Santa Rosa (California) station KFTY-TV, Channel 50, abruptly ceased almost all of its news programming Friday, laying off the 13 employees involved in producing its two nightly newscasts.
KFTY's general manager and vice president, John Burgess, said the changes were part of a new strategy in which viewers and users of station’s Web site will determine much of the programming decisions.
The following announcement from Burgess appeared on the station’s Web site:
"January 26, 2007
Dear Valued TV50 Viewer:
I'm writing you today to let
you know about some programming changes here at KFTY TV50 that reflect the
evolution of our strategic direction toward a multi-platform approach for news
and information.
As you know the station is
now viewed by more than 1.1 million cabled and digital households from the North Bay , San Francisco , South and East Bay regions.
As part of our strategy we are migrating away from our weeknight 7pm and 10pm newscast and our weekend "Week in Review" program. We are no longer in a position to access the advertiser base required to maintain two long form newscasts. Instead we will launch a new public affairs program, focus more energy on web driven content, work closer with viewers and community groups to develop "locally" based content and continue to provide live news, weather and traffic updates during our weekday morning Armstrong & Getty program.
In addition we will continue with our live broadcast of the Rose Parade, Schools Plus Telethon, Human Race and new this year, a live special from the very exciting Amgen Bike Tour. Our commitment to the United Way, American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life Campaign and the many other community organizations we work with will continue.”
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