The following is a memorandum from the business manager of a television station.“Over the past year, our late-night news program has devoted increased time to national news and less time to weather and local news. During this time period, most of the co

The argument stated by the business manager is primarily related with increasing of advertising revenues & to attract more viewers. Overall, i agree with the manager's motive but there are certain unanswered questions in regard with the solution proposed by him. We need to have sufficient evidence before taking any decision since it'll be crucial for the television station.

First, the statement mentions about the complaints received by the television station but there is no clarity on those complaints. Like whether complaints are received from numerous viewers or numerous complaints are received by particular customers. If we have evidence that the similar group of customers are complaining about it again & again than it'll be the case of satisfying a particular target segment rather if we segregate complaints & find out that various complaints from numerous viewers are received, then the decision proposed by manager sounds valid.

Second, the statement mentions about the local businesses who have cancelled the advertising contract, there might be various reasons to do that, we do not have evidence on why they've cancelled. Maybe a feedback from with some questions designed specifically to find the root cause for cancellation can be circulated to these businesses and later analysed. For example, there can be particular business who was advertising on news channel for last 2 years & is been benefited by the advertising, thus objective of advertising was achieved and no further advertising feels appropriate. Another example can be the currrent market economy, assuming that national economy is going through a bad phase, it is pretty genuine for the business to pull out of advertising as a part of cost cutting measures. Another example can be the business was not at all getting the intended benefit via advertising on news channel & maybe would have shifted focus towards local hoardings & pamphlets or maybe to some other entertainment channel. This statement made by manager is incomplete in so many such ways, we need to have proper evidence/ root cause analysis on why local businesses have cancelled their advertising contract with the news channel.

Furthermore, possibility of various other solutions needs to be evaluated before taking final decision. Like, if objective is restoring advertising revenues, why not attract some nationwide companies whose ads will be broadcasted along with national news. Another can be if local news & national news is accomodated to some other time and local ads to be placed during that time, will that work for news channel?

Concluding, I understand the reason & support the manager's opinion but there are lot of unanswered questions which need answer before taking final decision on this issue.