KOMU‘s interactive newscast is moving to noon and scaling back on Google+ involvement from viewers beginning later this month.
Jennifer Reeves, the interactive director of the Columbia NBC-affiliate, told TVSpy the interactive newscast is not being cancelled, noting that the only changes are “the show’s time, name and format changes to boost its professionalism.”
“We’re scaling back on how we present interactivity in a way our audience is more wiling to accept,” Reeves said. “This is partly the challenge of bringing new delivery to a traditional space.”
The newscast will shift to noon. It will still be anchored by Sarah Hill and Dave Schmidt.
This is the second move for the newscast, which originally debuted in September as an hourlong program in the 4 p.m. timeslot. In January, the show was rebranded “U_News” and moved to 11 a.m.
“[The newscast] is proof of the challenge of creating audience in new ways but not having the ability to measure the audience for sales to find non-traditional ways to fund the newscast,” Reeves said. “The biggest lesson we’ve learned is when you try to launch new efforts on the news side of a broadcast environment, you need the sales side to also innovate.”