TheBuzz
TheBuzz
A self-described "news junkie" vented to TheBuzz that KITV's local news cut-ins had disappeared from CNN Headline News on Oceanic Cable channel 15. The concern was not just that the local news had gone away, but that there was no explanation for its absence. That was all the gauntlet required. Local news updates
MIA from cablePhone calls revealed that Headline KITV-4 News had become too expensive for KITV and didn't provide enough return for Oceanic Cable.
"It was un-economic in its present format," said Nate Smith, president of Oceanic Cable. "We both felt there was some value there, but it was just getting too costly in how we were presently approaching it," he said.
"We'd probably gotten all the promotional value out of it that we could," said KITV President and General Manager Mike Rosenberg, who had hoped that "local inserts would have attracted a greater audience, but CNN Headline news has not attracted a great audience.
"Running a TV station gets tougher and tougher and we had to make a decision where our resources should go," he said. The timing worked well for KITV, he said, as "all the folks that were working for CNN Headline news were given other jobs in the station or were leaving town."
Both sides are taking a break, Smith said. "We're putting our thinking caps on going forward to see if there's a more efficient way we can bring it back to life."
"If we can figure out another way to do it, we'd very much like the local component -- the news," he said.
Oceanic is not courting another news organization to fill in the blank at 24 past the hour. "We really haven't been soliciting it yet," Smith said. He hopes to find a "creative solution where the cost doesn't outweigh the benefit -- we'd do it again in a heartbeat."
"We're looking forward to and discussing other partnerships with Oceanic," Rosenberg said: To which Smith added, "We have a raft of things, with our digital and interactive services, that we think would fit very well with KITV's programming, so we're definitely interested in pursuing other things with them."
Rosenberg invites the news junkie and others to pay a virtual visit to www.thehawaiichannel.com, KITV's Web site. "Between (the Honolulu Star-Bulletin Web site) and us and the (Brand X)," he said, local news is updated throughout the day.
The news cut-ins were only viewed on Oahu, where Oceanic Cable operates. However it has sister-operations on Kauai and the Big Island. Owned by AOL/Time Warner, the cable entities will eventually share a common name which has yet to be finalized, Smith said.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com