A buddy of ours was in Atlanta recently and got a chance to watch Tegna owned WXIA's new late newscast, which they have dubbed as 'The Late Feed'.

He said it was awful and looked more like a late night talk show than a newscast. A few viewers have also emailed FTVLive saying they could not understand what the hell the station was doing?

This isn't the first Tegna station to dive into the "non-traditional news" waters, but it is the latest.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that the long-awaited new 11 p.m. program starring Vinnie Politan and it’s not your usual newscast.

In essence, it’s faster paced and features more outside voices. And the focal point is Politan and his opinionated take on subject matter.

To start the show, Politan – sometimes joined by former HLN colleague Natisha Lance – will usually walk purposefully down an 11Alive hallway to promote what’s coming up. The intro music is pounding and dramatic, even by newscast standards.

“People are getting news in different places, whether it’s social media account or apps,” Politan said in a recent interview. “They’re getting bombarded all day. By 11 p.m., they’ve heard all the stories. We’re trying to create clarity and perspective to those stories. You need a different way to deliver that.”

It's always funny that the No. 1 station in the market never says these types of things. It always comes from a station that is struggling in the ratings.

WXIA General manager John Deushane noted that for six-plus decades, local news has been the basic bread and butter of news, weather and sports. “Our industry has done ‘Lather, Rinse, Repeat’ versions of that ever since,” he said.

He notes that “there are stations in this city that have mastered traditional news very well. In fact, in terms of doing it the way it’s always been done, no one does traditional better than a couple of stations here. Hats off to them.” [He is referencing WAGA and WSB, which beat his station in the ratings).

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Deushane said his station has “the capability to do the same thing. We can go live to 15 different locations if we want to as well and cover yet another house fire or more accidents to show off our technology. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should and it certainly doesn’t mean that’s what people want to see.”

He sees the Late Feed as a quicker, more modern version of a newscast. The show largely has dumped standard reporter packages. “In are in-depth conversations with those either making the news or covering it,” he said. “The viewer has the opportunity to take part in actively via social connection in real time or as a interested onlooker as if they were listening to people talking at the table next to them who are experts in something they care about.”

The Journal-Constitution is running a poll on their website, asking viewers what they think?

So far about 70% think the station's new news is worse than what they had before.

That's better than the 100% of people that FTVLive has heard from that think it sucks.

The good news? This is a chance for the struggling Meredith owned WGCL to pick up some new viewers.

Stay tuned...