Spectrum is expanding its local TV news coverage to include North Texas, hiring well-known broadcaster Brett Shipp to co-anchor an evening segment that begins Oct. 16.
Spectrum’s news product is available exclusively to customers of the company’s cable and internet services. Spectrum said it reaches about 3.1 million customers in Texas and 30 million across 41 states.
Spectrum operates a 24/7 cable news network called Spectrum 1. North Texas customers will see local news through Spectrum’s mobile app or cable TV service.
Local news stories will be reported by the cable network’s existing staff and new hires in communities Spectrum plans to cover in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Wichita Falls regions. The company said it is building out its team by hiring nearly two dozen journalists throughout the state to bolster its reporting in Waco, Harlingen, Corpus Christi, El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley in addition to D-FW.
Spectrum’s leadership wants its coverage to buck traditional TV news models of quick-hit crime updates and fires to pursue community-focused stories that matter to North Texans.
“Cable companies are basically local companies, even though they’ve gotten bigger ... so we have a real responsibility to our local communities," said Mike Bair, executive vice president of Spectrum Networks. "Because we’re not beholden to last night’s rating and chasing crime and stretched yellow tape, we can spend a lot more time on real journalism, real stories that matter.”
Shipp, a longtime Dallas-Fort Worth TV journalist and one-time political candidate, will co-anchor Your Evening on Spectrum News 1, a 5 p.m. weekday newscast with Nicole Cross. She was a news anchor in Austin and Monroe, La., before joining Spectrum last year and worked as a psychotherapist for 15 years.
Shipp called it a “journalist’s dream come true.”
“Texas is my home. It’s the home of all my family and friends. And home is where my heart is. News is in my blood, my dad made sure of that,” Shipp said in a statement.
Shipp’s father, Bert Shipp, was a reporter and editor at WFAA-TV (Channel 8) for 40 years. Shipp worked at the same news affiliate from 1995 through 2017 when he resigned to run for Congress as a Democrat, attempting to oust Republican Pete Sessions from Texas' 32nd District. Shipp didn’t make it past the primary election, which he lost to Colin Allred. Shipp started his own media company, Brett Ship Media LLC, in 2018.
In his 22 years at WFAA, Shipp’s work earned him national accolades, including three Peabody awards, three DuPont awards, one national Edward R. Murrow award and multiple regional Emmy awards.
Spectrum is also bringing on Dallas-native Charles Divins as a morning anchor. A former soap opera actor, Divins joins the network after six years as morning anchor at WDSU-TV in New Orleans.
The company has a history of launching broadcast and digital news operations in highly competitive media markets like Dallas-Fort Worth, where it’ll go up against four network affiliates, an independent TV station, a public broadcasting station and two Spanish-language channels. Spectrum launched its Los Angeles news operation in August 2018, and announced a news partnership with the Los Angeles Times three months later.
Dallas is the fifth-largest television market in the U.S. behind New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, according to 2019 data from Nielsen.
Spectrum’s move to grow its media presence in recent years comes at a time when traditional local news organizations are struggling to find viable sources of revenue to sustain their operations.
Local TV news stations and legacy print publications have been bought by hedge funds and consolidated through aggressive cost-cutting, resulting in fewer journalists and a stronger focus on national issues that could be leading to increased political polarization, according to a PEN America report released last year.
Irving-based Nexstar became the country’s largest local TV-station owner when it acquired Tribune Media Co. last year in a deal valued at $4.1 billion. It has since launched a prime-time national news show on WGN America, which reaches about 75 million U.S. households.
Spectrum’s push to develop its news coverage is an effort to create added value for customers with exclusive content.
“We’re a cable company that is focused on connectivity," Bair said. "We’re trying to connect ... with people on a more human level.”
