The following is a memorandum from the business manager of a television station."Over the past year, our late-night news program has devoted increased time to national news and less time to weather and local news. During this time period, most of the comp

The concern of the business manager of the TV station is not unjustified. Positive viewer feedback and advertising revenues are especially important for the success of a TV channel. However, some specific evidence and answers to questions are required to assess whether the station should look into the recommendation made by the manager.

The memorandum mentions complaints from viewers concerning the local news and weather coverage. This information is vague, as it is not clear whether the viewers are complaining about the quality, extent or time devoted to the coverage of local news. The exact number of complaints received has not been mentioned either. In addition, it is not clear whether these complaints have resulted in loss of viewership for the channel.

An important concern mentioned in the argument is that of loss of advertising revenues. However, the reason behind the local businesses pulling out their advertisements is not clear: perhaps another television station has offered better deals which precipitated the cancellation of advertising contracts. Whether this loss of revenues has been substantial needs to investigated as well.

Finally, the reason why more time was devoted to national rather than local news is not clear. Perhaps, there was an event of nationwide importance that warranted more time to be devoted to its presentation, for example, national elections, an important corruption scandal unearthed or similar. In such a scenario, the shift away from local and weather news coverage may well be a temporary one, and might not have any long-term consequences for the TV station.

To sum up, it should be granted that the business manager's concerns about viewer complaints and loss of ad revenues are not ungrounded. However, it is not entirely clear whether the shift towards more coverage of national news has caused the viewer's feedback and loss of ad contracts. Therefore, more robust evidence regarding viewer and advertiser feedback is required, possibly through consumer and business surveys. This will assist the station is detecting the lacunae in its programming, and taking corrective measures. Finally, if it is found out that the negative viewer responses and flagging of enthusiasm in advertisers has been the result of the shift towards national news, the manager's recommendations can be considered.