Journalism

America lost a quarter of its journalists from 2008 to 2018, the vast majority of them covering local issues, according to University of North Carolina professor Penny Muse Abernathy. Newsrooms lost at least 3,800 jobs in 2019 alone. She estimates the country has lost 2,100 newspapers since 2004, 70 of them dailies. In that environment, the chief executives for three top chains, people in charge collectively of more than 700 newspapers reaching more than 12 million subscribers, agreed to interviews with The Washington Post to share their thoughts on the future of their companies and of local news.

David Brooks: “Those of us in journalism primarily do one thing: cover events. We report and opine about events like election campaigns, wars and crimes. But a funny thing has happened to events in this era. They have ceased to drive politics the way they used to. Increasingly, sociology is.”

The Newseum is a period piece. During a recent visit, passing by its early satellite truck, its fragments of the Berlin Wall, its homages to legendary broadcasters and war correspondents, it was hard not to feel a twinge of nostalgia for the bygone era that birthed it.

Chuck Todd has had a front-row seat for the spread of disinformation. Here’s how he sees it happening and the media’s role in it.

It’s impossible to know what, exactly, the future holds, particularly in an era of unprecedented transformation — but that’s never stopped smart people from prognosticating. As the decade draws to a close, The Hollywood Reporter asked more than 40 of them — from the heads of studios to the faces of movements — to weigh in with their predictions for the year ahead.

Cronkite News wanted to test the idea that audiences on-air and online would stay longer and be more engaged with our coverage if we gave them the chance to participate via a live news quiz testing their knowledge of recycling while we reported on the problem. For easy scoring, we opted to go with 10 questions incorporated during the first 15 minutes of our newscast dedicated to recycling coverage. Spoiler alert: This show dramatically overperformed its average for audience engagement.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a news anchor/reporter and a meteorologist/reporter for stations owned by Lockwood Broadcasting and Heartland Media.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include five openings in news at Newsmax Media in the Nation’s capital.

Most news ratings that change in any market year-to-year are measured in single digits. You rarely see a station grow its ratings in one newscast by 30% or more. But that’s exactly what Meredith’s WSMV Nashville did, not just in one newscast, but across five of its early evening newscasts.

TVNewsCheck brought together executives from all the major station groups — and one soon-to-launch cable network — for a two-day event this week exploring the latest intersections of news and technology. Complete video coverage of its many panels and interviews is available now. (Photo: Wendy Moger-Bross)

Both Fox News Channel and NBC had roughly 5 million viewers during the hour, starting at 8 p.m. ET, when the House took separate votes Wednesday on two articles of impeachment,  Nielsen said. MSNBC had 3.2 million viewers and CNN had 2.84 million.

A special “Meet the Press” deep dive on disinformation in politics reminiscent of last December’s hour on climate change, is scheduled for Dec. 29. Moderator Chuck Todd: “I’m not going to pretend to have the answers,” Todd said in an interview. “This is a spotlight. I hope my guests have good ideas. This to me is about sounding the alarm.”

As television news broadcasters move to expand their reach into web, mobile and OTT platforms, they are adopting a number of tools and strategies including more automation, better collaboration tools and, in some cases, internal software development. L-r: Gray’s Mike Fass, Avid’s Ray Thompson, Fox’s Emily Stone and ABC’s Fabian Westerwelle. (Photo: Wendy Moger-Bross)