Late night news

The prompt argues that, to increase the number of viewers to the late-night news program and prevent the loss of advertising revenues, the air-time devoted to weather and local news should be returned to its previous levels. However, this argument makes three critical assumptions that challenge the stated conclusion.

First, the argument assumes that there has been a decrease, or plateu, in the viewership that occurred with the change in the allotment of air-time to national news compared to that of weather and local news. If there was an increase in the amount of viewership that occurred with the increased time devoted to national news, the presented argument would be weakened— as this change increased the viewership to the late-night news program and thus, the change in air-time was not indicative of viewership.

Next, the argument assumes that the viewers who have submitted complaints are concerned with the reduction in time devoted towards weather and local news and that these viewers are representative of the majority of the late-night news program viewers. If the viewers that have submitted complaints do not constitute a large percentage of the viewership or have not complained about the changed time allotments, then altering the air-time divisions to appease these complaints may not significantly increase more viewers to the program. However, if the number of viewers that have submitted complaints about the reduction in the amount of time devoted towards local news and weather accounts for a large proportion of the news stations' audience, then the argument would be strengthened.

Finally, the argument assumes that the remaining advertising contracts are with local businesses— rather than advertising contracts that target viewers of national news. If the remaining advertising contracts are with companies that target viewers of national news, then placing focus on advertising revenue gained from local businesses would not assist in reducing future losses to advertising revenues. Instead, a focus toward gaining new advertising contracts that align with the audience of the news program would better reduce further losses to advertising revenues. In contrast, if all of the late-night news program's advertisers are local businesses, then the argument to restore the time devoted towards local news may appeal to local business advertisers and help reduce further losses.