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The Turmoil Saga of NewsNation


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It certainly provided a lot of content for NewsNation tonight. Lambert was on Banfield's show after leaving jail.

 

I know a couple of people who worked with him in other markets, and they say he's a good guy, and that he handled the situation about as well as to be expected.

 

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The only thing I’m curious about is if National Press Club says anything about this, or do they keep quiet?

 

i guarantee you that if this was a Gray or Scripps or CBS or even a Sinclair employee, the NPC would be (rightfully) raising a stink. But none of those groups chose to affiliate with LIV…

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  • 2 weeks later...

Paul Fahri of the WaPo—one of the last true classic media critics around—did a review of NewsNation for the paper last week.

 

He wasn’t impressed.
 

Quote

At a time when the cable news industry is struggling to retain viewers, it may be a problematic business plan. Launched in 2020, NewsNation still draws rounding-error ratings, despite a small boost from the CNN veteran, who joined the network in October. It averaged about 63,000 viewers per night during 2022, ranking it 107th among national networks. By comparison, even ratings-challenged CNN — which has fallen behind Fox News and MSNBC — regularly attracts more than 10 times as many viewers per night.

 

At the moment, news isn’t even the leading draw on NewsNation. Its highest-rated program last year was daytime reruns of “Blue Bloods,” the Tom Selleck cop drama that is a holdover from WGN America, the cable channel NewsNation used to be.


… hosts from the Ghosts of Cable News Past


It’s just hard to fathom the old model on another network will flourish,” says Carol Costello, a former CNN anchor who now teaches journalism at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “People are not watching news the way they used to. I don’t see anything on NewsNation [that is] particularly new.

She added, “I applaud NewsNation for trying. It is a challenge to teach [and] explain what journalism actually is today and why it’s important. That makes me achingly sad.”

I wonder sometimes if this current iteration of NewsNation is nothing more than a front for the eventual endgame of merging all newsrooms under their control under the “NewsNation” aegis. Just keep running the channel with the Ghosts of Cable News Past—as the quick money grab it is, thanks to retrans fees—as nothing more than an interregnum.

 

By 2025, you’ll see “NewsNation New York”, “NewsNation Chicago”, “NewsNation Los Angeles”, “NewsNation Cleveland”, etc., fully replacing local brands as the cable channel evolves into a cheap program supplier for the local stations.

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I see NewsNation as a channel that wanted to spill some sort of Tribune, 2010-daytime era vibes of news quality over WGN America. 

 

Now, if these local stations' news divisions ever become fully local NewsNation', will they automatically have more viewers than mothership itself? Automatically, yes. 

 

But will it get more viewers than the other affiliates? Something tells me, if the station gotten viewers more than the affiliates before, it'll probably stay that way, unless the station drastically changes the format to accommodate the new local NewsNation that the viewer will draw outrage over. 

Edited by NewEgg00
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9 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

By 2025, you’ll see “NewsNation New York”, “NewsNation Chicago”, “NewsNation Los Angeles”, “NewsNation Cleveland”, etc., fully replacing local brands as the cable channel evolves into a cheap program supplier for the local stations.

 

"NewsNation Billings".... "NewsNation Elmira".... "NewsNation Escanaba"... "NewsNation Podunk"....

 

I can see their competitors having a field day. "Would you trust news for Escanaba that's coming from CHIGAGO?"

 

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1 hour ago, mre29 said:

"NewsNation Billings".... "NewsNation Elmira".... "NewsNation Escanaba"... "NewsNation Podunk"....

 

I can see their competitors having a field day. "Would you trust news for Escanaba that's coming from CHIGAGO?"

Until the competition copies what Nexstar does. Which is that extra layer of hell Dante forgot to write about.

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On 2/20/2023 at 11:30 AM, Myron Falwell said:

By 2025, you’ll see “NewsNation New York”, “NewsNation Chicago”, “NewsNation Los Angeles”, “NewsNation Cleveland”, etc., fully replacing local brands as the cable channel evolves into a cheap program supplier for the local stations.

 

I can't imagine local stations/newscasts adopting the NewsNation branding. Specifically because of the word "nation" in there if they want to emphasize being local ("New York's own"). 

 

I also think "NewsNation" is a lame name. Sounds more like a news fan club or something. Not a newscast, and certainly not a channel (that only sometimes has news).

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NewsNation has TV apps for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Samsung. 

 

The app is the first to be developed using Haystack Technology. It's based on the Haystack news app that offers live, and playlist-based videos. It has the weather, stocks, news and more in a cable news styled ticker at the bottom of the screen. But NewsNation didn't want to use that portion of the features. 

 

A thing to note is that NewsNation videos are on the Haystack app itself. And both UIs are literally the same, minus the colors, splash screen, etc. So why would NN partner with Haystack instead of developing it themselves? Maybe they were too lazy in getting developers themselves. 

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19 hours ago, NewEgg00 said:

NewsNation has TV apps for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Samsung. 

 

The app is the first to be developed using Haystack Technology. It's based on the Haystack news app that offers live, and playlist-based videos. It has the weather, stocks, news and more in a cable news styled ticker at the bottom of the screen. But NewsNation didn't want to use that portion of the features. 

