United States television news
Encyclopedia
Television news
in the United States
has evolved over many years. It has gone from a simple 10- to 15-minute format in the evenings, to a variety of programs and channels. Today, viewers can watch local, regional and national news program
ming, in many different ways, any time of the day.
hosted the first-ever news broadcast on television in 1930 and the first regularly scheduled television-news broadcast in 1940. Television newscasts began entering American homes for good in the late 1940s with NBC
's Camel Newsreel Theatre
. However, Edward R. Murrow
was widely regarded as the pioneer of U.S. television news. On his weekly news show See It Now
on CBS
, Murrow presented live reports from journalists on both the east and west coasts of the United States—the first program with live simultaneous transmission from coast to coast. See It Now focused on a number of controversial issues, but its most memorable moment was a 30-minute special on March 9, 1954, entitled "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy
," which contributed to the eventual political downfall of the senator.
was a 10-minute program anchored by John Cameron Swayze
, and featured newsreel
s from Movietone News
. CBS soon followed suit in May 1948 with a 15-minute program, CBS-TV News, anchored by Douglas Edwards
and subsequently renamed Douglas Edwards with the News. The DuMont Television Network
had The Walter Compton News (June 1947-1948), I.N.S. Telenews
and Camera Headlines
(1948–1949), and DuMont Evening News
(September 1954-1 April 1955).
. The show was succeeded by the Huntley-Brinkley Report
in 1956, featuring a duo-anchor format with Chet Huntley
and David Brinkley
. On September 9, 1963, the Huntley-Brinkley Report expanded to 30 minutes, following a similar move by CBS. It was renamed NBC Nightly News
in 1970, after Huntley's retirement. Initially, NBC Nightly News was presented by two anchors from a rotating group of three: Brinkley, John Chancellor
, and Frank McGee
. A year later, Chancellor became sole anchor, and Brinkley provided commentaries. (McGee became host of Today.) In 1976, Brinkley rejoined the program as co-anchor. He continued in that role until 1979, when Chancellor resumed anchoring the program solo. Chancellor moved to the role of commentator in 1982 and was succeeded by a team of Tom Brokaw
in New York and Roger Mudd
in Washington. Brokaw became sole anchor in 1983.
CBS launched CBS-TV News in May 1948 to compete against Camel News Caravan. Hosted by Douglas Edwards
, it was renamed Douglas Edwards with the News in 1950. In 1962, Walter Cronkite
landed the anchor seat, which he would hold until 1981, and the program's name was changed to CBS Evening News
. On September 2, 1963, the show expanded from 15 to 30 minutes. In the 1970s, CBS Evening News was the dominant newscast on American television, and Cronkite was often cited as the "most trusted man in America." After Cronkite's retirement in 1981, Dan Rather
became the anchor of CBS Evening News. He was joined by co-anchor Connie Chung
from 1993 to 1995.
ABC Evening News began airing in 1953, hosted by John Charles Daly
. Daly had been a well-known CBS radio correspondent, though today he is best remembered as the emcee of CBS's long-running game show, What's My Line?
, which he hosted while serving as ABC's anchorman. Daly left ABC in 1960 and was succeeded by a frequently expanding list of successors that included John Cameron Swayze, Bill Laurence, Bill Sheehan, Ron Cochran, a young Peter Jennings
, and Bob Young. In 1968, Frank Reynolds
became anchor of the program, and it soon expanded from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. A year later, Howard K. Smith
joined as co-anchor, reporting from Washington. In early 1971, Harry Reasoner
left CBS News and replaced Reynolds as the New York anchor. Reasoner became the sole anchor in 1975, and Smith provided commentaries. In 1976, Barbara Walters
joined the program as Reasoner's co-anchor in New York, thus becoming the first woman to serve as a network news anchor (though Marlene Sanders had previously filled in on the program). Reasoner was very unhappy with the move, and the two did not work well together. In 1978, a year after Roone Arledge
became President of ABC News, the ABC Evening News was succeeded by ABC World News Tonight with a trio of anchors: Frank Reynolds
, Peter Jennings and Max Robinson
. Jennings assumed solo anchor responsibility in 1983 following Reynolds's death.
took over from Brokaw as anchor of NBC Nightly News, after Brokaw's well-anticipated retirement, announced in 2002. Rather also retired from the anchor seat of CBS Evening News in March 2005, albeit quite abruptly, after it was discovered that CBS used fake documents in a report on George W. Bush
's Air National Guard
record. Jennings stepped away from the network anchor seat as well in April 2005, after he announced that he had lung cancer
and would undergo chemotherapy
. After the announcement, ABC World News Tonight was hosted by Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas
.
Jennings died in August 2005 and ABC named Vargas and Woodruff as co-anchors of the broadcast in January 2006. Later that month, Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt
were injured in a roadside bomb attack while on assignment in Iraq. His injuries were so severe, it became apparent he would not return to the anchor chair, although he eventually recovered enough to return as an occasional correspondent. Vargas continued on the broadcast, until May 2006, when she announced she was stepping down and going on maternity leave
.
as sole anchor of ABC World News Tonight. Two months later, ABC renamed the program World News with Charles Gibson
. In February 2007, the program achieved the number one spot in the Nielsen ratings
for nightly news broadcasts, overtaking NBC Nightly News. This was ABC's first victory since the week Peter Jennings died in August 2005, and the first time since 1996. NBC Nightly News subsequently reclaimed the lead and currently maintains a steady lead over the other programs. On September 2, 2009, ABC announced that Mr. Gibson would retire from broadcasting at the end of 2009, and then be succeeded by Diane Sawyer
.
