NewsNation Launch Thread

[TheRob 925]

Bios:  https://wgnamerica.com/news-nation-bios/

[J1975am 208]

So far, I am sold on News Nation. Cannot wait for September. But, one thing bugs me: no sports anchors on the program. Is this something that might be addressed by the time the debut rolls around in September, or (because this is a prime-time newscast) they're afraid of sports anchors being in a situation where they cannot show highlights of games due to either rights issues or games still being in progress, or both?

 

That's the only issue I have, but otherwise, I am sold on News Nation......

 

[Jase 923]

15 minutes ago, J1975am said:

So far, I am sold on News Nation. Cannot wait for September. But, one thing bugs me: no sports anchors on the program. Is this something that might be addressed by the time the debut rolls around in September, or (because this is a prime-time newscast) they're afraid of sports anchors being in a situation where they cannot show highlights of games due to either rights issues or games still being in progress, or both?

 

That's the only issue I have, but otherwise, I am sold on News Nation......

 

There are already plenty of options for viewers looking for sports coverage/highlights. I’m sure they will cover big events (Super Bowl, World Series, etc...), but having a sports anchor isn’t necessary.

[24994J 5443]

Looks like there's still a little (a lot) of work to do at Bradley Place.

 

 

[Jase 923]

Ju Suk Yi joins NewsNationNow.com

[ED2 144]

I wonder how closely News Nation's weather team will be working with the WGN Weather Centre. Will the weather producers for WGN also be working on forecasts for News Nation? Are we going to see Demetrius Ivory or Morgan Kolkmeyer do the occasional fill-in if neither Albert or Gerard are available?

[Jase 923]

32 minutes ago, ED2 said:

I wonder how closely News Nation's weather team will be working with the WGN Weather Centre. Will the weather producers for WGN also be working on forecasts for News Nation? Are we going to see Demetrius Ivory or Morgan Kolkmeyer do the occasional fill-in if neither Albert or Gerard are available?

I don’t think NN and WGN will be working that much hand in hand given both have enough on their plates and there is enough money/resources available to keep things separate.
 

However, I imagine WGN weather people along with other Nexstar meteorologists, etc.. in the region would be given the opportunity to fill in, if necessary.

 

Sidenote: This is pretty cool..

 

[susquvalleywgal 501]

 

I'm excited to see how this experiment works out.  Will Joe Q. Public be interested what is happening in small towns on a national scale.  THe news/info/tv news nerd in me says absolutely.  But you know how the public is.  LOL.

Nice promo here.  With some graphic hints I think.

 

-- Matt

[alex979 118]

Pretty cool to see the progress on the studio and newsroom. Nexstar is making an impressive investment here. 

[GoldenShine9 1509]

Nexstar should also reach out to other stations in non-Nexstar markets - particularly those who are owned by companies either friendly to them or with little overlap - to get them extra coverage as well.

 

I could see other owners like Gray following up with their own national operations if this turns out successful.

[Georgie56 3192]

This is a big gamble Perry is taking here. Hopefully this works out and it thrives. I want to see this be successful.

 

[Spring Rubber 671]

I have to laugh that the regions of the country in the newsrooms are divided up into Northeast, Southeast, Mid-South, Midwest, West, and...Texas. Guess everything's so much bigger in Texas that it requires its own division.

 

I don't think the windows will factor into the newsroom view a whole lot for a good portion of the year. By the time the show debuts on September 1st, there won't be a whole lot of daylight left after 7pm, and it doesn't look like there's much of anything to see out those windows at night. It looks nice in the summertime during daylight, though!

 

I'll definitely be tuning into their first week of shows to see what their news product is like. I would like to hope it's as unbiased as they say, but news stations still like to push a bias through the stories they select and the verbiage they use to present said stories. WGN-TV does that quite a bit, so my expectation is that NewsNation would be prone to do the same.

[Jase 923]

1 hour ago, Spring Rubber said:

I have to laugh that the regions of the country in the newsrooms are divided up into Northeast, Southeast, Mid-South, Midwest, West, and...Texas. Guess everything's so much bigger in Texas that it requires its own division.

Texas is home base and Nexstar has a great # of stations in TX that it stands to reason why it is its own division.

[Technically A Director 164]

For Nexstar's sake, I hope this isn't a flop. It's got potential, and they seem to have the people, so now they just need to stick the landing. 

 

Very impressive investment so far. I'll be eagerly waiting to see the first shows and the initial ratings, although I'm not sure what you can really compare then with. I wonder if they'll advertise News Nation on all of their stations? That might be a quick way to kick start viewership. 

 

 

[Spring Rubber 671]

34 minutes ago, TheGuru said:

For Nexstar's sake, I hope this isn't a flop. It's got potential, and they seem to have the people, so now they just need to stick the landing. 

 

Very impressive investment so far. I'll be eagerly waiting to see the first shows and the initial ratings, although I'm not sure what you can really compare then with. I wonder if they'll advertise News Nation on all of their stations? That might be a quick way to kick start viewership. 

 

 

What's the ethics behind advertising your cable channel against network primetime programming if you're affiliated with a network? It's easy on WGN-TV because they're independent, but if you're a Nexstar station with an affiliation, is it wrong to say, "Hey, don't watch Fox network programming tonight! Watch NewsNation instead!"?

