WWOR-TV in New Jersey Replaces Nightly News

The New York Times ^ | 7/7/2013 | BRIAN STELTER

[mick]

Depending on one’s perspective, what the New Jersey-based television station WWOR is doing this month is irresponsible or innovative.

Last week, with no notice, the station canceled its 10 p.m. half-hour of news, the only newscast it had left. On Monday, it will try something new at 10, a youthful newsmagazine called “Chasing New Jersey.” The anchor, a real estate executive and onetime Republican candidate for Congress, will be called the “ringleader” on the program; the reporters will be called “chasers.” In 2011, the F.C.C. conducted an investigation into charges that News Corporation overstated how much news coverage it provided to New Jersey and how many people it employed in the state. The station’s executives have “failed to live up to their obligations,” WWOR’s chief critic, Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, said at the time.

“Lautenberg hassled them big-time,” Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a lawyer and advocate for media reform, said approvingly.

Mr. Lautenberg, a Democrat, died last month. While the timing of WWOR’s programming change was a coincidence, “it certainly has an unseemly appearance,” Mr. Schwartzman said.

[Lancey Howard]

Thanks for the heads up. I’m in the Philly burbs so I’ll make sure to look for it.

[mick]

Thanks, LH. I live in Philly region also and have to DVR it to watch. FOX 29 out of Philly reruns it at 4:00 am. Son or not, I’m not getting up that early !!