Infomercials compromise station’s image

Show cheese to earn cheese.

That's "cheese" as slang for both infomercials and the money they make, producing revenue in a recession and a problem of perception for Channel 3.

Dumping the back half of its 60-minute noon news this week, the station replaced it with 30 minutes of slick salesmanship (Monday's debut was a rhapsodic ode to the Shark Steam Mop), joining Channel 5 as a midday ad haven.

From a local-news perspective? Not much to mourn. Last Friday's final, hourlong nooner news included such frothy, Vegas-free fillers as "doggie yoga," a Colorado man with a nail in his sinus cavity and a Taiwanese farmer's pet pigs.

"It's been a tradition to have that hour of news at noon, but under what conditions would I make that change? -- We're living in it now," says Channel 3 General Manager Lisa Howfield. "Story selection will have to be tighter and you'll probably see a better lineup."

Change worth cheering.

But reallocating that airtime to advertisers paying for the privilege during the financial free fall is both a fiscal plus and image minus.

Stations strapped for ad dollars understandably unearth any avenue for revenue. Howfield already had laid off some nonnewsroom staff, combined departments and cut company trips. Amid this monetary miasma, infomercials have multiplied nationwide -- whether product pushers with put-on charms peddle exercise equipment and herbal remedies in straightforward come-ons, or hype-fests hawk skin-care cream and weight-loss plans while cunningly camouflaged as talk shows.

But when show-length shills migrate from overnight spots to weekday slots, they undercut a station's status, a critical commodity even if the station sacrifices only a 30-minute slice of the schedule. While buoying its budget, it's also a small but visible blight that now stains Channel 3 as it hosts smack-in-the-middle-of-the-day hustles.

No matter how professionally produced, infomercials send viewers an unfortunate signal:

You are off the air. Disappeared, ducked out and deserted your audience during a daypart when they expect to be legitimately entertained or informed -- as opposed to infomercials as overnight time-killers -- with weekday and prime-time lineups defining a station's identity. You have conceded to your competitors the advantage of perception, even if channels 8 and 13 air soaps that may not rate much higher on the Cheese-o-Meter.

You have imperiled credibility in a major time period if viewers feel scammed by infomercials. Rightly or wrongly, linking stations to the integrity -- or lack thereof -- of their advertisers in the audience's mind is more likely when ads go from between the programming to being the programming, the sense of separation marking the difference.

Money matters, but image is essential. An anemic economy forces damned-if-you-do-or-don't decisions but the dilemma persists:

Is the recession worth the concession?

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.