SURVEY: ALL THE NEWS FIT TO KEEP

If they had to pick one, more television viewers would choose local over network newscasts, but most said the two should continue in their current forms, according to an NBC study released Wednesday.

The survey’s results rebut predictions that evening newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC were doomed because of the ease with which local stations can report national and international news, NBC News President Lawrence K. Grossman said at a news conference.

The network surveyed 1,600 adults nationwide this summer.

The results show the gloom-and-doom reports were “overreaction and totally misplaced,” Grossman said.

Ernest Leiser, who for 32 years served as a CBS News correspondent, producer and executive, and Burton Benjamin, former executive producer of “CBS Evening News,” suggested in recent newspaper articles that technology and profits might drive some local stations to expand their newscasts, preempting those of Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather.

According to the survey, 45% of the dinnertime news viewers watch both local and network newscasts, 24% watched only local news and 12% watched only network news.

In addition, given the choice of only one newscast, 52% favored local, and 45% favored network.

But, when asked whether they wanted local news to expand its coverage and swallow up the network newscasts, 84% said no.

It said local news was most valued for providing viewers with useful, relevant information, scoring highest in the categories of “presents news that affects your life most” and “has most warm and friendly newscasters.”

The response made it unlikely that NBC would consider the “newswheel” concept in which local news is inserted into Brokaw’s “NBC Nightly News,” Grossman said.

The study noted that a majority of viewers want more national news and features but less sports on network programs but that the networks were the first choice during major news events for 81% of the respondents.

Grossman said the study’s results were predictable: Viewers said they preferred to see foreign and national news on the networks and local news on local stations.

The NBC researchers noted that the survey was their first comparing viewer attitudes on the subject, so they could not say how viewer preference was changing.

But By Williams, news director at WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh, an NBC affiliate, said that even though he believed local and network newscasts will continue to coexist, local news had gained the upper hand.

In 1986, WPXI has done more than 150 satellite reports, including one from the post office in Edmond, Okla., after the mass shooting there last month. Williams said his station’s report beat the networks’ pictures by 20 minutes.

“People watch news because of the people who give them the news,” he said. “ . . . The trust and credibility of the local newscast has outdistanced the more sterile approach of the networks.”