Lyons’ departure comes on the heels of the New York Times’ March 7 report of tumult behind the scenes of NewsNation. Nexstar sees a lucrative end game with programming that it owns and controls outright if it has the patience to allow the news audience to build.
#Turmoil controls license
Sook’s affirmation of Nexstar’s commitment to news is notable given the low viewership.īut even with barely-there ratings, for Nexstar producing newscasts that can draw on existing resources is an extremely cost-effective way to program a channel that previously shelled out license fees for syndicated programming. As such, NewsNation would naturally lean more to the right than other mainstream news outlets because, in Sook’s view, the political perspectives of journalists in most newsrooms lean to the left. Sook told staffers that the goal from the start was to produce a telecast that reflects centrist views. Nexstar has added more hours of news to its lineup this year and is planning to stake its claim to the morning news hours soon. hour shifted to a “Larry King Live”-esque interview show hosted by Ashleigh Banfield. The three-hour primetime block of newscasts bowed on Sept. Sook was pressed about whether there has been a shift in philosophy for NewsNation because viewership to date has been very weak - below the 100,000 viewer threshold in many instances and as low as 2,000 viewers in adults 25-54 demo that is crucial for news. We said, ‘This is an opportunity.’ I think of it as a newscast from the heartland, for the heartland.” “We’ve got more journalists working for us than any other news organization in the country.
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“Nobody’s doing news in primetime,” Sook told Variety last year.
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The plan was to focus on the days headlines and compelling stories drawn from Nexstar’s stations across the country. When the NewsNation plan for WGN America was unveiled in January 2020, Sook asserted that the newscasts would lean toward breaking news and offer a down-the-middle perspective. We have begun a search for her replacement and hope to have that person in place quickly.” “We thank her for her efforts in spearheading the launch of NewsNation and we wish her success in whatever she does next. “Jennifer Lyons has decided to leave her position as Vice President of News at NewsNation,” Nexstar said in a statement.