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Back in September we said it was a slippery slope and last week we told you it was happening.

Gray Television is merging Sioux Falls stations KSFY and KDLT to create what they are calling, “Dakota News Now.”

Starting Monday, Gray will use a new team of anchors and reporters selected from both stations and assigned by management as part of a staff restructuring.

In other words, two news departments become one, meaning the company will need fewer people, the viewers will have fewer choices and Gray will now control ad sales on two stations.

Doesn’t sound very good, does it?

But, let’s see how KSFY GM Jim Berman spins all this, “We have two terrific news teams,” Berman said, “The thinking was, “Let’s merge them together and create a super team.”

Was that really the thinking?

Or was it more like, let’s combine them together, cut some jobs and rake in even more money?

We can’t ask the GM at KDLT their thoughts, because that job has been eliminated.

Both teams will merge under one roof.

As for spinning the move, Berman says the merger could have taken any number of directions, the simplest of which would have been to simulcast all broadcasts to both channels and continue with the pre-existing TV schedule for local news.

But it would have meant significantly more job cuts, Berman said “I will tell you a lot of companies would have made that choice,” he said.

Staff reductions were still part of the process of bringing both news teams into one studio, and the bulk of positions affected were part-time, Berman said. He declined to give the specific number of jobs cut.

But, basically, since the news still has the same editorial control on both stations, how is this different than a simulcast?

If Reporter Jane Doe does a story on KSFY on the Mayor’s new plan for downtown and then she is back later on KDLT doing the same story, how is it different?

Gray can spin this any way they want, but the viewers are losing out on another independent voice in the market.

Sadly, this is where the industry is headed.

H/T Argus Leader