• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 2, 2008

It was no April Fool's joke for on-air and off-air talent at CBS TV stations.

Senior CBS TV station executives started off the second quarter of 2008 as if the recession had arrived -- with some indigestion at their somewhat bloated TV stations news operations.

Before anyone gives the typical answer -- that the growth of new digital platforms is to blame -- know that over at WBZ in Boston, people were laid off at all aspects of operations, including the Internet.

Here's the major damage: 30 staffers at WBZ Boston, 17 at WBBM Chicago, 14 at KPIX San Francisco, at least two on-air reporters at WCBS-TV New York, and other cuts at KCNC Denver and KOVR Sacramento.
What's puzzling is that this is a big presidential election year, when TV news viewership generally rises. Just take a look at CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, for example. This may speak to the economics of cable networks, rather than local TV station news.

But also consider that presidential election years also bring major increases in political advertising.

What went wrong?

Despite the prospects of improved local TV advertising sales this year, CBS must sense what economic analysts have been talking about for months -- that the economy is already in a recession that could last possibly through the end of the year.

I can understand that -- as well as the fact that a couple of CBS stations are dropping or scaling back somewhat redundant sports news programming during the weekend.

Journalists everywhere will tell you "everything is for the Web these days." At the same time, you have stations preening that Internet advertising dollars have been soaring, and possibly a collective billion dollars a year in Internet advertising sales will soon be generated at the TV station level.

Sounds like a booming business. But for a number of CBS on- and off-air personnel, it's more of a ka-boom.