TV news is a quaint “long past due” tradition — like dinosaurs, dodo birds, overtly child-friendly Catholic priests, proud George W. Bush-supporting Republicans, fans of “Lost”, etc.
Seems TV news departments are getting their asses handed to them by both viewers and advertisers — The big three TV network newscasts lost about 1.2 million viewers last year, and advertising on their three big morning news shows fell to an estimated $1.03 billion.
The average age of the TV news viewer is 60 (so you can assume all the viewers that they are losing — well they are losing them six-feet under — heart disease, cancer, sheer boredom, etc.)
It doesn’t play well with advertisers who are looking for that ever-elusive 18-35 demographic (who, of course are more than likely living up to their “MTV generation short attention span” ways and getting their news online — when & how they want it.)
Ad Age has an extensive article about how the news world is changing — due to “the internets” and other factors.
Apparently, like all things in life, the internet makes things cheaper & faster — and now TV news departments are adjusting for the change (and only 10+ years late) with using the “cheaper than regular TV” production formats of the web.
One wonders if they’ll ever learn…I wouldn’t hold your breath or bet the farm on it.