At CBS-TV, Bob Schieffer
took over the anchor chair at CBS Evening News on an interim basis. In an effort by CBS to reach a younger audience, Todays Katie Couric
was made the new anchorperson. She is the first solo female anchor of a broadcast network's flagship evening newscast.
has enabled reporters to capture video and audio at greater ease and edit the footage faster than when film was used. Journalists have also employed microwave
and satellite
Television news programming in the U.S. can be separated into categories: local news, network news, and cable news.
in which the stations operate. In other words, the stories have a strong local focus, and are relevant to local lives. National or international stories may also make the top stories but local perspectives/reactions are featured in these stories. Weather reports also play a very important role in local news as they are found in every local newscast. Compared to national news, local news provides more in-depth, regular and frequent coverage of weather reports. Sports news are also a major regular feature during evening newscasts.
A station typically produces around four to five hours of local news on weekdays and airs fewer hours on weekends.
, CBS
, and NBC
all operate news divisions, named ABC News
, CBS News
, and NBC News
respectively. Their schedules are broadly similar, with minor exceptions.
Early weekday mornings, at 4:00AM EST, all three air half hour programs, ABC's America This Morning, CBS's CBS Morning News
, and NBC's Early Today
. Early Today is the highest rated of these programs. Most but not all stations across the country air these early morning national newscasts.
Following local news, ABC's Good Morning America
, CBS's The Early Show
, and NBC's Today air. Today has a significant lead over Good Morning America, while The Early Show trails further. Good Morning America also airs on weekends, as does Weekend Today
. The Early Show only has a Saturday edition. On Sundays, CBS instead airs CBS News Sunday Morning
, a long-running arts and culture anthology. The top stories come in the first few segments of the show but as the minutes pass, the stories presented gradually shift to more lifestyle-oriented and light-hearted ones. These national morning newscasts have cut-ins to local weather and newscasts every half hour. On weekdays, the shows air at 7:00 in each and every time zone but on weekends, they either air live or with a 1-hour tape delay from the original broadcast in all time zones. ABC's and CBS' morning shows are two hours long, while Today has expanded to four hours. NBC affiliates that air Live with Regis and Kelly
, especially in the east coast, tape-delay the hours preempted by this program.
On Sunday mornings, the networks air political interview programs. NBC's Meet the Press
leads CBS's Face the Nation
and ABC's This Week
. In addition, Fox
airs a program produced by its Fox News
sister company called , which is the Fox network's only scheduled news program.
During daytime on weekdays, ABC's ABC News Brief and CBS's CBS Newsbreak airs at 3:58PM.
In the evenings, World News with Diane Sawyer, CBS Evening News
with Scott Pelley, and NBC Nightly News
with Brian Williams are the networks' flagship news programs. All three shows air seven nights a week, but their titular hosts only appear on weeknights unless there is major breaking news during weekends. On weekdays, the evening newscasts air at 6:30 in most East Coast and Los Angeles DMA stations and 5:30 local time in most other time zones.
During primetime, all three networks air newsmagazine programs. ABC airs 20/20 Fridays at 10PM and Primetime
Wednesdays at 10PM. 20/20 often airs 2 hour editions beginning at 9PM and Primetime is often expanded to multiple airings per week to fill Unlike ABC and NBC, these are not expanded to fill holes in the schedule. NBC's Dateline
currently airs Tuesdays and Saturdays at 8PM, but like ABC's programs frequently switches, adds, and drops timeslots to fill primetime. 60 Minutes is the most popular of these programs, and also the most respected journalistically, but they rarely directly compete with one another.
On late weeknights, ABC airs Nightline at 11:30PM. It is the only national news programme that immediately follows late night local news. This half hour newsmagazine competes with comedy/variety programs on NBC and CBS. From 2 to 6 AM, CBS offers its Up to the Minute
, a program consisting of repeats of features from other CBS News programs, interspersed with new news, weather, and sports updates. Few affiliates air the entire broadcast, but most air a substantial portion of it. ABC airs its eclectic World News Now
from 2AM to 3:30AM, and many affiliates repeat a portion of it to fill time until America This Morning. NBC airs poker and repeats of its variety shows in these time periods.
in the United States led to the eventual birth of cable news
. On June 1, 1980, Ted Turner
launched CNN
, the first 24-hour cable news operation. The station gained reputation significantly with its 1991 coverage of the Gulf War
.
The success of CNN inspired many other 24-hour cable news stations. Today, CNN, HLN
, Fox News Channel
, MSNBC
, and CNBC
compete for viewers in the national cable news arena. Regional cable news operations, such as New England Cable News
, NY1
for NYC, Northwest Cable News
, Pittsburgh Cable News Channel
and Texas Cable News
, have also gained prominence among regional viewers.
