Good morning, Netizens...

In case you missed it department:

The KXLY Broadcast Group canceled five of its eight weekend TV newscasts and laid off 18 employees on Tuesday.
The canceled KXLY-4 newscasts include the Saturday and Sunday versions of "Good Morning Northwest," the 5 p.m. newscasts on Saturdays, the 11 p.m. newscasts on Saturdays, and the 5 p.m. newscasts on Sundays, according to general manager Steve Herling.
Newscasts will continue on Saturdays and Sundays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 11 p.m.
The layoffs included on-air reporter John Langeler and weekend weather anchor Leslie Lowe.

None of this information is mentioned, even abstractly in any of their Blogs or on their web site, a fact that I find vaguely disturbing in its lack of transparency. Layoffs are becoming a normality lately in news centers, both print, online and television, but I believe firmly that such matters are news and should be handled with the aplomb and professionalism accorded to any other news story.

What is equally interesting is that it appears this leaves viewers with only KHQ-TV offering local news on weekend mornings, although all three local televisions still will offer National news of one form or another. According to the latest TV listings, Saturday morning news still will run on KHQ-TV at 7:00 AM, although given my past involvement with TV scheduling, even that could be wrong.

The business of broadcasting or publishing the local news, however, has been and perhaps will continue to get tighter and tighter, as recently seen by the recent layoffs at the Spokesman-Review.

Dave

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