From Jane Pauley to Barbara Walters, Hugh Downs to John Stossel, and Brian Williams to Mike Wallace, everyone seems to have his or her favorite news anchor. News magazines airing on television such as 20/20, Dateline, Primetime, 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes II, and 48 Hours are no exception to this trend. Maybe a favorite of many is Barbara Walters for her direct yet sympathetic questioning, Hugh Downs for his seeming wealth of wisdom and knowledge, or John Stossel for his to-the-point attitude and humorous lingo. Whatever the preference, just what is it about these television news magazines that attracts viewers, gets the ratings, and keeps these shows in motion? What purpose does this genre of television serve, and just how did it become what it is today?

Television news magazines such as the ones preciously mentioned have grown wildly since their conception approximately 35 years ago by Don Hewitt, now executive producer of CBS’ 60 Minutes. Although "infotainment"- the combination of information and entertainment has come nowhere close to taking over the traditional news package, growth of this type of information channel is due largely to the people-oriented news they deliver, with a "news-you-can-use" approach. As much as 37% of the public tunes in regularly to television news magazines, while58% of regular nightly news viewers also watch the shows. If measuring the popularity of these nightly slots, consider the award-winning past of 60 Minutes: it was the number-one broadcast in America, once in the '70s, once in the '80s, twice in the '90s, and has been in the top 10 for 21 years!

According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, the magazine format has gained strength among young viewers over the last two years. In 1996, 19% of those under age 30 watched a news magazine show regularly; today, 26% do. The magazines gained the most ground among young men -- the percentage of men under age 30 who watch these types of programs has doubled since 1996, from 11% to 22%. Much like the general public, regular television magazine viewers are most interested in news about health, crime and their own communities.

Just what are these television shows covering in their stories to get good ratings? On 60 Minutes, for example, each week an ensemble of celebrity correspondents takes on a mix of investigative pieces, features and profiles, followed by the "proverbial few minutes with Andy Rooney." The genre itself is oriented around people stories, lifestyle/behavior, news you can use and celebrity entertainment. Overall, 55% of their stories concerned these issues. They also covered crime and justice heavily, 23% of the time, while eight percent of the stories on the prime time news magazines concern the combined areas of education, economics, foreign affairs, the military, national security, politics or social welfare issues, according to a www.journalism.org report on the growth of television news magazines.

With the cost of producing a Hollywood drama or a sitcom increasing, it has become easier and easier for networks to fill their time slots with these in-depth reports. News magazines are economical, especially compared to the cost of entertainment programming. Typically, a news magazine can be produced for a few hundred thousand dollars per show -- versus more than a million dollars for an hour of drama or comedy. According to Marc Gunther, with Fortune Magazine, "what has changed is the opportunities for news have arisen as the economics of the rest of the television business have gone south. It's hard to find hit shows, the costs of Hollywood are expensive, news programming can be put on more economically and as a result the corporate owners of the networks are coming to the news division and saying 'give us more news." According to Don Hewitt of 60 Minutes, his show has made over a billion dollars since its beginning thirty years ago, and Dateline, because it's on so often, probably makes 100 million dollars a year. That's a very substantial number when you realize that the NBC network as a whole is making about 500 million dollars a year. So Dateline alone would account for 20 percent of NBC's profits! With 800 shows a year, it is undoubtedly successful, along with 20/20, which has grown from it’s original Friday night slot to be on television soon 4 nights a week.

With such success of these television news magazines, and with the great variety of topics on which they report, the question still begs to be answered? When will you tune in?