The programming styles vary among these cable news channels. But during prime time, these cable news networks air programming strongly driven by their key personalities; typically such programming is in "TV Show" format around a particular host, rather than continuous broadcasts of breaking news. There are no regular live overnight newscasts and instead, primetime shows are replayed but MSNBC and Fox News provide live bulletins at the top of each overnight hour which last for around 1–2 minutes.
become more prevalent in American lives, television news operations learn to adapt and embrace new technologies. Today, most television news operations would publish the text of the stories aired during their newscasts on their website
s. Some of them, including all the network and national cable news operations, post videos of the stories for visitors to their websites. Some anchors, reporters, and notable news programs also have blogs that take viewers behind the scenes of their news operation or provide a forum for either the personalities or viewers to air their opinions. In recent years, these news outlets have also provided an avenue for amateurs with digital or mobile phone cameras to send video created by them to be used in the broadcast and website. Television journalists are acquiring skills for the convergence between television and the Internet. Social media has also become a fixture on the news as most networks, news programmes and key personalities maintain Twitter accounts to let viewers get late breaking news, find out what's going on behind the scenes, as well as give comments and questions.
Technological advancement is also changing the ways news is gathered and edited. The newsreel
days are long gone. Reporters do not use film anymore. Television journalists are capturing images and sound on video
and DV
. Some stations even begin gathering and reporting news in high-definition television
. Even editing and archiving systems are evolving, as more and more stations convert to non-linear editing system
s, and storing file footage on computer server
s rather than tapes.
With digital cable
comes on-demand
news programming. News operations slowly begin to feel the burden to generate news content on a 24-hour news cycle
, while keeping material fresh on their regularly scheduled newscasts. This means around-the-clock coverage. Rather than having a certain deadline for scheduled newscasts to meet, reporters have to file stories as fast as they can. Producers, on the other hand, have to find more ways to keep news stories "fresh" to the viewers.
This format is no longer prevalent.
, a division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation
, devised a new format of local news called Eyewitness News. Reporters were hired to go out of the newsroom, become "eyewitnesses" of news stories, and record them on film. Later, these reporters were also asked to join the anchors in the studio to talk about the stories.
Al Primo
created the format, which was first used on KYW-TV
in Philadelphia. Primo later brought the format in 1968 to WABC-TV
New York.
The Eyewitness News format also helped introduce different anchor combinations to local newscasts. The format continued to flourish, and imitated by stations across the country.
Today, most television news operations are working under some variation of the Eyewitness News format.
in Philadelphia to compete against the Eyewitness News format. The Action News format features short stories, high story counts in newscasts, and a strong focus on spot news. The "Action" refers to the fast pacing of the newscast.
On a national network, programming interruptions are restricted to extremely urgent news. On the other hand, such breaks are now common on 24-hour news channels which often have an anchor available for live interruption at any time. Some networks, such as Sky News
, largely emphasize this, even advertising the station as being "first for breaking news".
Almost every news operation uses some franchises. But a few stations build their news identities around these topical stories.
News departments at television stations work closely with promotions departments during sweeps to create promotional spots throughout the day that will entice viewers to tune in to the newscasts.
News broadcasting
News broadcasting is the broadcasting of various news events and other information via television, radio or internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or television studio newsroom, or by a broadcast network...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
has evolved over many years. It has gone from a simple 10- to 15-minute format in the evenings, to a variety of programs and channels. Today, viewers can watch local, regional and national news program
News program
A news program, news programme, news show, or newscast is a regularly scheduled radio or television program that reports current events. News is typically reported in a series of individual stories that are presented by one or more anchors...
ming, in many different ways, any time of the day.
Origin of television news
Lowell ThomasLowell Thomas
Lowell Jackson Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, and traveler, best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous...
hosted the first-ever news broadcast on television in 1930 and the first regularly scheduled television-news broadcast in 1940. Television newscasts began entering American homes for good in the late 1940s with NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Camel Newsreel Theatre
Camel News Caravan
The Camel News Caravan was a 15 minute American television news program aired by NBC News from February 14, 1949 to October 26, 1956. Sponsored by the Camel cigarette brand and anchored by John Cameron Swayze, it was the first NBC news program to use NBC filmed news stories rather than movie...
. However, Edward R. Murrow
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...
was widely regarded as the pioneer of U.S. television news. On his weekly news show See It Now
See It Now
See It Now is an American newsmagazine and documentary series broadcast by CBS from 1951 to 1958. It was created by Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly, Murrow being the host of the show. From 1952 to 1957, See It Now won four Emmy Awards and was nominated three times...
on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, Murrow presented live reports from journalists on both the east and west coasts of the United States—the first program with live simultaneous transmission from coast to coast. See It Now focused on a number of controversial issues, but its most memorable moment was a 30-minute special on March 9, 1954, entitled "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
," which contributed to the eventual political downfall of the senator.
Early Days
Network news had a humble beginning. Launched in February 1948 by NBC, Camel Newsreel TheatreCamel News Caravan
The Camel News Caravan was a 15 minute American television news program aired by NBC News from February 14, 1949 to October 26, 1956. Sponsored by the Camel cigarette brand and anchored by John Cameron Swayze, it was the first NBC news program to use NBC filmed news stories rather than movie...
was a 10-minute program anchored by John Cameron Swayze
John Cameron Swayze
John Cameron Swayze was a popular news commentator and game show panelist in the United States during the 1950s.- Early life :...
, and featured newsreel
Newsreel
A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
s from Movietone News
Movietone News
Movietone News is a newsreel that ran from 1928 to 1963 in the United States, and from 1929 to 1979 in the United Kingdom.-History:It is known in the U.S. as Fox Movietone News, produced cinema, sound newsreels from 1928 to 1963 in the U.S., from 1929 to 1979 in the UK , and from 1929 to 1975 in...
