Some US local-news anchors are now switching cameras, rolling graphics and video, controlling microphones and directing timing while presenting live. Fox 26 Houston anchor Caroline Collins has shown the workflow publicly, describing simultaneous anchoring and switching as highly stressful.
At Tegna-owned 12 News in Phoenix, journalists rotate through a daily 30-minute streaming newscast without commercials or a teleprompter. The anchor produces and directs the programme, while major breaking-news situations still bring additional team support.
Managers point to faster decisions, more editorial control and the ability to produce more streaming output. Anchors can extend interviews or follow developing pictures without waiting for a conventional control-room chain, while colleagues remain available for other reporting.
The model also concentrates failure recovery and editorial judgment in one person. The reported examples do not establish whether accuracy, burnout, technical quality or total labour cost improve over time, and recent newsroom job cuts make it difficult to separate creative autonomy from cost pressure.
