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Good News for Broadcast News

Aug 5, 2011  •  Post A Comment

Broadcast television news organizations just received some good news, the American Journalism Review reports. In a reversal of recent trends, ratings for the second quarter were up significantly.

The three evening newscasts added almost 2 million viewers on a combined basis compared with a year earlier, the story reports. It’s the first significant increase in a decade.

Morning shows saw gains of 1.2 million viewers, the piece adds.

"It’s too soon to call it a trend, but the numbers are significant enough to be worth a closer look. What’s going on here?" the story says. While there has been big news to cover — such as the killing of Osama bin Laden — the reason for the uptick may be news about the news itself, with Katie Couric leaving CBS and Meredith Vieira stepping down from "Today," the piece says.

"But the improved numbers this year are a valuable reminder that network news still serves a huge audience. Four times as many people watch the nightly news on ABC, CBS and NBC as watch CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC combined in all of prime time," the story reports.

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