. CBS soon followed suit in May 1948 with a 15-minute program, CBS-TV News, anchored by Douglas Edwards
Douglas Edwards
Douglas Edwards was America's first network news television anchor, anchoring CBS's first nightly news broadcast from 1948–1962, which was later to be titled CBS Evening News.-Early life and career:...
and subsequently renamed Douglas Edwards with the News. The DuMont Television Network
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
had The Walter Compton News (June 1947-1948), I.N.S. Telenews
I.N.S. Telenews
I.N.S. Telenews was a news program aired on the now defunct DuMont Television Network from 1948 to 1949.-Broadcast history:Each episode was 15 minutes long, made by International News Service. It aired weekly, each Tuesday at 7:45 pm EST, immediatedly following Camera Headlines which aired Monday...
and Camera Headlines
Camera Headlines
Camera Headlines was an early American television series that aired from 1948 to 1949 on the DuMont Television Network.-Broadcast history:...
(1948–1949), and DuMont Evening News
DuMont Evening News
The DuMont Evening News is an American news program which aired on the now-defunct DuMont Television Network during the 1954-1955 season. Presented by Morgan Beatty, the 15-minute show was the network's third and final attempt at a nightly news broadcast....
(September 1954-1 April 1955).
Expansion from 15 to 30 Minutes
Camel Newsreel Theatre was later expanded to 15 minutes and renamed Camel News CaravanCamel News Caravan
The Camel News Caravan was a 15 minute American television news program aired by NBC News from February 14, 1949 to October 26, 1956. Sponsored by the Camel cigarette brand and anchored by John Cameron Swayze, it was the first NBC news program to use NBC filmed news stories rather than movie...
. The show was succeeded by the Huntley-Brinkley Report
Huntley-Brinkley Report
The Huntley-Brinkley Report was the NBC television network's flagship evening news program from October 29, 1956 until July 31, 1970. It was anchored by Chet Huntley in New York City, and David Brinkley in Washington, D.C...
in 1956, featuring a duo-anchor format with Chet Huntley
Chet Huntley
Chester Robert "Chet" Huntley was an American television newscaster, best known for co-anchoring NBC's evening news program, The Huntley-Brinkley Report, for 14 years beginning in 1956.-Early life:...
and David Brinkley
David Brinkley
David McClure Brinkley was an American newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997....
. On September 9, 1963, the Huntley-Brinkley Report expanded to 30 minutes, following a similar move by CBS. It was renamed NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...
in 1970, after Huntley's retirement. Initially, NBC Nightly News was presented by two anchors from a rotating group of three: Brinkley, John Chancellor
John Chancellor
John William Chancellor was a well-known American journalist who spent most of his career with NBC News...
, and Frank McGee
Frank McGee (journalism)
Frank McGee was an American television journalist.Born in Monroe in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, McGee began his broadcast news career at WKY-TV in his hometown. In 1955, the owners of WKY purchased WSFA-TV in Montgomery, Alabama, and sent McGee there as news...
. A year later, Chancellor became sole anchor, and Brinkley provided commentaries. (McGee became host of Today.) In 1976, Brinkley rejoined the program as co-anchor. He continued in that role until 1979, when Chancellor resumed anchoring the program solo. Chancellor moved to the role of commentator in 1982 and was succeeded by a team of Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw
Thomas John "Tom" Brokaw is an American television journalist and author best known as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004. He is the author of The Greatest Generation and other books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors...
in New York and Roger Mudd
Roger Mudd
Roger Mudd is a U.S. television journalist and broadcaster, most recently as the primary anchor for The History Channel. Previously, Mudd was weekend and weekday substitute anchor of CBS Evening News, co-anchor of the weekday NBC Nightly News, and hosted NBC's Meet the Press, and NBC's American...
in Washington. Brokaw became sole anchor in 1983.
CBS launched CBS-TV News in May 1948 to compete against Camel News Caravan. Hosted by Douglas Edwards
Douglas Edwards
Douglas Edwards was America's first network news television anchor, anchoring CBS's first nightly news broadcast from 1948–1962, which was later to be titled CBS Evening News.-Early life and career:...
, it was renamed Douglas Edwards with the News in 1950. In 1962, Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
landed the anchor seat, which he would hold until 1981, and the program's name was changed to CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
. On September 2, 1963, the show expanded from 15 to 30 minutes. In the 1970s, CBS Evening News was the dominant newscast on American television, and Cronkite was often cited as the "most trusted man in America." After Cronkite's retirement in 1981, Dan Rather
Dan Rather
Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9,...
became the anchor of CBS Evening News. He was joined by co-anchor Connie Chung
Connie Chung
Connie Chung, full name: Constance Yu-Hwa Chung Povich is an American journalist who has been an anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bülow and U.S...
from 1993 to 1995.
ABC Evening News began airing in 1953, hosted by John Charles Daly
John Charles Daly
John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly (generally known as John Charles Daly or simply John Daly (February 20, 1914 – February 24, 1991) was an American journalist, game show host and radio personality, probably best known for hosting...
. Daly had been a well-known CBS radio correspondent, though today he is best remembered as the emcee of CBS's long-running game show, What's My Line?
What's My Line?
What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....
, which he hosted while serving as ABC's anchorman. Daly left ABC in 1960 and was succeeded by a frequently expanding list of successors that included John Cameron Swayze, Bill Laurence, Bill Sheehan, Ron Cochran, a young Peter Jennings
Peter Jennings
Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM was a Canadian American journalist and news anchor. He was the sole anchor of ABC's World News Tonight from 1983 until his death in 2005 of complications from lung cancer...
