Arkansas Business

What It Means

So what does this all mean for the other TV stations in Little Rock? Has the market for news and advertising fundamentally shifted?

“I don’t think it’s going to change the news market,” said Mark Rose, general manager of KATV-TV, Channel 7.

Under Nexstar management, KLRT was slated to lose its 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. news shows in favor of a 5:30 p.m. show and an hour show starting at 9 p.m. That change could be positive for KATV, if KLRT viewers at the old times look for other options, Rose said.

“I think if you look at the history of those particular newscasts, they’ve not performed particularly well against what we still consider the big three,” Rose said, referring to KARK, KATV and KTHV-TV, Channel 11.

A hardship of the consolidation of KARK and KLRT operations is the loss of TV jobs in the Little Rock area, which, as a market, already had suffered TV job cuts during the Great Recession, Rose said.

“It’s going to be difficult for them to find work, I think, in the industry,” he said of the people affected by last week’s layoffs.

KTHV General Manager Michael Caplan declined to comment for this column.