In light of the rather large layoffs sweeping CBS stations across the US this Boston Globe article says the days of the high-salaried news anchors are numbered. Bad economy, the internets and cable TV are to blame for presumably ratings and profit challenged TV stations. So the prediction is that everyone will be following WHDH’s model of hiring young (and some say dumb) and cheap(er) people to lead their newscasts.
Media analysts say they expect WBZ and other stations to increasingly follow the model of frontrunner WHDH-TV (Channel 7), which consistently depends less on celebrity anchors and more on cheaper, younger reporters to deliver the news.
And it seems like at least one former big-money anchor agrees the future ov local TV news is about “reasonably attractive” people with less demanding salaries.
Media analysts say the fragmentation in the TV industry won’t create local news celebrities which is probably true but then there’s the internets which is about as fragmented as it gets and there are some so called celebs. Albeit in more niched online broadcasts.
One of my personal favorites Natali DelConte from Cnet comes to mind as well as Veronica Belmont formerly of CNET’s Buzz Out Loud. And some of these web shows can have a mid-market audience so they’re not that small
