The Death of Small Market News

With all the media companies continuing to chop the bottom line, it feels like small market news is just about dead.

I got this email from an FTVLive reader who has ties to North Platte, Nebraska. The station they are talking about is owned by Gray and it sure sounds like they are running the news department on the cheap.

Sadly, this same type of story plays out in small markets across the country. At this point, I wonder how much longer will we see local newscasts in smaller markets?

Here’s the email:

Since I have family in western Nebraska, I’ve followed the North Platte market some over the years. There’s only one player: Gray’s KNOP (Gray bought the station, which at one point was locally owned, in 2013). While Gray added morning news a number of years ago, they dropped the morning show last year and now simulcast a newscast from Hastings (https://www.knopnews2.com/2024/02/29/local4-news-2-today-new-way-start-your-day/?outputType=amp). They spun it is a move to actually increase news coverage. So I checked back today and learned that their midday newscast is gone and that they axed their weekend evening news in January (https://youtu.be/kRxi7ZldYow ), leaving just the 6pm and 10pm weekday shows. Their meet the team page shows their on-air talent consists of two anchors, a reporter/streaming anchor, a single meteorologist (they used to have three) and a single sportscaster. I know it’s a small market but hopefully they never get hit by severe weather (not likely since it’s Nebraska), especially on a weekend, because there’s hardly anyone left at the station. So sad to see the state of the industry today.