 

A thing to note is that NewsNation videos are on the Haystack app itself. And both UIs are literally the same, minus the colors, splash screen, etc. So why would NN partner with Haystack instead of developing it themselves? Maybe they were too lazy in getting developers themselves. 

The fact that they went on Roku etc. in the first place is a sign that even Nexstar knows the gravy train of cable retrans revenue isn’t going to last for too much longer.

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...and the even bigger piece of that article is that Sook says that the network is converting to 24 hours of news programming Monday through Friday by the end of April this year. Entertainment programming will remain only on weekends, albeit temporarily, as their goal is to move weekends to all-news by the end of 2024.

 

Sounds like they're going all-in and not backing down.

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4 hours ago, Spring Rubber said:

...and the even bigger piece of that article is that Sook says that the network is converting to 24 hours of news programming Monday through Friday by the end of April this year. Entertainment programming will remain only on weekends, albeit temporarily, as their goal is to move weekends to all-news by the end of 2024.

 

Sounds like they're going all-in and not backing down.

 

I'm curious if they plan to make changes at 7P [maybe 'The Hill' goes here??] to provide a stronger lead-in into primetime programming.

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45 minutes ago, jase said:

 

I'm curious if they plan to make changes at 7P [maybe 'The Hill' goes here??] to provide a stronger lead-in into primetime programming.

I wonder if Rush Hour with its current name and format moves to an afternoon timeslot after the expansion is complete - Maybe like 3pm-5pm ET, or earlier? Then maybe one other news show to bridge the gap between Marni's NewsNation Live and Rush Hour? Perhaps bump Morning in America up to 6am-9am ET to match the general industry standard, followed by NewsNation Live starting at 9am ET?

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8 hours ago, Spring Rubber said:

I wonder if Rush Hour with its current name and format moves to an afternoon timeslot after the expansion is complete - Maybe like 3pm-5pm ET, or earlier? Then maybe one other news show to bridge the gap between Marni's NewsNation Live and Rush Hour? Perhaps bump Morning in America up to 6am-9am ET to match the general industry standard, followed by NewsNation Live starting at 9am ET?


I could see Rush Hour moving up like you suggested. It’s my understanding that it’s one of their strongest blocks. 
 

Having a show like ‘The Hill’ at 7P would be a good alternative or giving Elizabeth 2 hrs. to lead into Cuomo. Morning in America is dreadful and is in dire need of a change. Bankert is way too opinionated. 
 

I don’t have an issue with opinion-based shows, but it’s best to keep them to prime time (or early evenings). The majority of the day should be ’news-heavy,’ but that’s probably asking too much of them.

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All in to *losing money* from a dwindling TV audience. Wow, is there anyone with a brain left at Nexstar? Even a rolling news format ala CNN Headline News won't even work in today's environment. You can easily find news on Facebook, on the station's website, even asking Alexa. The average 30-year-old isn't watching NewsNation and neither will the average 50-year-old.

 

At least they woke up and realized streaming apps are the way to go.

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Even know they say by the end of 2024 that they will be 24/7 news network I think it is more likely fall of 2024 when the election starts to ramp up for the Nov election in 2024. Blue Bloods Sat in marathon and Last Man Standing marathon on Sun since those are the 2 syndication shows they run most on NewsNation.

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35 minutes ago, Megatron81 said:

Even know they say by the end of 2024 that they will be 24/7 news network I think it is more likely fall of 2024 when the election starts to ramp up for the Nov election in 2024. Blue Bloods Sat in marathon and Last Man Standing marathon on Sun since those are the 2 syndication shows they run most on NewsNation.

They have contracts for those shows that last until the end of 2024. I don't think they can drop those shows two months early.

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4 hours ago, jase said:

 

Leland Vittert to moderate NewsNation Panel Show ‘The Hill’. He will move to DC and continue to host ‘On Balance’. 
 

https://deadline.com/2023/03/newsnation-the-hill-leland-vittert-1235280809/

At this point, I'm starting to wonder if the dayside programming will even remain in Chicago or if the eventual goal is going to be to move everyone to NYC or DC, just like everyone else in the national media game.

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3 hours ago, Spring Rubber said:

At this point, I'm starting to wonder if the dayside programming will even remain in Chicago or if the eventual goal is going to be to move everyone to NYC or DC, just like everyone else in the national media game.


Despite them abandoning their ’News from the Heartland’ approach, I think the majority of programming stays in Chicago. Chris and Dan were already based (likely Elizabeth too) in NYC, so it made sense for them to stay there.

 

I‘m sure they will add an additional political show or two aside from ‘The Hill’ and be DC-based.

 

There’s no benefit I can think of to moving NewsNation (along with the rest of the Nexstar Networks group) from Chicago. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Drew said:

Now that Rush Hour will be gone by the end of April do you think Nichole Berlie will be moving to the dayside after Marini? 


The 1-5P block needs to be filled, so I’m assuming Berlie (along with someone else) would be given those hours. I think ’Morning in America’ needs a complete overhaul ASAP so I wouldn’t be against the idea of shifting Berlie there, making ‘Early Morning’  2 hrs. and moving Bankert to EM with Carr. 

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