CBS Stations this week flips the switch on new evening newscasts at unaffiliated and The CW Network-affiliated stations in 10 markets.
To best prepare for the newscast launches, the Paramount division has hired some 28 news professionals to support the increase in newsgathering.
The new hires, exclusively focused on producing newscasts, include “multiskilled community journalists,” anchors, weathercasters, producers, directors, editors, managers, a graphic designer and a multiplatform content coordinator.
As announced by CBS News and Stations earlier this year, the CBS Local News Innovation Lab is supporting the production of these new hybrid local-to-national newscasts for WLNY-55 in New York; WPSG-57 in Philadelphia; KTXA-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth; KBCW-TV in San Francisco; WUPA-TV in Atlanta; WSBK-38 in Boston; KSTW-TV in Seattle; WTOG-44 in Tampa; WKBD-TV in Detroit; and WBFS-33 in Miami.
And, in a move that could ruffle feathers at Gray Television, the “NOW” brand is being incorporated into the name of the newscasts. While Nexstar operations have branded news including “Hawaii News Now” and “Wyoming News Now,” for example, CBS’s new newscasts in all 17 of its markets will be branded as “Now News.”
Already on the air at KSTW is “Seattle Now News at 10 on CW11.”
For CBS, one-hour “Now” newscasts are airing seven nights a week at 10pm with the exception of WLNY, WBFS and KTXA, where the newscasts air at 9pm.
Weekday editions of these newscasts will emanate from the lab’s Dallas home, and sees Tom Hanson serve as anchor. Weekend newscasts will be anchored by Trason Bragg.
The addition of the Seattle and weekend newscasts follows CBS Stations’ recently announced plans to launch a seven-hour morning news block at KCAL-9 in Los Angeles, pitting the station against Nexstar Media Group‘s news-focused KTLA-5.
The New York, Philadelphia, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco, Boston and Miami newscasts are also available on CBS News and Stations’ local streaming channels in their respective markets.
