Nick Vadala at the Inquirer:

Say goodbye to Eyewitness News, Philly. You’re officially watching CBS News Philadelphia now.

Or, at least you will be following the station’s noon newscast on Wednesday. After that, the former CBS3 will sunset its current branding, and fully adopt its CBS Philadelphia identity — complete with a new name for its station and newscast, new graphics and colors, a new approach to reporting and storytelling, and a reconfigured newscast structure.

…

Now, CBS News Philadelphia will work to be more proactive than reactive in its newsgathering, and highlight stories that make the Philadelphia area “a better place to live.”

For the newscast, that means longer, more in-depth packages than the typical minute-long runtime, with some getting into five-minute territory, (GM Kelly) Frank said. Structurally, the former Eyewitness News also won’t be the typical “news, weather, sports” format that many stations follow.

Eyewitness News has become an afterthought in recent years. The station just sort of exists. Sure, Ukee Washington is still on television and there are some fantastic people keeping the ship afloat behind the scenes, but there’s been so much talent and leadership churn that the operation is largely unrecognizable these days. They’re kind of like the Anaheim Ducks. How many Ducks can you name? Add in the fact that clueless corporate suits kept micro-managing the station from New York, toss in a scandal or two, and you have the recipe for a news station that hasn’t moved the needle one way or another in a long time.

The thing that I’ve always said about local news is that less is so much more. The reason Action News was obliterated the competition for decades is because they literally do nothing. They change nothing. You get the big story, weather, and sports. The talent is high quality and loyal, and when a 45-year veteran like Jim Gardner retires, he’s replaced with a 35-year veteran, while the other three stations seemingly have to restock with people who were in college just a few years prior.

To that point, regardless of intent or reasoning (they could certainly use some kind of shot in the arm), switching from “Eyewitness News” to “CBS News Philadelphia” will register a 0.0 on the Richter Scale. Most people don’t even know what station they’re actually watching, they just say “I watch channel 6,” or “We watch Jim Gardner” or whatever. The utterly useless and overpaid consultants always want to remodel the anchor desk or change the mic flags from a square to a triangle or try all this other cosmetic shit that simply does not matter, because Philadelphia wants familiarity and consistency in news gathering and reporting. The out-of-market suits never understood that they needed to play the long game, or maybe they simply refused.

Who knows though? Maybe a CBS rebound is in play here. They got pretty close to Action News during the Alycia Lane and Larry Mendte years, then one punched a cop and other hacked some emails, and that was that.