[froyo49 229]

1 hour ago, Spring Rubber said:

What's the ethics behind advertising your cable channel against network primetime programming if you're affiliated with a network? It's easy on WGN-TV because they're independent, but if you're a Nexstar station with an affiliation, is it wrong to say, "Hey, don't watch Fox network programming tonight! Watch NewsNation instead!"?

Yeah, and what about the stations that produce their own news in primetime, like WTNH and KRON? Sure, in KRON's case, they could advertise the live airing at 5PT, but that still conflicts with their 5 and 6pm news. Actually, it would conflict with all of Nexstar's west coast evening newscasts. They would essentially be competing against themselves.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

7 minutes ago, froyo49 said:

Yeah, and what about the stations that produce their own news in primetime, like WTNH and KRON? Sure, in KRON's case, they could advertise the live airing at 5PT, but that still conflicts with their 5 and 6pm news. Actually, it would conflict with all of Nexstar's west coast evening newscasts. They would essentially be competing against themselves.

 

They could always air it on a secondary channel, like a DT2 or a duopoly partner.

[Jase 923]

5 hours ago, TheGuru said:

For Nexstar's sake, I hope this isn't a flop. It's got potential, and they seem to have the people, so now they just need to stick the landing. 

 

Very impressive investment so far. I'll be eagerly waiting to see the first shows and the initial ratings, although I'm not sure what you can really compare then with. I wonder if they'll advertise News Nation on all of their stations? That might be a quick way to kick start viewership. 

 

 

Nexstar stations play a part in the news-gathering process for NewsNation, so it would make sense that they would advertise the program on Nexstar stations. I don’t think they will treat NN as counter-programming, but as their own news service (which technically it is). I mean, if a 9/11 event were to occur, they would most likely simulcast NewsNation/WGN America than CNN for example. This as just speculation of course, but would make the most sense imo.

[Technically A Director 164]

6 hours ago, Spring Rubber said:

What's the ethics behind advertising your cable channel against network primetime programming if you're affiliated with a network? It's easy on WGN-TV because they're independent, but if you're a Nexstar station with an affiliation, is it wrong to say, "Hey, don't watch Fox network programming tonight! Watch NewsNation instead!"?

Didn't think about this, but you make a good point. I wonder if there's a trade-off though, since Nexstar always /seems/ to be in everyone's okay-good graces., and isn't overtly offering this as a competitor to any one news operation.

 

1 hour ago, jase said:

Nexstar stations play a part in the news-gathering process for NewsNation, so it would make sense that they would advertise the program on Nexstar stations. I don’t think they will treat NN as counter-programming, but as their own news service (which technically it is). I mean, if a 9/11 event were to occur, they would most likely simulcast NewsNation/WGN America than CNN for example. This as just speculation of course, but would make the most sense imo.

Agreed. With Nexstar basically at the ownership cap, and like I said above, I doubt many networks will raise too much of a fuss over advertising, especially when there's probably nothing they can to to stop it unless there's something specific written into their carriage agreements.

 

I tend to think it will be a while before News Nation/WGN America is ready to anchor marathon coverage of a national/international crisis. I'm sure they could if they needed too, but their primary goal probably should be to get NewsNation on stable ground first, and then start to work backwards if their end goal is to make NewsNation/WGN America a common name for news. At a rough estimate, they've had close to 100 listings for jobs directly related to NewsNation, so I'd say they'll have the manpower if/when it gets to that.

 

--

 

On an unrelated note, I wasn't sure in I had WGN America or not, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only do I have it, they're also showing a late night marathon of... Cops.

[J1975am 208]

On 6/30/2020 at 6:35 PM, TheGuru said:

I wonder if they'll advertise News Nation on all of their stations? That might be a quick way to kick start viewership. 

 

 

I just saw an advertisement for News Nation on KLFY. With that said, I wonder how many other Nexstar stations are running advertisements for the program.

 

If News Nation promos are running on the company’s stations, I wouldn’t be surprised if they also advertise for it on Antenna TV, also, since Nexstar owns it. (If so, I wonder if this would be an issue for stations not owned by Nexstar that have Antenna TV...)

[Nelson R. 568]

1 hour ago, J1975am said:

I just saw an advertisement for News Nation on KLFY. With that said, I wonder how many other Nexstar stations are running advertisements for the program.

 

If News Nation promos are running on the company’s stations, I wouldn’t be surprised if they also advertise for it on Antenna TV, also, since Nexstar owns it. (If so, I wonder if this would be an issue for stations not owned by Nexstar that have Antenna TV...)

In Charlotte, Antenna TV is still on WCCB...no idea when the contract with them runs out but I would expect it to switch back over to WJZY when it does. It was on WJZY until 2014, then moved to WCCB as FTS had to make room for its subchannels at the time.

[Action Newsroom 1200]

1 hour ago, J1975am said:

With that said, I wonder how many other Nexstar stations are running advertisements for the program

 

If News Nation promos are running on the company’s stations, I wouldn’t be surprised if they also advertise for it on Antenna TV.

I saw one last night on both WPHL and (unsurprisingly) Antenna TV. Looked slick and nice. No doubt Nexstar will increasingly promote it on anything it owns before its debut. 

[ABC 7 Denver 1653]

https://wgnamericaupfront.com/videos/why3.mp4

 

https://wgnamericaupfront.com/

 

The News Nation website will be: https://www.newsnationnow.com/

 

https://wgnamericaupfront.com/videos/studioTour.mp4

[plzstandby 30]

[Spring Rubber 671]

Making progress! I know they said they're slated to start rehearsals the first week of August, so we're getting there!