Jennifer Mitchell, President, Stations and Digital, CBS News and Stations, pointed to the Hurricane Milton coverage as a “great example” of the value of local stations.
Hurricane Milton | Live footage from across Florida
"Local news is so incredibly important and continues to be important," she said during a panel Wednesday at the NAB Show New York. "Today is a great example, with Hurricane Milton coming. Local journalists know better than anyone how to cover that story. That's not going to change. It's just, OK, how are we going to distribute that information? How are viewers going to consume that information? It's important that we're in all those different places and serving the consumer."
Milton is the strongest storm to hit the Gulf of Mexico in 20 years and poses a major threat to Florida's west coast, which was recently hit hard by Hurricane Helene.
Weather conditions have long been a calling card for local broadcasters, but Mitchell and her fellow panelists touched on a host of challenges facing local operations. Declines in linear viewership and corresponding declines in distribution and advertising revenue are major concerns, along with maintaining a connection with viewers as fewer of them are connected to pay TV.
