Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.'s ABC affiliate, WXLV-TV Winston-Salem, N.C.,
will end its two nightly newscasts one week from Friday, putting up to 35 people
out of work.
The move -- which Sinclair station-group manager Will Davis described as a
painful one -- is the fourth major news cutback by Sinclair in barely one year,
including the elimination of morning news at WXLV-TV in late 2000.
Earlier, Sinclair had pulled the plug on the three-and-a-half-year-old news
department at WTWC(TV) Tallahassee, Fla., firing nearly 40 people.
In its biggest news cut, it eliminated news at its St. Louis ABC affiliate in
October, axing 50 jobs in the nation's 22nd-largest market.
When he broke the news earlier today, Davis said he told his assembled news
staff they'd done a good job, but the combination of the station's poor signal
coverage, the poor economy and competition in the market made it impossible to
keep the news department. The newscasts were doing 1 and 2 Nielsen Media
Research household ratings, he added.
Sinclair noted that it had added or expanded news in five of its
markets.
