After decades of past failures and ratings irrelevance in the Toledo market, WNWO-TV, Channel 24, unveiled its new-look, not-always-local newscast on Monday, and may have given viewers a glimpse of the future of broadcast news in smaller and mid-size markets.
This move started with cost-cutting measures announced late last year by parent company Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., to outsource Channel 24’s newscast — at least, the anchors — to what is essentially a Sinclair media hub at WSBT-TV, Channel 22, in South Bend, Ind.
And it debuted on Toledo televisions at 6 p.m. Monday with Ryan Cummings and Dayne Marae, co-anchors who don’t work or live in the market in which they now provide news.
The newscast was slick, surprisingly polished, and targeted younger viewers, and featured a handful of truly local and sometimes live reports by what remains of WNWO’s on-air reporters, and several weather segments by meteorologist Kimberly Newman, one half of the branded and heavily marketed NBC News 24 “Weather Authority” team, along with morning meteorologist Allison Peters.
The newscast led with coverage of Saturday’s Bedford church fire, followed by an update on the Sunday arrest of Toledo murder suspect Deshone Sykes. Next came weather, a live report on the impact of the city’s fixed-location traffic cameras, a special report on the partnership between ProMedica and Toledo Public Schools by WNWO reporter and anchor Jamie Innis, who was “live in the studio” in South Bend, more weather, and no sports.
This is quite likely the beginning of a trend in broadcast journalism at the local level, said Ken Garland, a journalism instructor at Bowling Green State University and a former broadcast reporter and anchor for two decades.
“Really all they’re doing is taking the on-air [anchors] out of it, for the most part,” he said. “If [ownership] can do the same thing with less people and do it a little bit bigger and better ... and it really is an improvement, then really there’s no reason not to do it.”
Perhaps viewers liked the improved news set. Perhaps they didn’t mind those few times the screen went black as the broadcast jumped from South Bend to Toledo, a problem that seemed to have been corrected hours later at the 11 p.m. newscast. Maybe they didn’t notice that, when Cummings and Marae bantered with Newman, she was hundreds of miles away. Or care that Toledo was spelled “Toldeo” at one point in a graphic.
But little of that matters; money does.
While there are no FCC mandates or even network requirements forcing a station such as WNWO to continue producing newscasts, the news product is typically a source of revenue, even for a station struggling in the ratings, Garland said.
“[Station owners] can do whatever they want,” he said, “so it’s got to be for the money.”
The newsroom convergence by Sinclair, which owns 173 TV stations in 82 U.S. markets, resulted in the layoffs of most of Channel 24’s news operation, as much as 80 percent or more, including anchor Laura Emerson, whose last on-air appearance at the station was delivering its 11 p.m. Friday newscast.
Former WNWO anchor Kristi Leigh made her first on-air appearance for WTOL-TV, Channel 11, on Monday.
The Blade’s calls to Sinclair Broadcasting about further plans for the WNWO newscast, including sports, were not returned.
Sinclair is also using Marae and Innis to deliver news to viewers of WOLF-TV, Channel 56, a Fox affiliate in Northeastern Pennsylvania owned by New Age Media Management, LLC, and operated, at least in part, by Sinclair.
Yet it’s newscasts that help bolster a station’s image in the community and connection to viewers. “A station needs a certain presence in the community” Garland said, and a newscast “is the easiest way to get that.”
But viewers not bumping into anchors, typically the most visible and PR frontline for the station, isn’t likely to hurt the station, Garland said. Not after Sinclair factors its savings and perhaps even improvements to is news product in it bottom-line equation.
The station’s lack of sports coverage, however, was a “glaring” omission that surprised him and could cause viewers to turn elsewhere for their news.
“As far as trying to make a connection with the community, it becomes a little bit more difficult without sports,” Garland said. “It’s a better product, but ... without sports coverage, it’s going to hurt them in terms of viewership.”
Still, for a decadeslong ratings-laggard such as WNWO, increased viewership isn’t necessarily the goal.
As Garland said, “Somebody’s got to finish in fourth place.” ... even if it does represent the future.
Contact Kirk Baird at kbaird@theblade.com or 419-724-6734.
First Published March 8, 2017, 5:00 a.m.