, and Bob Young. In 1968, Frank Reynolds
Frank Reynolds
Frank James Reynolds was an American television journalist for ABC and CBS News.He was a New York-based anchor of the ABC Evening News from 1968 to 1970 and later as the Washington D.C.-based co-anchor of World News Tonight from 1978 until his death in 1983...
became anchor of the program, and it soon expanded from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. A year later, Howard K. Smith
Howard K. Smith
Howard Kingsbury Smith was an American journalist, radio reporter, television anchorman, political commentator, and film actor. He was one of the original Edward R. Murrow boys.-Early life:...
joined as co-anchor, reporting from Washington. In early 1971, Harry Reasoner
Harry Reasoner
Harry Truman Reasoner was an American journalist for ABC and CBS News, known for his inventive use of language as a television commentator, and as a founder of the 60 Minutes program.-Biography:...
left CBS News and replaced Reynolds as the New York anchor. Reasoner became the sole anchor in 1975, and Smith provided commentaries. In 1976, Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters
Barbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. She has hosted morning television shows , the television newsmagazine , former co-anchor of the ABC Evening News, and current contributor to ABC News.Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news...
joined the program as Reasoner's co-anchor in New York, thus becoming the first woman to serve as a network news anchor (though Marlene Sanders had previously filled in on the program). Reasoner was very unhappy with the move, and the two did not work well together. In 1978, a year after Roone Arledge
Roone Arledge
Roone Pickney Arledge, Jr. was an American sports broadcasting pioneer who was chairman of ABC News from 1977 until several years before his death, and a key part of the company's rise to competition with the two other main television networks, NBC and CBS, in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s.-Early...
became President of ABC News, the ABC Evening News was succeeded by ABC World News Tonight with a trio of anchors: Frank Reynolds
Frank Reynolds
Frank James Reynolds was an American television journalist for ABC and CBS News.He was a New York-based anchor of the ABC Evening News from 1968 to 1970 and later as the Washington D.C.-based co-anchor of World News Tonight from 1978 until his death in 1983...
, Peter Jennings and Max Robinson
Max Robinson
Max Robinson was an American broadcast journalist, and ABC News World News Tonight co-anchor. He was the first African American broadcast network news anchor in the United States and one of the first television journalists to die of AIDS...
. Jennings assumed solo anchor responsibility in 1983 following Reynolds's death.
Jennings, Rather, Brokaw era
Brokaw, Rather, and Jennings became the familiar faces of network news for more than two decades. But changes began in December 2004, when Brian WilliamsBrian Williams
Brian Douglas Williams is the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News, the evening news program of the NBC television network, a position he assumed in 2004...
took over from Brokaw as anchor of NBC Nightly News, after Brokaw's well-anticipated retirement, announced in 2002. Rather also retired from the anchor seat of CBS Evening News in March 2005, albeit quite abruptly, after it was discovered that CBS used fake documents in a report on George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's Air National Guard
Air National Guard
The Air National Guard , often referred to as the Air Guard, is the air force militia organized by each of the fifty U.S. states, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the territories of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia of the United States. Established under Title 10 and...
record. Jennings stepped away from the network anchor seat as well in April 2005, after he announced that he had lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
and would undergo chemotherapy
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....
. After the announcement, ABC World News Tonight was hosted by Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas
Elizabeth Vargas
Elizabeth Vargas is an American television journalist who is anchor of ABC's television newsmagazine 20/20 and ABC News Specials. She was previously an anchor of World News Tonight.-Early years:...
.
Jennings died in August 2005 and ABC named Vargas and Woodruff as co-anchors of the broadcast in January 2006. Later that month, Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt
Doug Vogt
Doug Vogt is a Canadian photojournalist and cameraman. He was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. He lived 25 years in Europe and presently calls Los Angeles, USA his new home...
were injured in a roadside bomb attack while on assignment in Iraq. His injuries were so severe, it became apparent he would not return to the anchor chair, although he eventually recovered enough to return as an occasional correspondent. Vargas continued on the broadcast, until May 2006, when she announced she was stepping down and going on maternity leave
Parental leave
Parental leave is an employee benefit that provides paid or unpaid time off work to care for a child or make arrangements for the child's welfare. Often, the term parental leave includes maternity, paternity, and adoption leave...
.
Post Jennings, Rather, Brokaw era
On May 29, 2006, ABC named Charles GibsonCharles Gibson
Charles deWolf "Charlie" Gibson is a former American broadcast television anchor and journalist. He was a host of Good Morning America from 1987 to 1998 and 1999 to 2006 and anchor of World News with Charles Gibson from 2006 to 2009....
as sole anchor of ABC World News Tonight. Two months later, ABC renamed the program World News with Charles Gibson
World News with Charles Gibson
ABC World News is the flagship daily evening program of ABC News, the news division of the American Broadcasting Company television network in the United States. Currently, the weekday editions are anchored by Diane Sawyer and the weekend editions are anchored by David Muir. The program has been...
