KPIX CBS5’s addition of a 10 p.m. newscast on Channel 44 provided the jumping off point for a story by the Chron’s Joe Garofoli on the expansion of local TV newscasts. In the past year, KTVU Channel 2 has launched a 7 p.m. news on co-owned Channel 36, and KGO ABC7 is providing an hour of local news at 9 p.m. on Granite Broadcasting’s KBWB TV20. Garofoli writes:

These additional newscasts make money, as they don’t cost a lot to produce for a station already running a news operation; often they earn more than the syndicated program that they replace. Technological advances in TV newsrooms mean that a broadcast that used to take six to eight people to produce can now be done by one or two.