The Lead-In Variable

One major variable in the performance of Brian Williams, Charles Gibson and Katie Couric “is largely out of the hands of those producers and respective anchors.”
It’s the lead-in.

“In order to get someone to switch to the ‘Evening News With Katie Couric,’ essentially they’re going to have to switch off from the local news on another channel, or switch their entire viewing from another channel to CBS,” David F. Poltrack, chief research officer for CBS, tells Jacques Steinberg in Monday’s NYT.

Don’t miss the second half of the story…

> Related: Variety: “Veteran news execs believe ratings are less affected by a newscast’s quality than by local programming, who’s on Oprah’s couch that day, and the routines of those viewers still around to watch the 6:30 p.m. newscasts…”