Consultants, News

Background

By at least the late 1930s, radio station managers considered local news programming essential to maintaining their license. This philosophy was certainly true for radio in the years prior to the emergence of television and for television during the 1950s and 1960s. During this time managers and owners saw local news as an obligation under the Communications Act of 1934. Local news and public affairs programming provided evidence, come license renewal time, that the stations were properly serving the “public interest, convenience, and necessity.”

Accordingly, local television newsrooms generally operated on modest budgets and produced newscasts using unadorned formats of talking heads and film. Most stations did not appear to be overtly attempting to draw large audiences. After all, local news was not seen as a profit center, it was what the stations did to keep peace with the FCC. General managers didn't expect their newscasts to earn much money, but they also didn't want them to lose much either. And, especially, they didn't want their news reporters or anchors to get them into potentially expensive legal battles.

The formats varied little into the 1970s. A 30-minute local news block typically included a 15-minute newscast, a 5-minute weather report and forecast, and a 10-minute sportscast. All times, of course, were reduced by the obligatory commercial interruptions.

Television stations had often used outside consultants for research and advice on a wide range of [Page 358]issues over the years. Many of the consultants evaluated audience reactions to entertainment programs and commercials. But in the late 1960s, consultants were poised to take on a new, expanded, and often controversial role.

Inception of News Consultants

Former ad executives and market researchers Phillip McHugh and Peter Hoffman formed a partnership in Michigan in 1962 to advise local television stations on their local programming, which at the time included music, variety, and children's programs. During the 1960s, fewer local stations originated programming other than news. As a result, McHugh and Hoffman—as their company came to be known—began to focus their consulting primarily on local newscasts. The “news consultant” or “news doctor” was born.

In 1969 their first major market client, WABC-TV in New York, was where Al Primo had recently created the “Eyewitness News” format. A year later Frank Magid entered the news consultant field. A former social psychology professor at the University of Iowa, Magid had been providing market research data to broadcasters for 12 years. Now he, too, refocused his attention on the newsrooms and newscasts of his client stations.

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