Central CA—Perhaps the math will explain it. You make a dollar. It costs three dollars to do the news. You can’t do the news anymore. That is an over simplification of the situation but it is precisely what is happening to your local news.  

Early indicators are it will get worse before it gets better. This news outlet (RealLocalTV.com News) would like nothing more than to paint a rosy picture for the local news. However, it would not be the truth. For the first time ever, really, newspapers and newscasts have to reinvent themselves.

The news industry is getting a hard lesson in economics. Education needs to pay close attention or students will come out of the halls of higher learning with news skills that are woefully inadequate and incomplete. If the news student does not learn multi-tasking to gather the news (sights, sounds and words), it appears there will not be a job waiting when school is out.

Who would have guessed local news of the ‘70s, ‘80s and some of the ‘90s would be the golden era of local news. It sure seems that way now. The days of sitting around the newsroom rubbing elbows with people like Tom Brokaw are a distant memory, made hazier by the lack of finances.