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NORTHEAST FLORIDA - The new television season may see some of the heaviest spending on advertising in years. But while network executives and New York ad agencies try to figure out which of the new shows will be the big hits, ad eyes in Northeast Florida are focused squarely on local news.
"News is an affordable way to hit a large segment of the demographic that buys things," said Jeff Kalish, vice president of media services at The Robin Shepherd Group, an advertising and public relations firm.
But television news in the Jacksonville market has been in transition in the past year or so and making a buy decision about specific newscasts is more of a challenge this year than it has been in a long time, media buyers said.
WJXT Channel 4 is the big question mark. The company dropped its affiliation with CBS last year and struck out on its own with a combination of expanded local news, locally produced programs and reruns. The idea was to escape the big fees networks charge affiliates while milking the station's popularity among local TV newshounds. A few weeks ago, veteran anchor Deborah Gianoullis left to produce documentaries; WJXT intends to use some.
All the changes at Channel...