If ABC Offers “Tailored Content” For The West Coast, It Could “Own That Timeslot”

Andrew Tyndall of The Tyndall Report offers this thought on the WNT Western Edition conversation (scroll down for the other comments):

“The issue of the 9pm feed of the network nightly newscasts needs to be clarified. If ABC World News Tonight is doing nothing except updating its newscast so that it reflects events that have happened in the ensuing three hours since the east coast feed, then CBS and NBC are correct, this announcement is nothing more than formalizing procedures already in place.

It could be, however, that ABC is contemplating a west coast edition of its newscast, with tailored content — for example more immigration stories, more Latin American news, more environmental coverage, treating show business and Silicon Valley as key regional industries not as entertainment and consumer beats, using a regular Sacramento correspondent to cover Schwarzenegger. If they are committed to the latter, then this is not repackaging. It gives ABC a huge opportunity to own that timeslot in the Pacific zone, an area of the country that has been deplorably underserved by the network news divisions for decades.”