. In February 2007, the program achieved the number one spot in the Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
for nightly news broadcasts, overtaking NBC Nightly News. This was ABC's first victory since the week Peter Jennings died in August 2005, and the first time since 1996. NBC Nightly News subsequently reclaimed the lead and currently maintains a steady lead over the other programs. On September 2, 2009, ABC announced that Mr. Gibson would retire from broadcasting at the end of 2009, and then be succeeded by Diane Sawyer
Diane Sawyer
Lila Diane Sawyer is the current anchor of ABC News' flagship program, ABC World News. Previously, Sawyer had been co-anchor of ABC Newss morning news program, Good Morning America ....
.
At CBS-TV, Bob Schieffer
Bob Schieffer
Bob Lloyd Schieffer is an American television journalist who has been with CBS News since 1969, serving 23 years as anchor on the Saturday edition of CBS Evening News from 1973 to 1996; chief Washington correspondent since 1982, moderator of the Sunday public affairs show Face the Nation since...
took over the anchor chair at CBS Evening News on an interim basis. In an effort by CBS to reach a younger audience, Todays Katie Couric
Katie Couric
Katherine Anne "Katie" Couric is an American journalist and author. She serves as Special Correspondent for ABC News, contributing to ABC World News, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America, This Week and primetime news specials...
was made the new anchorperson. She is the first solo female anchor of a broadcast network's flagship evening newscast.
Today's television news
Today, electronic news gatheringElectronic news gathering
ENG is a broadcasting industry acronym which stands for electronic news gathering. It can mean anything from a lone broadcast journalist reporter taking a single professional video camera out to shoot a story, to an entire television crew taking a production truck or satellite truck on location...
has enabled reporters to capture video and audio at greater ease and edit the footage faster than when film was used. Journalists have also employed microwave
Microwave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
and satellite
Communications satellite
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications...
Television news programming in the U.S. can be separated into categories: local news, network news, and cable news.
Local news
Many local broadcast television stations have in-house news departments that produce their own newscasts. The content of the newscasts are geared towards viewers in specific Designated Market AreasMedia market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
in which the stations operate. In other words, the stories have a strong local focus, and are relevant to local lives. National or international stories may also make the top stories but local perspectives/reactions are featured in these stories. Weather reports also play a very important role in local news as they are found in every local newscast. Compared to national news, local news provides more in-depth, regular and frequent coverage of weather reports. Sports news are also a major regular feature during evening newscasts.
A station typically produces around four to five hours of local news on weekdays and airs fewer hours on weekends.
National network news
ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
all operate news divisions, named ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
, CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
, and NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
respectively. Their schedules are broadly similar, with minor exceptions.
Early weekday mornings, at 4:00AM EST, all three air half hour programs, ABC's America This Morning, CBS's CBS Morning News
CBS Morning News
For CBS's main morning news program, formerly known as CBS Morning News, see The Early Show.CBS Morning News is the half-hour daily television broadcast from CBS News that airs following Up to the Minute and features late-breaking news stories, weather forecasts, and sports scores...
, and NBC's Early Today
Early Today
Early Today is an American morning news programme airing on the NBC television network. The program goes out live at 4:00am Eastern Time Zone for those few stations which start their local news at 4:30am, and is transmitted in a continuous half-hour tape delay loop until 10:00am ET, when Today...
. Early Today is the highest rated of these programs. Most but not all stations across the country air these early morning national newscasts.
Following local news, ABC's Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
, CBS's The Early Show
The Early Show
The Early Show is an American television morning news talk show broadcast by CBS from New York City. The program airs live from 7 to 9 a.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday; most affiliates in the Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones air the show on tape-delay from 7 to 9 a.m. local time. ...
, and NBC's Today air. Today has a significant lead over Good Morning America, while The Early Show trails further. Good Morning America also airs on weekends, as does Weekend Today
Weekend Today
Weekend Today is the unofficial title of the weekend editions of Today, an American morning news and talk show which airs daily on NBC.-History:...
. The Early Show only has a Saturday edition. On Sundays, CBS instead airs CBS News Sunday Morning
CBS News Sunday Morning
CBS News Sunday Morning is an American television news magazine program created by Robert Northshield and original host Charles Kuralt. The program has aired continuously since January 28, 1979 on the CBS Television Network, airing in the Eastern US on Sunday from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m...
, a long-running arts and culture anthology. The top stories come in the first few segments of the show but as the minutes pass, the stories presented gradually shift to more lifestyle-oriented and light-hearted ones. These national morning newscasts have cut-ins to local weather and newscasts every half hour. On weekdays, the shows air at 7:00 in each and every time zone but on weekends, they either air live or with a 1-hour tape delay from the original broadcast in all time zones. ABC's and CBS' morning shows are two hours long, while Today has expanded to four hours. NBC affiliates that air Live with Regis and Kelly
Live with Regis and Kelly
Live! with Kelly is a syndicated American television morning talk show, hosted by Kelly Ripa. The show has aired since 1983 in New York City and 1988 nationwide. Tony Pigg has been the show's announcer since its inception...
, especially in the east coast, tape-delay the hours preempted by this program.
On Sunday mornings, the networks air political interview programs. NBC's Meet the Press
Meet the Press
Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...
leads CBS's Face the Nation
Face the Nation
Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer is an American Sunday-morning political interview show which premiered on the CBS television network on November 7, 1954. It is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television...
and ABC's This Week
This Week (ABC TV series)
This Week is ABC's Sunday morning political affairs program.The Sunday morning talk show has aired on Sunday mornings on ABC since 1981; the program is initially aired at 9:00 AM ET, although many stations air the program later, especially those in other time zones...
