Following up on what I was talking about earlier today, just read this article from the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

“Half of the 1,326 people who work at The Tampa Tribune and WFLA-Channel 8 have been offered a voluntary separation package Monday as the media group’s parent company looks to trim costs in what it describes as a “difficult economic environment.”

The saddest part is that this really doesn’t surprise me. The thing that is scary is that I think this is going to happen more and more often, in markets all across the country. Maybe not half the employees, but a fair number of them.

But this goes back to the question I was asking earlier, what happens to all these people without jobs now? Where do they go? What happens to everyone else? Will the people in Tampa fill these jobs with younger and cheaper talent, or will all these jobs just go away.

It would not surprise me to see some stations simply take all its money and put it all into on-line coverage, and forget about the coverage on the radio, in the physical newspaper, and on the television.

A good friend of mine gave me this article to read, and it really got me thinking about some things.

First, local newscasts in general, are simply not as popular as they once were in most markets. While this article is based mainly in Boston, stories like this have become commonplace in a lot of markets. I agree with the story’s main point which is that the era of “celebrity” newscasters has ended.

As I mentioned in my last post, I don’t know many people who even watch the local news anymore, and I don’t know anyone who watches the news so that they can watch a particular news or sports anchor.

This brings up a larger point though. The days of anchors making large sums of money in most places are over. That’s not to say that people who work for local stations can’t make a decent living, because I believe they can.

We’re at a point now though when stations can simply fire a person if they are making too much money. They can get somebody younger and cheaper in to do the same work, even though that work may not be of the same caliber.

There is good news and bad news in this, for people my age. The good news is that people coming out of school who, years ago, may not have dreamed of being in a larger market a few years out of school, might have that chance now.

The bad news is that they are getting that chance based in many ways because they are young and inexpensive. The jump in market size isn’t giving them the pay increase it once was, it’s just giving them a little more prestige. After they spend some time in a certain market, and believe they have earned a raise, the station might just say, “Sorry, you’re making too much,” and then bring in the next person.

There’s the rub. At school. we were always led to believe that if you busted your butt in a very small market for a few years, and then worked your way up to a medium sized market, and really worked hard, if you really had talent, you would eventually make it to a large market and start making some real money.

Those days are gone now though. The difference is the money is not what it used to be. You could say that about a lot of industries right now, but the broadcast/local news industry has really been hit hard.

People can get news instantly, from a variety of different sources, why would somebody wait until 11 o’clock to watch the local news, when they can read about the same story 20 minutes after it happened?

For somebody who is my age, just getting the chance to be in a larger market is worth the cut in the paycheck. But what happens to all the older people in the business who are trying to support a family? Where do they go? And what happens when that 25 year old reporter suddenly becomes 35, and wants to earn a little extra money?

The bottom line to me is that the broadcast industry has become a youg person’s business. The only problem is that young people are the ones that these stations need to watch their newscasts to drive advertising interest, and I don’t know a single person my age, who watches the local news.

I just don’t see local news making some grand resurgance, like some other people do. I think there will always be a place for a local newscast, I’m not saying the format should be totally cast aside, I’m just saying that if people think they are going to even have the chance to make a lot of money down the line, they need to get into another profession.

A friend of mine is a producer in a fairly large market. Recently, we talked about the tv business, and where we thought it might be headed, especially concerning local sports. He told me that at his station, they were going with only one sports anchor.

While at first this really surprised me, as we talked a little more, it made sense. As it turns out, a few weeks back, the sports anchor at this station had to take a week off, so for that week’s shows, the station did not even provide a sportscast.

While you may think that viewers were upset, think again. Not one person called the station to complain.

More than anything this story makes me sad. I have a few friends that are trying to carve out a niche for themselves as local sportscasters, and they are all very talented. My biggest fear for them though is that more and more, local sportscasters are becoming a thing of the past.

I don’t know that many people who tune into a local newscast anymore, let alone to watch the sportscasters do their thing. Ten years ago, I would always tune into the local station to see what Ryan Baker had to say. He was my favorite local sportscaster and I always thought he did a good job.

Two things have changed though, especially in the last decade. First, ESPN has gotten enormous. SportsCenter is at the heart of everything, but ESPN has so many different platforms to broadcast its programming that they have basically cornered the market.

Secondly, the inception of the Internet has forever changed the way people can get their news and sports. In an instant, people can read, watch, or listen to whatever they want. That’s why most people aren’t waiting to watch the local sportscast everynight.

So why not just get rid of them alltogether? I disagree with that idea. I still believe that local sportscasts serve a purpose. I’m not sure if sports need to be on every night though. I think there are days when you could just go without them. However, there are plenty of days when they are needed.

Every Friday night in the fall, I would argue that local sportscasters play the most important role at a station. That’s because they are in charge of putting together the highlights of all the high school football games. All kinds of people tune in on Friday nights to see their child, or friend, play on tv.

The thing is, aside from high school sports coverage, and the occasional local story, there isn’t much a local sportscast can offer, that viewers/readers can’t get off the Internet, or from ESPN.

As time wears on, you’re not going to see as much sports on the local telecasts. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the day, some time soon, when local stations start sending news anchors out to cover sporting events.