Atlanta TV: News Shifts as Viewership Habits Change

Local television news is losing its status as must-watch programming, forcing station owners to adapt to declining audiences and evolving viewing habits, much like newspapers did with the rise of the internet.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports two significant developments in Atlanta’s television market this summer signal further changes ahead.

In June, Gray Media announced that Atlanta News First (WANF/Channel 46) will end its 30-year CBS affiliation in August to become an independent station. Gray plans to expand local news programming, with job postings already live for reporters, editors, and meteorologists. Meanwhile, CBS revealed that WUPA/Channel 69 will become its new Atlanta affiliate, launching a fifth local TV news operation in the city. 

Both companies are hiring journalists but declined to comment beyond their initial statements.

These moves will bolster local journalism in Atlanta, the nation’s seventh-largest TV market by potential audience, according to Nielsen. However, with fragmented viewership, the challenge is whether both stations can attract enough viewers to thrive.

Sean McLaughlin, vice president of Detroit-based Graham Media Group, which doesn’t own a station in Atlanta, said TV companies are grappling with uncertainty: “What would life look like without a network? What’s survival mode?”  He noted that the industry is navigating unprecedented shifts.

In 2022, when veteran Atlanta reporter Richard Belcher was nearing retirement at WSB-TV, its 6 p.m. newscast drew about 37,500 viewers aged 25-54, per Nielsen—down from the peak days when even third-ranked stations were highly profitable. “It was years of growth,” Belcher recalled. 

By mid-2025, that viewership has dropped to roughly 29,500, still the highest among Atlanta’s four major evening news broadcasts.

“This is tough and getting tougher,” Belcher said. “Good work still gets done, but you’re spread thin.”

Fewer viewers translate to reduced advertising revenue, a critical income source for stations.

McLaughlin, with 30 years in TV news, said the industry faces multiple pressures: AI-powered tools in search engines and social media are diverting traffic from news websites, and public trust in media hit a record low in 2024, per Gallup polls. 

Another factor is the strained relationship between networks and affiliates. Affiliates earn revenue from cable and satellite providers, but networks like CBS take a growing share to carry their programming—sometimes exceeding what affiliates receive. By going independent, Gray avoids these fees, retaining more revenue to invest in local news.