. In addition, Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
airs a program produced by its Fox News
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
sister company called , which is the Fox network's only scheduled news program.
During daytime on weekdays, ABC's ABC News Brief and CBS's CBS Newsbreak airs at 3:58PM.
In the evenings, World News with Diane Sawyer, CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
with Scott Pelley, and NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...
with Brian Williams are the networks' flagship news programs. All three shows air seven nights a week, but their titular hosts only appear on weeknights unless there is major breaking news during weekends. On weekdays, the evening newscasts air at 6:30 in most East Coast and Los Angeles DMA stations and 5:30 local time in most other time zones.
During primetime, all three networks air newsmagazine programs. ABC airs 20/20 Fridays at 10PM and Primetime
Primetime (TV series)
Primetime is an American news magazine show which debuted on ABC in 1989 with co-hosts Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer and originally had the title Primetime Live.-Early history:...
Wednesdays at 10PM. 20/20 often airs 2 hour editions beginning at 9PM and Primetime is often expanded to multiple airings per week to fill Unlike ABC and NBC, these are not expanded to fill holes in the schedule. NBC's Dateline
Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC, or Dateline, is a U.S. weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC. It previously was NBC's flagship news magazine, but now focuses on true crime stories. It airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST and after football season on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.-History:Dateline is historically notable for...
currently airs Tuesdays and Saturdays at 8PM, but like ABC's programs frequently switches, adds, and drops timeslots to fill primetime. 60 Minutes is the most popular of these programs, and also the most respected journalistically, but they rarely directly compete with one another.
On late weeknights, ABC airs Nightline at 11:30PM. It is the only national news programme that immediately follows late night local news. This half hour newsmagazine competes with comedy/variety programs on NBC and CBS. From 2 to 6 AM, CBS offers its Up to the Minute
Up to the Minute
Up to the Minute is a CBS overnight broadcast which offers hard news, features, interviews, weather, sports, business and commentary. Up to the Minute draws from the full resources of CBS News, including the CBS Evening News, Newspath, affiliate stations, the CBS Radio Network and Reuters Television...
, a program consisting of repeats of features from other CBS News programs, interspersed with new news, weather, and sports updates. Few affiliates air the entire broadcast, but most air a substantial portion of it. ABC airs its eclectic World News Now
World News Now
World News Now is an American overnight news program broadcast on American Broadcasting Company's television network. Its tone is often lighthearted, irreverent and humorous...
from 2AM to 3:30AM, and many affiliates repeat a portion of it to fill time until America This Morning. NBC airs poker and repeats of its variety shows in these time periods.
Cable news
The advent of cable televisionCable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
in the United States led to the eventual birth of cable news
United States cable news
Cable news refers to television channels devoted to television news broadcasts, with the name deriving from the proliferation of such networks during the 1980s with the advent of cable television. In the United States, early networks included CNN in 1980, Financial News Network in 1981, and CNN2 ...
. On June 1, 1980, Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
launched CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, the first 24-hour cable news operation. The station gained reputation significantly with its 1991 coverage of the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
.
The success of CNN inspired many other 24-hour cable news stations. Today, CNN, HLN
HLN
HLN can refer to*HLN , a cable network formerly known as Headline News*The IATA airport code for Helena Regional Airport*The Horizon League Network—see Horizon League#Horizon League Network*The shorthand notation of Phenolphthalein...
, Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
, MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
, and CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
compete for viewers in the national cable news arena. Regional cable news operations, such as New England Cable News
New England Cable News
New England Cable News is a regional 24-hour cable news television network owned and operated by NBCUniversal serving the New England region of the United States. It is very similar to CNN in structure and style, but focuses more on regional news. The channel is also similar to Northwest Cable...
, NY1
NY1
NY1, New York One, is a 24-hour cable-news television channel focusing on the five boroughs of New York City. In addition to news and weather forecasts, the channel also features human-interest segments such as the "New Yorker of the Week" and the "Scholar Athlete of the Week", and specialty...
for NYC, Northwest Cable News
Northwest Cable News
Northwest Cable News is a regional 24-hour cable news network based in Seattle, Washington, U.S. It is similar to New England Cable News, which operates out of Boston and covers the New England area....
, Pittsburgh Cable News Channel
Pittsburgh Cable News Channel
The Pittsburgh Cable News Channel is a 24-hour regional cable news television channel serving the Pittsburgh area with re-telecasts of WPXI newscasts...
and Texas Cable News
TXCN
Texas Cable News is a regional 24-hour cable news television network based in Dallas, Texas. The service is owned by Belo Corporation, and operates out of the Belo campus in downtown Dallas....
, have also gained prominence among regional viewers.
The programming styles vary among these cable news channels. But during prime time, these cable news networks air programming strongly driven by their key personalities; typically such programming is in "TV Show" format around a particular host, rather than continuous broadcasts of breaking news. There are no regular live overnight newscasts and instead, primetime shows are replayed but MSNBC and Fox News provide live bulletins at the top of each overnight hour which last for around 1–2 minutes.
