This article is about the former syndicated news program from the 1980s. For today's news network in the US, see Independent News Network

Independent News Network

For the consortium of non-profit investigative news organizations, see .The Independent News Network, also known as INN, is a television news service based in Davenport, Iowa. It syndicates "localized" news programs for television stations across the country with little budget for news...

.

The Independent Network News (INN) was a nationally-syndicated

Television syndication

In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 nightly news program, seen from June 1980 until June 1990. The newscast was designed to serve the same purpose as the nightly network news programs, and was produced by Tribune Company

Tribune Company

The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...

-owned station WPIX in New York. INN aired on the rest of Tribune's stations as well, but was not limited to those markets and was picked up by various other station groups such as Storer Broadcasting

Storer Broadcasting

Storer Broadcasting, Inc. was an American company which owned several television and radio stations in the northeast United States. It was incorporated in Ohio in 1927, and sold its broadcasting properties in 1983.-1920s—1940s:...

, Taft Broadcasting

Taft Broadcasting

The Taft Broadcasting Company, also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated, was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio....

, and Metromedia

Metromedia

Metromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and owned Orion Pictures from 1986-1997.- Overview :...

.

History

The program featured the same personnel that worked on WPIX's local newscasts. The initial anchors for the nightly program were Bill Jorgensen

Bill Jorgensen

Bill Jorgensen was the founding and longtime anchor of New York City's WNEW-TV's Ten O'Clock News from its inception on March 13, 1967 until he left in the spring of 1979 Jorgensen moved to WPIX-TV, also in New York City, where he anchored the news until his retirement in 1987.-The Ten O'Clock...

, Pat Harper

Pat Harper

Patricia "Pat" Harper was an American television news anchor and reporter, and a fixture for nearly two decades on two New York City television stations...

, and Steve Bosh.

WPIX transmitted the national show's live feed weeknights at 9:30 p.m. (Eastern).

Stations airing INN

It was shown initially on Tribune's independent stations - WPIX, WGN-TV

WGN-TV

WGN-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the CW-affiliated television station in Chicago, Illinois built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WGN-TV's studios and offices are located at 2501 W...

 in Chicago and KWGN-TV

KWGN-TV

KWGN-TV, virtual channel 2 , is a television station in Denver, Colorado, owned by the Tribune Company and affiliated with the CW Television Network...

 in Denver

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

. It was also seen on other stations such as KCOP

KCOP-TV

KCOP-TV, channel 13, is a television station in Los Angeles, California. Owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, KCOP is a sister station to Fox network outlet KTTV , and is affiliated with the MyNetworkTV programming service...

 in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 (before moving to KTLA

KTLA

KTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...

 following Tribune's purchase of the station in 1985), WSBK-TV

WSBK-TV

WSBK-TV is a MyNetworkTV television station for eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire that is licensed to Boston. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter along the Needham and Wellesley town line southwest of the MA 9 and I-95 / MA 128...

 in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 (which was owned by Storer Broadcasting

Storer Broadcasting

Storer Broadcasting, Inc. was an American company which owned several television and radio stations in the northeast United States. It was incorporated in Ohio in 1927, and sold its broadcasting properties in 1983.-1920s—1940s:...

 at the time), WLVI in Boston (then owned by Gannett) and WTAF in Philadelphia (a property of Taft Broadcasting

Taft Broadcasting

The Taft Broadcasting Company, also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated, was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio....

).

1981-1985

As part of a midday expansion of INN starting in 1981, WPIX also experimented with a newscast at 12:30 p.m. co-anchored by Marvin Scott. During the decade, WPIX also offered INN affiliates "The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

Report," a business-oriented show (still on the air today); and From the Editor's Desk, a Sunday newsmaker show hosted by Richard D. Heffner. In 1984, WPIX dropped Action News and decided to brand both local and national news as "INN: The Independent News", while the 12:30 newscast was dropped.

1986-1990

In 1986, the national INN newscast, which was contained within the 10:00 show, was renamed USA Tonight (and the local news that aired on the New York feed was renamed to "New York Tonight"), while the 7:30 program retained the title Independent News.

INN was eventually cancelled in 1990 with the advent of the Fox television network

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

. Tribune Broadcasting retained some of staff to cover Washington D.C. for the Tribune stations and affiliating their stations with CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

for national and world news, and adding the time periods to their local newscasts.

On Friday, March 13, 2009, Tribune Broadcasting officially closed its Washington, D.C. bureau, citing the economy.