Sinclair Rethinks News Mission

SINCLAIR RETHINKS NEWS MISSION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Allison Romano]
Sinclair will eliminate newscasts on all of its WB stations by the end of the month, including those in Milwaukee, Tampa., Fla., and Buffalo, N.Y. (all affected stations will switch to My Network TV stations in September). News Central, based outside of Baltimore, will cease producing live news and instead focus on supplying news packages on national stories to Sinclair stations, much like network affiliate services. The cancellations are a culmination of several months of cutbacks. Last summer, several Sinclair stations reduced their newscasts from an hour to 30 minutes, and others dumped news altogether. Since its inception in 2002, News Central has been a hot-button issue in the local-TV industry. The Hunt Valley, Md.-based operation simulcasts news, sports and weather to affiliates, which provide their own cut-ins. Most of Sinclair's stations utilized the News Central content, but its WB newscasts relied heavily on the feed. But using centralized news, critics say, stripped stations of their localism. Maryland-based weather forecasters, for example, may not understand the complexities of lake-effect snow in Buffalo or hurricane season in Florida. “Too much of the news came from a place where none of the viewers live,” says TV-news consultant Valerie Hyman. “It was like dumbing down a newspaper.”
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6317042?display=News