The following is a memorandum from the business manager of a television station."Over the past year, our late-night news program has devoted increased time to national news and less time to weather and local news. During this time period, most of the comp

In a memorandum from the business manager of a television station stated that they need to restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level in order to attract more viewers to the program because the local businesses that used to advertise during their late-night news program have just canceled their advertising contracts with them. The manager assumed that devoting increased time to national news and less time to weather and local news is affecting their viewer rates and the local businesses are canceling their contracts due to that. However, the manager arguments on this case does not have enough evidence.

The first thing the manager needs to focus on is the complaints received from the viewers. The manager only stated briefly on the complaints that the viewers were concerned with their station's coverage of weather and local news. He did not stated whether the complains are about the time or information in the news. It is possible that the station is only reporting some trivial cases concerning with the local news and the viewer might want to know some significant cases. If that is the case then the complains about the coverage might not even concern with the time shift anymore.

The second thing is that the manager assumed that the local businesses are canceling their contracts because the viewer rate which, he assumed, is affected by the shifting in time. In this case, he totally neglected all the other factors such as advertising fees, the popularity of other television stations and as such. The local businesses might be canceling their contracts because their advertising fees is more expensive than other television stations. Moreover, it is also possible that other television stations are more popular than them regardless of coverage on the weather and local news. If this is the case, then restoring the time devoted to weather and local news will have no affect on the advertising contracts.

Lastly, the manager never stated whether or not the viewer rate decrease after they has devoted less time to weather and local news. He only stated that there are complaints concerning with the coverage of weather and local news. Receiving complaints on the coverage of weather and local news does not necessary mean that the viewer rate is decreasing. Therefore, it would be unreasonable to gain more viewers by restoring the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level since it did not decrease in the first place.

In conclusion, several more evidences are required to decide whether the manager's assumptions are on the right track. The manager needs to look deeply into those complains, the reason why the local businesses are canceling their advertising contracts and pay more attention on the viewer rates.