Journalism

WCJB, a legacy station in Gainesville, Fla., was losing news viewers and revenue three years ago. This May, its 11 o’clock news ratings was up 48% in adults 25-54. See how the ABC affiliate turned itself around.

When Joy Reid debuts her new MSNBC show, The ReidOut, on July 20, she will become the only black woman to host a daily primetime cable news program, a designation that takes on particular significance amid the industry-wide reckoning spawned by the killing of George Floyd and the nationwide protests that followed.

A source tells TVNewser that NBC News is offering buyout options for staffers at NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. However, we hear these buyout offers are not directly related to the Covid-19 pandemic, nor are they linked to the recent arrival of Cesar Conde, the Telemundo-turned-NBC News Group chairman who assumed the new role in May.

The NBCUniversal-owned Spanish language broadcaster is launching a latenight edition of Noticias Telemundo Fin de Semana, a newscast set to air Saturdays and Sundays at 11:30 p.m. ET beginning July 18.

David Zurawik: “While Mr. Trump and enablers in the Republican Party and the media are clearly at the core of the problem, we are at a point where others in our information ecosystem also need to look in the mirror and ask themselves if they have done and are doing enough to give their fellow citizens the information needed to help us stem and survive this pandemic.”

Margaret Sullivan: “For those who haven’t completely lost their ability to be appalled, Tucker Carlson’s smears this week of Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth can fairly be described as shocking. Carlson, who has never served in the military, called this veteran, who lost both of her legs fighting in the Iraq War, a fraud, a vandal and — maybe most remarkably — a coward.”

She becomes one of the few Black women to anchor a major American evening news program. The move was made by new leadership at NBC News, which runs the liberal-leaning cable network.

The Trump reelection campaign is branding Spanish-language network Univision a “leftist propaganda machine,” saying it will “treat them accordingly,” and is taking issue with the company’s effort to become a 100% foreign-owned network as part of an internal financial restructuring.

CNBC has signed former Fox News journalist Shepard Smith to anchor a new one-hour evening news program, the network said Wednesday. The News with Shepard Smith will debut this fall in the 7-8 p.m. time slot on the cable news business channel. The Monday through Friday newscast marks a significant shift in the evening programming strategy for CNBC, which currently relies on light, unscripted fare. CNBC Chairman Mark Hoffman said Smith’s show will try to be a counter to news and commentary programming.

In a memo to staff, NBC News Group Chairman Cesar Conde writes that the organization aspires to achieve “two concrete goals: that 50% of our News organization employees be women and 50% of our total workforce be people of color.”

The host of Tucker Carlson Tonight is drawing heat for a sharp commentary that said Democrats should be disqualified from running the country because they despise it. The Biden campaign accused Carlson of using “hate speech masquerading as journalism.”

In keeping with a nationwide industry trend, a finance firm seems poised to take control of the publisher of The Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee.

KSHB’s Dia Wall: “Stereotypical camps are being broken down. This is a different energy. It’s not just Black people. This is really a melting pot.” And her colleague Kevin Holmes adds: The crowds were “the most diverse I’ve seen in my entire career.” Above, Kevin Holmes reported on the protest as the imposed curfew time for Kansas City drew near, and large crowds remained on site.

The debate over censorship and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is thorny, contentious and outdated.

KHQ is getting hit hard by COVID-19. A third person at the Spokane, Wash., NBC affiliate has tested positive for the virus. Sean Owsley, who has been anchoring the show The 6:30 while in quarantine, tweeted that he was sick last Tuesday.

NBC News correspondent Morgan Chesky took to social media over the weekend to publicly announce that he had contracted coronavirus. “It’s a truly unsettling feeling to wake up every day and wonder how your body will respond to a virus that we’re still learning about.”

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include an opening for a news director who has vision and passion, with strong oversight and consistent communication with newsroom staff.

The Fox News host’s ratings have gone gangbusters, and many Republicans think he’d be a force in a Republican primary.