They were just concerned with getting it on air. She believes the company has succeeded in one major goal, which is to garner greater visibility for its newspaper reporters. According to Barbara Weeks, because the station was placed on different channel locations on different cable systems around the city, CLTV can't brand itself with a single channel, as the NY1, the News 12s or Newschannel 8 do. But like many of the other local cable news channels, CLTV's contracts are exclusive on existing cable systems. With that exclusivity comes the benefit of some subscriber revenue in addition to advertising revenue.
Weeks says the station is operational on a cash-flow basis.
Still, she seems enthusiastic about the prospect of continuing to adjust CLTV in an effort to promote its use by the Chicago audience. Among major media companies, Tribune has aggressively broken down the barriers that separate print and broadcast properties. The editorial cycle, management structure, and development of CLTV all leverage editorial output and tap synergistic efficiencies from the formerly separate print and broadcast news operations. The conflict between WB entertainment and Cubs games pushed a number of the baseball games onto CLTV, boosting its audience even as it disrupted CLTV's regular programming schedule. Of course, just when the upswing in audience was beginning to score for CLTV's advertisers, Sammy Sosa's home-run chase and resulting national interest pushed the games back onto WGN, forcing CLTV to readjust its schedule yet again.