• by Paul Gough , December 30, 2002

Gannett is in negotiations with cable and satellite providers to create and distribute a 24/7 digital channel of local news culled from stations in the top 25 markets nationwide.

The creation isn’t a problem. Gannett owns 22 stations that cover slightly less than 20% of the United States, in big markets like Atlanta and Washington, D.C., but smaller markets like Grand Rapids, Mich., Buffalo, N.Y., and Bangor, Maine. The idea for the channel, named America Today, is to run edited versions of newscasts, two an hour, interspersed with USA Today-branded segments in between. A half-hour USA Today magazine-style show will appear several times during the day as well.

Gannett Broadcasting SVP Roger Ogden said research has determined that many people who no longer live in their native states say they’re interested in watching local news programs via digital TV. The round-the-clock schedule wouldn’t mean that a specific news program would be on live or even during primetime; New York’s news might run at 5 p.m. but Chicago’s might run at 9 p.m. and another, smaller city’s newscast might run in the middle of the day or late at night. But there would be a schedule so the newscasts would be predictable and viewers could tape for viewing later.

That doesn’t mean that Gannett, which owns USA Today and a number of local and regional newspapers throughout the United States in addition to its broadcast holdings, is going to take on CNN, MSNBC or Fox News Channel. Ogden said Gannett’s plan is not 24-hour national news. Its emphasis would be on local news and even the USA Today segments would take viewers behind the news and not into the news itself. There won’t be any national news updates at all under the current plan.

The local newscasts will be devoid of most of the commercials they had when they originally aired. Gannett plans to sell national advertising to support the channel, which Ogden said would attract highly educated and higher-income people. He said USA Today’s coast-to-coast news pages are among the highest read in the newspaper, with upward of 90% of readers looking at it regularly. There aren’t any plans to carry program-length infomercials, although shorter-form direct-response spots are possible.

Cross-media deals are also possible, although since there’s no air date “we’re really a long way from that,” Ogden said.

The major hurdle is getting cable TV providers to carry the channel, which would be digital and not analog. Ogden said there are two or three deals in the works with cable companies although he said the reaction has been less than enthusiastic with several other providers. Gannett’s plan is to use retransmission consent as the basis for negotiations, which adds value for Gannett but might not be to the liking of some MSOs.