[Thunderchief F-105]

...believe it or not, the networks' evening news programs
were only 15 minutes long if I recall.... they were
certainly not the crappola productions they have become
over the past half-century or so....and there were either
no ads, or one or two.... now, there are ads ever 5 minutes
or fewer, it seems.... I gave up watching these evening
"news" shows long ago.... I now get virtually all of my
information, views, opinions, op-ed offerings, etc. from
my favorite internet sites.... phooey to all of these
political forums pretending to be evening "news" programs!

[DeFault User]

the networks' evening news programs were only 15 minutes

You must be as old as I am. CBS had (prior to Walter Cronkite) Douglas Edwards. Straightforward news in 15 minutes. He was completely deadpan. I don't think I ever saw him smile and he didn't color the news with his own bias, at least as far as I recall, but that was a long time ago.

[oyez]

I think a fifteen minute Joe Friday(just the facts, ma'm) version of the news has venue. That way we don't waste time on stories we don't care follow the ones that get our interest we know where to go to get more information. I just don't know how you would sell that second fifteen minutes of the half hour. Local news, maybe?