CBS Considering "Doomsday" move in Chicago?

[Link 3]

Why is it always a big deal that WBBM doesn't get high ratings? Other markets have stations that are always in 3rd or 4th place. That is just how it is when one or two stations dominate a market. WBBM is not going to be #1 in Chicago anytime soon against the competition so why don't they just accept it and just try to put out the best news product they can?

 

Just like with WFLD--no matter how many hours of Good Day Chicago they put on, they are not going to be #1 in the morning news ratings. Most of the Fox stations that have strong newscasts are ones that switched from ABC or CBS in the early 90s that had established newscasts in place.

[Jase 1047]

I'm happy to hear about WBBM's small uptick in the ratings & hope they can build on that. Given that this station has been at the bottom for years, their ratings (good or bad) are what we & the industry, if you will, judge them by. No one here (I believe) wants to see WBBM fail, but it's frustrating to me when I hear about them being concerned about their news set/studio, graphics, etc... and not spending all their time improving their news product.

 

I'm not certain what the management team's priorities are, but this talk of moving upstairs and thus wasting money/time doing so brings up memories of the same missteps done by the previous management team (and we all know the damage that caused). Should WBBM be judge solely on their ratings? No, but you can't rule that part out completely. I'm surprised no one has brought up the huge yr-to-yr ratings drop of both WGN & WFLD.

[cbs2worksforyou 44]

I want Feder back. He always had something to report about the Chicago media. Lewis Lazare is good for writing about advertising but nothing more. BRING BACK FEDER! SO I CAN GET MY MEDIA NEWS!

[former newsboy 52]

Check this out, from Friday's Sun-Times.

 

 

WBBM builds on gains

 

Ratings jump that started out small is growing

 

 

March 13, 2009

 

LEWIS LAZARE Media & Marketing columnist

 

 

Could this be the start of something much bigger? We wrote last week about the relatively small uptick in the February 2009 ratings book for CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2's 10 p.m. newscast, while all the remaining stations with late-evening newscasts were down for the month.

 

We're only one week into the March book, and plenty could happen before the month is over. But that uptick at WBBM is getting bigger. Much bigger. As is the station's 10 p.m. newscast lead-in rating, which competitors rightly insist must be considered a major factor in assessing the station's improving 10 p.m. news numbers. Still, for the first week of the March book (excluding weekend newscasts), WBBM's 10 p.m. news jumped 1.7 rating points to 4.9 from a 3.2 a year ago, a whopping 53 percent jump year over year. WBBM's lead-in rating also jumped 60 percent year over year.

 

The only other station trending upward so far for its late-evening news in the March book is Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32, which climbed 1.1 rating points at 9 p.m. to 4.7 from a 3.6. Otherwise, ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7 is still well ahead of all its competitors with a 9.6, followed by NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 with a 6.3, and Tribune Co.-owned WGN-Channel 9 with a 5.6.

 

Don't look for WBBM to start crowing publicly about its improving numbers just yet. Instead, the station intends to maintain a low-key profile and let newly arrived news director Jeff Kiernan keep making adjustments. And adjustments are being made, though they may seem subtle to some viewers. The station, for instance, is waiting longer to cut to the first commercial break at the top of the newscast to allow viewers to become more engaged, and it's doing more promoting of the 10 p.m. newscast and its content during prime time hours, which makes sense given the huge audience CBS' prime time lineup is attracting in Chicago right now.

 

But with the ratings moving in the right direction, Kiernan, we're told, may not be in much of a rush to make major news anchor adjustments. "There have been so many anchor changes here at the station in the past few years," said one WBBM source, by way of suggesting the station's news audiences probably don't want to endure another major anchor switch right now.

[abric 178]

If he (Kiernan) was at WBBM a long time ago. CBS 2 could have been a strong number 3 or maybe number 2. So I don't think any Doomsday is coming to WBBM anytime soon.

[lazynetjunkie 34]

If he (Kiernan) was at WBBM a long time ago. CBS 2 could have been a strong number 3 or maybe number 2. So I don't think any Doomsday is coming to WBBM anytime soon.

 

 

We can only hope so.

 

The problem is there are a couple higher up execs at CBS that could care less about ratings growth right now. All they care about is dollar amount profits in the here and now.

[Link 3]

We can only hope so.

 

The problem is there are a couple higher up execs at CBS that could care less about ratings growth right now. All they care about is dollar amount profits in the here and now.

 

Are there really big profits made from a morning newscast at 5am when 5 stations have local news? It always seems stations try to outdo each other by offering more newscasts than the other--not just here, but in many other markets.