNationNow site.

[Georgie56 2,097]

1 hour ago, CircleSeven said:

Well, they didn't have to wait until Monday to redirect wgnamerica.com url to the NewsNationNow site.

 

The WGNA Twitter account has changed as well. It's now @NewsNation.

[tyrannical bastard 2,098]

It will be interesting to see how they burn off the WGN shows tomorrow.  Probably just by eliminating the "WGN America" bug and keeping the NewsNation ad-bug up.

 

From what I've seen and the promos that they run on the Nexstar stations, it just comes off as a glorified local newscast, even down to the Proof of Benefits/Performance spots they run (NewsNation told you about.....) which are a time-honored bastion of local television promotions, especially during and right after sweeps.

 

Maybe they should try simulcasting WGN's local newscasts for a week to see which one gets better ratings.  Heck, even going way back to the All News Channel days, that was a good watch in the days after Headline News started going down the toilet...

[CalItalian2 92]

On 2/20/2021 at 10:24 AM, Newsjunkie24 said:

 

Seems like Last Man Standing is the first show to have its contract run out.

Incorrect. It is running weekends. Married With Children is out. 

[JCB4TV 271]

2 hours ago, CalItalian2 said:

Incorrect. It is running weekends. Married With Children is out. 

I believe that Married... With Children departed the WGNA lineup when NewsNation launched last fall.