{"id":26661,"date":"2020-08-25T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T11:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=26661"},"modified":"2020-08-25T12:31:02","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T17:31:02","slug":"wgn-americas-news-nation-gets-ready-make-primetime-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2020\/08\/25\/wgn-americas-news-nation-gets-ready-make-primetime-history\/","title":{"rendered":"WGN America's 'News Nation' gets ready to make primetime history"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

<\/a> \"News Nation\" (from left): meteorologist Albert Ramon, news anchors Joe Donlon and Marni Hughes, and breaking news anchor Rob Nelson<\/p><\/div>\n

One week from tonight, television history will be made in Chicago.<\/p>\n

Straight up at 7 p.m. Tuesday, September 1, viewers across the country will get their first look at \u201cNews Nation,\u201d<\/a> the three-hour primetime national newscast to air seven nights a week on the WGN America<\/a> cable network.<\/p>\n

Culminating months of construction and weeks of rehearsals at WGN headquarters on West Bradley Place, the $20 million startup by parent company Nexstar Media Group will come to fruition in the midst of a global pandemic and at the height of a presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s being backed by a $100 million advertising and promotional effort.<\/p>\n

At a time when other news organizations are undergoing massive layoffs and cutbacks, \u201cNews Nation\u201d created and filled more than 150 jobs. And at a time when national news is overwhelmed by political bias and opinionated talking heads, \u201cNews Nation\u201d is being founded on a model of objectivity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sean Compton<\/p><\/div>\n

The company's initial working title for the undertaking was \u201cProject Neutral,\u201d according to Sean Compton, Chicago-based executive vice president of WGN America.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason we called it \u2018Project Neutral\u2019 was because we\u2019re so sick and tired of the polarization of news. News should not be polarizing,\u201d Compton said in a behind-the-scenes video preview<\/a> on the creation of the newscast.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve kind of abandoned news a long time ago, when you look at the other cable news channels. There\u2019s a lot that happens in the middle of the country, and we\u2019re going to be able to fill that void. It hasn\u2019t been done in a long time. And it has not been done to this scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Key to the effort is leveraging the newsgathering resources of Nexstar\u2019s 5,400 journalists working in 110 local stations from coast to coast.<\/p>\n

Originating from a state-of-the-art studio and newsroom built from scratch, \"News Nation\" will be fronted by news anchors Joe Donlon and Marni Hughes, breaking news anchor Rob Nelson and meteorologist Albert Ramon. Donlon spent the last two years as 5, 6, 9 and 10 p.m. news anchor at Nexstar's WGN-Channel 9.<\/p>\n

\"We fit into an interesting space in primetime because most of that bandwidth is consumed by opinion and talk,\" Dolon said in the video.<\/p>\n

\"I think we will get the benefit of a lot of hard work at the local level. All of these Nexstar stations . . . are working hard every day to create this interesting content. And what we\u2019re doing is sort of observing from 30,000 feet all of this content across the country. . . . I want to look at this as sort of a local newscast for the nation.\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jennifer Lyons<\/p><\/div>\n

Overseeing the startup is Jennifer Lyons, vice president of news for WGN America and former news director of \"Chicago's Very Own\" WGN. She and her top lieutenant, \"News Nation\" news director Sandy Pudar, are responsible for everything viewers will see \u2014 and every word they will hear.<\/p>\n

Even before she accepted the promotion<\/a> in January, Lyons said she was troubled by the way cable networks had become \"so hyper-focused on politics\" that they were overlooking other news out there.<\/p>\n

\"It became inherently clear as I would watch the cable news networks to try to find out what was going on, I couldn\u2019t find out what was going on,\" she said. \"And that\u2019s what led me to say there needs to be a national newscast \u2014 because there\u2019s not enough information. It\u2019s only centered on D.C. and politics.<\/p>\n

\"It\u2019s so funny because when we set out to do this project, so many people were like: 'How are you going to do that?' It\u2019s simple. This is what we learned in school. This is what journalism is supposed<\/em> to be. And this is what local newsrooms do right now. They\u2019re not telling people how<\/em> to think. It\u2019s the cable network model that we\u2019re not going to do.\"<\/p>\n

The onset of the pandemic in March \"brought everything to a screeching halt,\" Lyons recalled. But construction quickly resumed, and Lyons and Pudar resorted to virtual meetings to hire nearly the entire staff. \"We did Zoom call after Zoom call after Zoom call to try and find the right people. It\u2019s really kind of amazing, I never thought we could do it,\" she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Joe Donlon<\/p><\/div>\n

As showtime approaches, Donlon and his colleagues know how much is riding on their efforts.<\/p>\n

\"Look, just by virtue of the time we\u2019re on, we are going to be competing against some of the biggest names in television [and] some of the biggest networks,\" Donlon said. \"They have a big head start. But that\u2019s not going to keep us from what we\u2019re doing. I think there is a place for what we\u2019re doing, and I\u2019m not going to worry about what anyone else is doing. I\u2019m going to worry about what we\u2019re<\/em> doing.<\/p>\n

\"I\u2019ve heard people ask: 'Is there room for you in this center lane?' And I would argue there\u2019s plenty of room because we\u2019re really the only ones in it.<\/p>\n

\"The question is: Will people watch? They say this is what they want. We\u2019re about to find out.\"<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s comment of the day: <\/a>Jeff Borden:<\/strong> The endorsement I'm looking forward to is the Chicago Tribune's. In 2016, it bravely backed libertarian Gary Johnson, who went on to earn an impressive 3 percent of the vote nationwide. Who will get the nod this time around?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One week from tonight, television history will be made in Chicago. Straight up at 7 p.m. Tuesday, September 1, viewers across the country will get their first look at \u201cNews Nation,\u201d the three-hour primetime national newscast to air seven nights a week on the WGN America cable network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26661"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26676,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26661\/revisions\/26676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}