CityNews

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

CityNews are local newscasts on the Citytv system in Canada. Previously seen on all five Citytv stations, it is currently only seen on Citytv Toronto and CP24.

[edit] History

CityPulse at Six open titles, 2003

The newscast originated in 1977 in Toronto under its original title CityPulse until August 2, 2005 when it was renamed CityNews. While the station promotes the myth that it was the "first" news show to abandon the traditional anchor desk, this is in fact, not true as CBS News in the United States had done this as early as the 1950s under Edward R. Murrow. Its main contribution and innovation in television news was to inject its reporters into their stories in a more participatory role that is still considered highly controversial by more traditional journalists. CityNews/CityPulse also presents its programs in such a manner to emphasize a more emotional feel to the show to get a reaction out of the audience than most other local news stations (examples include stories related to Paul Bernardo, the Mike Harris government and the Caledonia land dispute).

By the mid-1980s, the newscast's style, pioneered by Moses Znaimer, was promoted as a "format" for local news shows to copy around North America. The show has also been duplicated by other television stations owned by CHUM Limited as well, and its format has been licensed to several television stations around the world such as Citytv Barcelona and Citytv Bogotá.

Until 1987, the anchors on CityPulse sat behind an anchor desk in a dark studio, accompanied only by the two familiar orange-red-black striped beams and a television set between the two anchors. CityPulse at Six was anchored by Gord Martineau and Dini Petty for much of the years 1980-1987. Weather presenters in that era included CHUM Radio veteran Jay Nelson, Brian Hill, Greg Rist, and David Onley. Sports anchors included Jim McKenny, Russ Salzberg, John Saunders, Debbie Van Kiekebelt, and Ann Rohmer.

CityPulse Tonight, originally known as CityPulse at 10 prior to 1981, was anchored by Bill Cameron, later by Gord Martineau, and then Anne Mroczkowski. In 1987, Anne moved to the supper-hour show to co-anchor with Martineau, and J.D. (John) Roberts began his news anchoring career as anchor of CityPulse Tonight after several years as an entertainment reporter and MuchMusic VJ.

On May 4, 1987, CityPulse moved into its current newsroom set at 299 Queen Street West in Toronto, following the move of the station's operations from 99 Queen Street East. The set was heavily grey with red accents until late 1990, when it began to darken towards the current look.

CityNews opening titles from 2005, still seen on Citytv Calgary and Edmonton

CityPulse was launched in Vancouver in 2002 when CKVU-TV was re-named Citytv Vancouver. With the expansion of Citytv from two to five stations in August 2005, the newscasts on all five Citytv stations were renamed CityNews.

On July 12, 2006, coincident with the announcement of CTVglobemedia's plans to take over CHUM Limited, all primetime CityNews programs, with the exception of those on CITY-TV in Toronto, were immediately cancelled and 281 CHUM employees across the country were laid off. On CKAL and CKEM, CityNews at Six and CityNews Tonight was replaced with a new half-hour newsmagazine called Your City, see more below.. CHMI had been slated to launch its own version in January according to a news release^[1], however, CHMI has not produced a version of Your City as of June 22, 2007. CKVU's full newscasts has not been replaced, though the station still presents newsbreaks weekdays and on Sundays. Calgary and Edmonton still run CityNews at Noon.

When the show made the transition to CityNews, it lost multiple features, such as the CityPulse Webtest, which had existed since the 1980s as a phone-in contest. The new format on CHMI, which previously was called A-Channel News (which is now used by CHUM's NewNet stations), had lost nearly half of its audience for the 6 p.m. newscast before its cancellation.

Ratings for Toronto's CityNews have taken a dramatic nosedive over the past year. The flagship newscast for CityTV is now ranked a distant #4 in the Toronto market, outpaced by CTV, Global and even CH News (which actually focuses its local news coverage on the Hamilton/Halton/Niagara region). In addition, since Global's relaunch of its news package in February 2006, CityNews' numbers are down 15% among 18- to 49-year-olds.^[2]

On April 27, 2007, Gord Martineau won a lifetime achievement award for best newscast for 30 years for working at Citytv Toronto and CP24.

On June 8, 2007, the CRTC approved the CTV takeover of CHUM, However the five Citytv stations were unable to be sold to CTVgm as a result of concentration of media ownership regulations. On June 11 Rogers Media announced that it would buy five Citytv stations from CTVglobemedia. The sale was approved on September 28 and became official on October 31.

On January 21, 2008, Citytv Toronto debuted a 5PM news program, CityNews at Five.