LA Duopoly Emphasizes Combined Newsgathering

By Andrew Gauthier 

Broadcasting & Cable

KCBS and KCAL unveiled their new branding at 5 p.m. September 19, inserting the term “NewsCentral” into the individual stations’ brands. The aim is to remind viewers that the CBS-owned stations have the largest combined newsgathering resources of any broadcast operation in the market, says President/General Manager Patrick McClenahan.

KCBS is a CBS O&O and KCAL a CBS-owned independent; both work out of a joint Los Angeles newsroom and combine for 11 hours of news a day and 77 newscasts a week. Their brands will appear as CBS 2 NewsCentral and KCAL 9 NewsCentral, with the tagline “News that’s central to your life.”

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“It’s a natural extension of this duopoly,” says McClenahan, “since we combined the stations and opened the new facility.”

The rebrand coincides with a heightened emphasis on covering all corners of the vast Los Angeles market. More…

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