UPDATE, 2:25 p.m.: 14 News marketing director Brandon Ridge replied to my request for comment this afternoon. His statement can be found below.
PREVIOUSLY:
If you're in the mood to watch local news at 9 p.m. each weeknight, your choices have been narrowed to one: Local 7 WTVW's hour-long edition of Eyewitness News.
PREVIOUSLY:
If you're in the mood to watch local news at 9 p.m. each weeknight, your choices have been narrowed to one: Local 7 WTVW's hour-long edition of Eyewitness News.
14 News' 9 p.m. newscast on 14Xtra (ch. 14.2) reached the end of its three-year run last week, with the final edition having aired last Wednesday night.
It's never been known how many viewers tuned in to 14's "early-late" news, as Nielsen doesn't measure the local ".2" channels. I've been told on a number of occasions that this makes it difficult to sell ad time on those channels, but it's not clear if that was the immediate cause of 14's decision to terminate the 9, which debuted on Sept. 28, 2009.
Sources tell me that no jobs were affected by the move and that the station is refocusing its efforts on its remaining newscasts.
STATEMENT FROM BRANDON RIDGE, 14 NEWS MARKETING DIRECTOR:
14WFIE produced its last 9 p.m. news on 14Xtra last Wednesday. We’ve chosen this to focus our efforts on the 10 p.m. newscast and our digital products throughout the evening. There are no staffing changes with this move.
We are proud of the work we did on the 9 p.m. newscast but we weren’t able to see viewership levels on a multichannel and it’s important to put resources where we can see benefit for the most viewers. That said, we feel safe that the number of people watching NBC, our 10 p.m. newscast, and on our other screens are much higher than on 14Xtra at 9 p.m.
In addition, we’ve been pleased that NBC had a strong fall launch and November sweep performance, we think this will continue to be the trend. This allows our viewers to stay on our main channel through the evening as well as stay up to date with breaking news and weather information on our mobile app and website all leading up to the 10PM newscast.
Weather information will be the replacement of the 9PM newscast for the foreseeable future.
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