SMRs and AMRs

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Network news feels pain of fractured audiences

By Karla Peterson
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

June 1, 2008

The “Today” show said goodbye to Katie Couric two years ago yesterday in a televised bash designed to reduce the departing host to tears. Couric didn't cry then, but as the ratings for her “CBS Evening News” broadcast continue to drop, she has plenty of reasons to cry now. And plenty of company to cry with.

Although the big nightly news shows on ABC, NBC and CBS still command a collective audience of more than 23 million, the Big Three face major challenges.

Revenues are down and news staffs have been cut. The network news audience is half of what it was 40 years ago and in 2007 dropped 5 percent from the previous year, the Project for Excellence in Journalism reported this year. The average viewer age was 61.

“I'm not sure kids care about the news,” said former CNN anchor Aaron Brown, who has been teaching at Arizona State University. “Eventually, the 25-year-olds will become the 35-year-olds, and all of a sudden the great debates of the moment are going to matter a little more to them. But I'm not persuaded that they are going to get their news from television.”

(Continued here.)

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