Gay cabler Logo has canceled its
gay-themed newscast, 365gay News Powered by CBS News.
365gay News was one of the first
offerings by the nascent Logo channel, which premiered in June 2005.
The show initially presented news items throughout the channel's
broadcast day, but starting in 2007 the show acquired a permanent
slot on the network's weekly schedule.
The half-hour show was produced in
partnership with CBS News. But that relationship unbuttoned when
Viacom, which owned both CBS and MTV, owner of Logo, spun off CBS.
“In the beginning, when Logo decided
they wanted to do news, instead of hiring an entire newsroom and
figuring everything from scratch, they went to CBS, which was at the
time part of the same Viacom family,” Itay Hod, veteran reporter
for 365gay News told British gay monthly Instinct.
“Logo contracted and paid CBS to do the news every year. This year
[Logo] decided they couldn't renew it because of the economy and
recession.”
Jason Bellini, the show's first anchor,
now reports for the progressive blog The
Daily Beast. Emmy Award-winning Ross Palombo moved up from
San Antonio-based CBS affiliate KENS to take over the anchor desk
last year.
With the premiere of Palombo, the show
also moved to Thursday night and altered its name from CBS News on
Logo to 365gay News Powered by CBS News, giving more
weight to Logo's sister website 365gay.com,
where viewers can also catch the show.
“Starting on August 13, 365gay
News (formerly titled CBS News on Logo) will no longer
live on-air as a weekly telecast,” Logo spokesman Mike Barrett told
On Top Magazine in an email. “The franchise has now evolved
into an all-online franchise, reporting and analyzing all the news
about the LGBT community as quickly as it happens.”
Hod disagreed with the online move.
“I think it's terrible that there's
not going to be a newscast,” Hod said. “But I'm not the one
paying for it. I'm sure whoever made the decision had their reasons.
They are not reasons I agree with, but it was a certain amount of
money that they realized they couldn't spend.”
“Logo will continue to do a lot of
news on 365gay.com, so they're not completely letting go of news.
They're continuing to do it; they just won't have a show on
television,” he added.
Story tipped to us by gay monthly The
Advocate.