Current development
As the InternetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
become more prevalent in American lives, television news operations learn to adapt and embrace new technologies. Today, most television news operations would publish the text of the stories aired during their newscasts on their website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s. Some of them, including all the network and national cable news operations, post videos of the stories for visitors to their websites. Some anchors, reporters, and notable news programs also have blogs that take viewers behind the scenes of their news operation or provide a forum for either the personalities or viewers to air their opinions. In recent years, these news outlets have also provided an avenue for amateurs with digital or mobile phone cameras to send video created by them to be used in the broadcast and website. Television journalists are acquiring skills for the convergence between television and the Internet. Social media has also become a fixture on the news as most networks, news programmes and key personalities maintain Twitter accounts to let viewers get late breaking news, find out what's going on behind the scenes, as well as give comments and questions.
Technological advancement is also changing the ways news is gathered and edited. The newsreel
Newsreel
A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
days are long gone. Reporters do not use film anymore. Television journalists are capturing images and sound on video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
and DV
DV
DV is a format for the digital recording and playing back of digital video. The DV codec was launched in 1995 with joint efforts of leading producers of video camcorders....
. Some stations even begin gathering and reporting news in high-definition television
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
. Even editing and archiving systems are evolving, as more and more stations convert to non-linear editing system
Non-linear editing system
In video, a non-linear editing system is a video editing or audio editing digital audio workstation system which can perform random access non-destructive editing on the source material...
s, and storing file footage on computer server
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
s rather than tapes.
With digital cable
Digital cable
Digital cable is a generic term for any type of cable television distribution using digital video compression or distribution. The technology was originally developed by Motorola.-Background:...
comes on-demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
news programming. News operations slowly begin to feel the burden to generate news content on a 24-hour news cycle
24-hour news cycle
The 24-hour news cycle arrived with the advent of television channels dedicated to news, and brought about a much faster pace of news production with increased demand for stories that can be presented as news, as opposed to the day-by-day pace of the news cycle of printed daily newspapers...
, while keeping material fresh on their regularly scheduled newscasts. This means around-the-clock coverage. Rather than having a certain deadline for scheduled newscasts to meet, reporters have to file stories as fast as they can. Producers, on the other hand, have to find more ways to keep news stories "fresh" to the viewers.
Formats
Over the years, television news in the U.S. has evolved into a variety of formats. Local news and network news, once similar in having slow paces and low story counts, are now quite different in styles and tunes.Traditional
In the early days, local newscasts were seen more as a public service. The style was straightforward. A newscast was divided into three "blocks": news, sports, and weather. The news block was divided into national, international, and local stories. These newscasts usually had a solo, white male anchor, with white men announcing sports and weather as well.This format is no longer prevalent.
Eyewitness News
In the late 1960s, Westinghouse BroadcastingWestinghouse Broadcasting
The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndication....
, a division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation
Westinghouse Electric (1886)
Westinghouse Electric was an American manufacturing company. It was founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997...
, devised a new format of local news called Eyewitness News. Reporters were hired to go out of the newsroom, become "eyewitnesses" of news stories, and record them on film. Later, these reporters were also asked to join the anchors in the studio to talk about the stories.
Al Primo
Al Primo
Albert T. Primo is a television news executive who was credited with creating the Eyewitness News format.-Biography:He was born in 1937 and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
created the format, which was first used on KYW-TV
KYW-TV
KYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
in Philadelphia. Primo later brought the format in 1968 to WABC-TV
WABC-TV
WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
New York.
The Eyewitness News format also helped introduce different anchor combinations to local newscasts. The format continued to flourish, and imitated by stations across the country.
Today, most television news operations are working under some variation of the Eyewitness News format.
Action News
"Action News" was devised by WPVI-TVWPVI-TV
WPVI-TV, channel 6, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. WPVI has its studios located on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd, and its transmitter is located in the...
in Philadelphia to compete against the Eyewitness News format. The Action News format features short stories, high story counts in newscasts, and a strong focus on spot news. The "Action" refers to the fast pacing of the newscast.
Breaking news
Formerly referred to as news bulletins, "breaking news" refers to any news of sufficient importance to warrant an interruption of regularly scheduled programming.On a national network, programming interruptions are restricted to extremely urgent news. On the other hand, such breaks are now common on 24-hour news channels which often have an anchor available for live interruption at any time. Some networks, such as Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...
, largely emphasize this, even advertising the station as being "first for breaking news".
Franchise News
"Franchise News" is a variation of Eyewitness News. Some stations decide to brand their news with slogans such as News you can use, Coverage you can count on, or On your side. The newscasts at these stations tend to focus more on franchises—stories that cover a topic important to local viewers. The most successful franchises are health and consumer news. Other franchises include parenting, pets, environment, and crime fighting.Almost every news operation uses some franchises. But a few stations build their news identities around these topical stories.
News during sweeps
During "sweeps", newscasts often feature stories that are more sensationalized, in order to attract more viewers. Some stations save highly controversial investigative stories covered earlier for airing during sweeps.News departments at television stations work closely with promotions departments during sweeps to create promotional spots throughout the day that will entice viewers to tune in to the newscasts.
External links
- Radio-Television News Directors Association — the association of electronic journalists
- mediabistro: TVNewser — "the news about the news"
- TVSpy — TV industry news, jobs and contacts
- Lost Remote TV Blog — "where TV finds the future"
- Inside Cable News — "unvarnished news & opinion on cable news"
- Early TV Anchors
- Simplified overview video of television news operations
- Newsblues subscription television insider's website, updated every weekday, site also contains database of U.S. television stations, contacts, job openings and ownership groups
- "News Segments Packaged on Technology, Consumer Electronics"
- Vanderbilt Television News Archive — database of network news programs August 1968 to present