''Worldfocus'' is an American

newscast News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or tele ...

focused on international news and reporting. The newscast was originally anchored by

Martin Savidge Martin Savidge (born May 27, 1958) is a Canadian-American television news correspondent. Savidge worked for NBC News and was a special correspondent and former anchor for public television's '' Worldfocus'' nightly news program in the role of a ...

and later hosted by

Daljit Dhaliwal Daljit Dhaliwal (born 8 September 1962) is a British newsreader and television presenter. Dhaliwal is a former news presenter for the Al-Jazeera English news service that was broadcast from Washington, D.C. Previously, she was the anchor cha ...

. It was produced by

WNET WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as Thirteen (stylized as THIRTEEN), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the Educ ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and distributed to U.S.

public television Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...

stations by

American Public Television American Public Television (APT) is an American nonprofit organization and syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States. It distributes public television programs nationwide for PBS member stations and indepen ...

. It ceased broadcasting on April 2, 2010.

History and operation

The program launched on October 6, 2008, in many cases replacing ''

BBC World News BBC News is an international English-language pay television channel owned by BBC Global News Ltd. – a subsidiary of BBC Studios – and operated by the BBC News division of the BBC. The network carries news bulletins, documentaries, an ...

'', which continued to air on some public TV stations; following the cancelation of ''Worldfocus'', many of the stations that had dropped the BBC program have since resumed carrying it. ''Worldfocus'' was not part of the national

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

schedule and did not air on all U.S. public TV stations. '' Worldfocus'' was a "testing ground", and "important laboratory" for new digital production techniques. The program uses a number of producers and reporters from a variety of international media sources. News stories and video segments are used from:

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; , ) is a 24-hour English-language News broadcasting, news channel operating under Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the government of Qatar. Al Jazeera introduced an English-language division in 2006. It is ...

Asian News International Asian News International (ANI) is an Indian news agency that offers syndicated multimedia news feeds to news bureaus in India. The company was established by Prem Prakash in 1971 and, under the name TVNF, it soon became the first agency in Ind ...

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

Channel 2 (Israel) Channel 2 (), also called "The Second Channel" () was an Israeli commercial broadcasting, commercial television channel. It started doing experimental broadcasts funded by the television tax. The channel started commercial broadcasting on 4 Novem ...

Channel 10 (Israel) Channel 10 (), formerly known as Israel 10 (), was an Israeli free-to-air television channel. Operating under the auspices of The Second Authority for Television and Radio, Channel 10 was one of three commercial television channels in Israel ...

the Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...

LinkTV Link TV, originally WorldLink TV, was a non-commercial American satellite television network providing what it described as "diverse perspectives on world and national issues." It was carried nationally on DirecTV (ch. 375) until January 2023 a ...

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

, and

Rede Globo TV Globo (stylized as tvglobo; , ), formerly known as Rede Globo de Televisão (; shortened to Rede Globo) or simply known as Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965 ...

Awards and changes to show

Worldfocus received

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

nominations for its broadcast series ''Crisis in Congo'', as "Best story in a regularly scheduled newscast", and ''21st Century Africa'', as "Outstanding feature story in a regularly scheduled broadcast". ''Crisis in Congo'' also won the 2009

Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award The Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism is a journalism award named after Robert F. Kennedy and awarded by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. The annual awards are issued in several categories and were est ...

in the international television category. On the August 28, 2009, program, host Martin Savidge announced that Daljit Dhaliwal would be taking over his role, while Savidge would still host one week a month and have an opportunity to "step out from behind the desk." Savidge became a special correspondent (Dhaliwal's former role) for the show and served as host occasionally on Worldfocus.

Cancelation

On March 8, 2010, Daljit Dhaliwal announced at the end of that night's program, that ''Worldfocus'' would cease programming on April 2, 2010. The ''Worldfocus'' official website cited "fundraising difficulties" as the reason for the program's demise. In fact, Worldfocus was several million dollars off its fundraising goals. Overall ''Worldfocus'' was very expensive to produce, and did not bring in the crucial viewer donations as

had reliably done for years before. Cutbacks, dismissal of personnel, and cancelation of other

programs were blamed on spending for ''Worldfocus'', although WNET CEO Neal Shapiro denies this. Neal Shapiro said, "Given the economic environment we now face, it is not prudent to continue the broadcast at this time". ''Worldfocus'' failed to garner an audience above 300,000 people. WNET had planned ''Worldfocus'' to be the flagship program of an expensive new studio then under construction at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

. The completed studio was later used for other programs. In April 2010 WNET started again airing

, the very program that'' Worldfocus'' had replaced in 2008.

References

External links

* {{Official website 2000s American television news shows 2010s American television news shows 2008 American television series debuts 2010 American television series endings PBS original programming