El Paso’s CBS affiliate is eliminating most and perhaps all of its local newscasts, the latest erosion of local news in the nation’s 23rd largest city.
“Beginning August 5, we will be making changes to the way we produce news in El Paso and refocusing our resources across our two stations in the market, CBS4 and KFOX14,” said Jessica Bellucci, a spokesperson for Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns El Paso’s FOX and CBS affiliates.
“In the short-term, CBS4 will continue to air its 10 p.m. newscast, adding a simulcast of KFOX14’s newscasts in other dayparts. A reconceptualized newscast will debut on CBS4 later this year,” she said.
Station employees were told Thursday that a number of positions would be eliminated, several sources told El Paso Matters, asking not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the changes. Bellucci didn’t address that in her statement to El Paso Matters.
The continuing decline of local news in El Paso will have far-reaching effects, said Richard Pineda, chair of the Department of Communications at the University of Texas at El Paso.
“The news ecosystem in El Paso is nowhere as rich as it should be, given its size, location on the U.S.-Mexico border, or its status as a microcosm of the cultural changes going on across the United States,” Pineda said.
“Limiting daily news, whether print or television, means denying information to the community and potentially has the long-term effect of creating a ‘news desert,’ undermining community engagement and democratic discourse. And there is a pernicious ripple effect possible as well; lack of locally reported stories means wire services and TV affiliates do not have sources to pull from when they cover El Paso/border stories at the regional or national level leading to uninformed and possibly biased coverage,” he said.
CBS4 – whose call sign is KDBC – currently produces local newscasts at 5 and 6 a.m., at noon, and at 5:30 and 10 p.m. The statement from Sinclair said only the 10 p.m. newscast will continue after Aug. 5, and even that was said to be a “short-term” decision.
Bellucci didn’t provide more information on the “reconceptualized newscast” planned for later in the year. But several Sinclair stations in recent months have added a morning program called ARC. In introducing the program in Cincinnati, Sinclair’s headquarters, an anchor said it was “supposed to feel like, you know, a chat between friends.”
KFOX14 and CBS 4 have shared news resources, such as reporters and videographers, for years, largely producing and airing the same stories. The largest difference in broadcasts has been the anchors presenting the news.
Still, the end of most if not all local newscasts at CBS4 marks one of the most significant changes in El Paso broadcast news. The station, then known as KROD-TV, became the first El Paso TV broadcaster in 1952.
Sinclair, one of the nation’s largest TV broadcast companies, has owned KFOX14 and CBS4 since 2013. Like many owners of local TV stations, it has reduced its number of local journalists and broadcasts as the advertising market has changed, focusing more on digital platforms at the expense of legacy organizations like television and newspapers.
Earlier this year, CNBC reported that Sinclair was exploring the sale of 30% of its stations. The company owns 185 stations in 86 markets, CNBC said at the time.
El Paso has six network affiliate stations producing local news – CBS, FOX, NBC and ABC affiliates in English, and Univision and Telemundo affiliates in Spanish.
The number of local journalists in El Paso has declined over the past three decades, as it has in most other U.S. communities. In addition to erosion of advertising dollars, technology has displaced a large number of jobs tied to presentation and production of news.
In the mid-1990s, El Paso had two daily newspapers – the Times and Herald-Post – that combined had more than 100 journalists in their newsrooms. The Herald-Post closed in 1997, and the El Paso Times website currently lists 12 journalists.
Bellucci said Sinclair “remains committed to local journalism in the communities which we serve. The refocusing of resources in El Paso will allow us to ensure the long-term success of the stations and continue to bring the top local, regional and national news to the market.”
“KFOX14 will see an expansion of news content, with the addition of several hours of newscasts and ‘The National Desk’ broadcasts joining the station’s lineup over the next several months,” she said.
“The National Desk” is a roundup of national news produced by Sinclair.
Disclosure: El Paso Matters CEO Robert Moore is a former editor and longtime journalist at the El Paso Times.
The post CBS affiliate in El Paso ending most of its local news programming appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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