Change coming to Twin Cities TV news might mean fewer anchors, less sports

Local TV news has been generating its own headlines this year, including the impending departure of KARE’s sports director, a high-profile lawsuit from a former KSTP meteorologist and a shuffling of the anchor lineup on WCCO.

At least some of the drama can be attributed to new challenges such as changing viewership habits, conglomeration, a growing distrust of journalists and pressure to cut costs.

The impact is being felt across the country. KION-TV in Monterey, Calif., announced earlier this month that it is shuttering its news operations. An anchor at KIMT-TV, which serves north central Iowa and southeast Minnesota, shared on social media that two employees had to run a recent broadcast on their own.

The latest upheaval on the national TV scene came with the recent temporary suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Nexstar and Sinclair, who own 60 ABC affiliate stations, returned Kimmel’s show to their airwaves on Friday.

“Our business is in trouble,” said former anchor Dana Adams, who runs Adams Broadcast Consulting, a boutique agency whose clients include former Fox 9 reporter Rose Schmidt. “It’s not surprising, but the speed that it’s happening at is surprising.”

Compared to the newspaper and magazine industries, TV news seems to be in better shape. According to a RTNDA/Newhouse study, profit margins for local operations dropped 6% between 2023 and 2024. But over 52% of all local TV newsrooms were in the black with only 7% reporting that they were operating at a loss.

TV is also far and away the most popular format for consumers to stay informed. According to the latest Minnesota Poll, conducted by the Minnesota Star Tribune and Hubbard School of Journalism, 46% of Minnesotans prefer TV news to websites, print products and radio.

But it’s harder than ever to evaluate the status of specific stations. News directors and general managers no longer talk freely without getting approval from corporate bosses in New York. That permission is rarely granted. Management at the four local stations declined to comment for this article. Ratings numbers are fiercely protected.

A few recent developments provide hints on where Twin Cities stations are heading.

Nexstar, already the largest local television broadcasting group in the country, is poised to become more dominant with its anticipated $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna, the industry’s third-biggest player. KARE-TV, an NBC affiliate, is considered one of Tegna’s most prestigious stations, routinely winning national awards for its photojournalism and storytelling.

KARE seems to be prepping for the sale by slimming down its budget, with staff reductions as one indication of that. Management chose not to comment.

Reggie Wilson, the sports director, revealed earlier this month he’ll be leaving the station at the end of the year because his position is being eliminated.

Sports reports are not as necessary in an age where fans can get scores and highlights anytime they crave them. Adams has advised her clients to take opportunities to jump from sports to hard news.

But sports anchors can still offer stations a chance for personal connections with viewers, whether it’s them chumming around with top stars or spotlighting high school athletes.

“What KARE is doing is not unique, but it usually doesn’t prove to be a good strategy,” said former KSTP news director Kirk Varner, who blogs about the media at tvnd.com. He points out that a lot of stations that pulled back on sports in the past ended up embracing it again. “The message that sports isn’t important is just shortsighted.”

KARE could use as much personality as it can get after the departures of well-established names such as Randy Shaver, Eric Perkins, Pat Evans, Sven Sundgaard and Adrienne Broaddus over the past six years.

“Big names still matter,” said Scott Libin, who teaches broadcast journalism at the University of Minnesota. “The departure of someone like [meteorologist] Belinda [Jensen] will have an impact.”

This move is seen in the industry as a way to cut costs and is becoming more common in markets as large as Philadelphia. KARE’s Julie Nelson has been a solo news anchor during most broadcasts since Shaver left last year.

Libin thinks it’s a smart way to save money, as long as the remaining anchor is a well-established name like Vascellaro or Nelson.

“It’s nice to have co-anchors because you have twice as good a shot at connecting with someone. It also gives them a chance to interact, which humanizes things,” said Libin, who served as news director at both WCCO and KSTP. “But when you don’t count weather and sports, does it really take two anchors to read the news?

Image is particularly important at KSTP. It’s owned by the locally based Hubbard family and is one of the last stations in a major market that hasn’t been swallowed up by a major corporation.

Like KARE, KSTP is also dealing with the absence of familiar faces. Sports anchor Joe Schmit and meteorologist Dave Dahl, who had a combined 83 years of experience in the area, both retired in the last five years.

If Clair’s lawsuit moves forward, it could be a PR nightmare for KSTP.

The ABC affiliate has more flexibility when it comes to promoting local personalities. Four years ago, it replaced Kelly Ripa’s talk show with “Minnesota Live,” a morning version of ”Twin Cities Live" that has been chugging along for 17 years.

But, in other ways, KSTP is the most reluctant player in the Twin Cities when it comes to taking chances.

An experiment during the pandemic that transformed the 10 p.m. broadcast into a more magazine-like format was abandoned after a couple years.

The station also appears to be lagging behind the competition in streaming-only content.

Libin has higher praise for how the Fox-owned station has embraced streaming. He’s particularly fond of the online documentaries on subjects like 3M’s history of manufacturing PFAS chemicals and the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder.

He’s more concerned about what’s happening behind the scenes. In June, general manager Mim Davey had Milwaukee’s WITI added to her responsibilities.

The move is part of a national trend to combine management positions or to simply get rid of them.

As of last month, Amber Eikel is supervising Fox-owned stations in Los Angeles and San Francisco. At the Fox-owned station in Seattle, Kelly Hatmaker posted in June that he was being let go because his position as assistant news director was being eliminated.

Jennifer Lyons is the general manager for the CBS-owned stations in Chicago and Detroit.

One bullet that the local market has dodged are duopolies that sign off on simulcasting shows or repeating news copy with competing stations.

KSTP and KMSP both use their sister stations to repeat news programs and provide original content, but Hubbard-owned KSTC and Fox-owned WFTC are outlets that wouldn’t typically have a news department. Consider it bonus coverage.

The real fear among news purists is the growing number of affiliate stations that share the same resources and sometimes the same broadcasts, reducing the number of unique voices covering stories.

Recently released results of the study “Reusing the News” show duplication occurred in 39% of the country’s 210 television markets in 2019, affecting 41 million households.

“If you’re a consumer, you don’t want to have one decisionmaker at three stations,” said Danilo Yanich, a University of Delaware professor who co-authored the report. “It creates a sameness.”

“Every station is going to cover the toxic spill,” Usher said. “Things like the minutiae of politics doesn’t really play to what local TV does well.”

Tim Franklin, the founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University, believes it’s too early to worry about a major collapse in the quality or quantity of local TV news, especially in a sturdy market like the Twin Cities.