After several delays, executives at NBC Universal and WNBC-4 are on the verge of launching their 24 hour, 7-day-a-week "hyper-local" digital TV news channel in New York. What exactly the
channel will look like has been a hot topic of speculation in recent months.
In an internal email, Michael Horowicz, WNBC-4's news manager tells staffers that the launch of the channel,
dubbed "New York Nonstop," is "imminent" and that their future news reports should no longer look like traditional news piece and instead, "should look live. If it looks like a traditional
newscast, we're dead," he states.
Horowicz also warns staffers that there is a lot at stake. If they fail to follow the new guidelines, NBC Universal managers would probably turn the
channel into a lifestyle channel "and we'll have one less platform in which to showcase our work," he says. Over the past year, WNBC-4 has laid off several veteran staffers while transforming the
station's newsroom into a "content center."
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