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Behind the numbers, Pew study finds many stations are sacrificing quality, creativity for high profits
Is the commitment to maintain skyhigh profit margins causing local television to abandon its commitment to the elements that created those profits-to the industry's own detriment?
In its third annual report on local news, released earlier this month (B&C Nov. 13, p. 21), the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which is affiliated with Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, drew that conclusion. "[The business is cutting back on precisely the elements that attract viewers-- including enterprise, localism, breadth, innovation and sourcing." The majority of stories studied this year, said the project, "were either feeds or footage aired without an onscene reporter."
Most of the 50 stations in the 15 markets surveyed were considered mediocre, including Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago, Sioux Falls and Wichita. (The chart does not include survey results for morning newscasts in Birmingham, Ala.; Detroit; and Portland, Ore.)
"If the industry does not begin soon to change," say study leaders Tom Rosenstiel, Carl Gottlieb...