Coming soon to (St. Louis) television screens: more news at 4 in the morning, again at 10, and at 4 in the afternoon. KSDK, the local NBC affiliate, is adding newscasts to those time slots next month, giving it six and a half hours of local news each weekday, its highest count to date.
This is what the rebound in local television looks like. The more popular stations in markets like St. Louis are adding newscasts and in some cases employees — though not as many as were dismissed during the downturn. Local TV news is consistently identified in surveys as the top news source for most Americans.
Because weather is consistently identified as the most important part of local newscasts, KSDK recently hired a fifth full-time member of its weather team and is adding dashboard cameras to its trucks to transmit live video via the Internet during severe weather.
Read more at the New York Times
