Koppel ends era

News that Ted Koppel will leave his Nightline broadcast and ABC at the end of the year has added fuel to speculation that the era of television news may be drawing to a close.

ABC News said it would continue some form of the late-night, in-depth news broadcast, born in the days of the Iran hostage crisis in 1980, would continue in it’s usual time slot, but this determination may bow before the search for a younger audience and higher ratings.

Nightline’s ratings began to slip in 2002, but the show was saved then by complaints that profits were taking a more prominent role that the public interest in programming decisions.

Koppel’s departure in the wake of the recent retirements of Tom Brokaw at NBC and Dan Rather at CBS have put the future of traditional news broadcasts in doubt.