Aljazeera America is shutting down April 30

Al Jazeera America, a cable news channel that debuted in August 2013, is shutting down. Employees were informed of the decision during an all-hands staff meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/big_article_pic/a%20-%20al%20jazeera_3.jpg

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2016/01/8587929/al-jazeera-america-shutting-down

Also Brian Stelters article for CNN Money
http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/13/media/al-jazeera-america/index.html

Al Jazeera America shutting down. "Our business model is simply not sustainable." @Koblin has the internal memo: https://t.co/Gyea8S3Sko

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 13, 2016

That is very sad to see, but it has been long in the making. I was a huge fan at first, and it was very promising at the start, but it's never really had a clear focus, and the channel has been reduced to little more than a few hours of live news and lots of AJE simulcasts and random documentary content for most of the last year.

The statement says they're going to re-focus their North American operations into their digital outlet. I guess that means a ramping up of AJ+, but I remain skeptical. I don't think that venture has had a lot of direction either...

Id imagine from reading the articles. Most of the production staff is gone, probably some (very few) will go back to Doha. They might retain a few of the correspondents. Im sure the anchor staff will be culled. Some might be absorbed back into the AJE. Tony Harris was with AJE in Doha before AJAM started. One article mentioned something like a 90 time frame. I wonder if they will flip over to AJE even before April 30 or scale back US production over the next few months. Sad to seem them go. I was hopeful and liked the tone of the channel. But I kinda figured the would happen eventually.

Im sure its a combination of factors. But I always felt they had a image problem in the US because of the name and the AJA past practice of airing terror and hostage videos in the early 2000s. That name in the US was linked with those things.

Indeed. There was internal strife at AJAM from the beginning: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/14/al-jazeera-marwan-bishara-email

This is not a surprise. AJAM was trying to make a 'straight' news channel in a market that has repeatedly shown it is more interested in talking heads than headlines. Add to that the "Al Jazeera" brand being regarded as too foreign or - worse - simply a mouthpiece for terrorists*, and AJAM faced a massive uphill battle.

(* To clarify, I certainly don't share the view that Al Jazeera is a terrorist outfit - I'm just noting the uninformed perception held by many.)

Perhaps, but I would argue that those who had problems with AJAM's name and reputation were not a part of the channel's target audience (the educated and the cosmopolitan) in the first place.

Per TVNewser , AJAM's resources will be going to AJ+ and Digital Properties
http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/al-jazeera-america-is-shutting-down/282023

Maybe some of the anchors could move to CBSN as CBS News is in the process of beefing up personnel for the channel.

It was a serious news station and it's obvious serious news is not a good business model anymore, not just in the US but everywhere. Aside from AJE, every 'free' news source I've watched or read is producing a lot more fluff at the expense of serious news and/or morphing into Buzzfeed to maximize revenues.
I do wonder if the closure and 'expansion' of its digital operations will lead to the unblocking of AJE in the US.

Another issue is poor channel placement. In most places it inherited the Current TV channel placement. For me it was channel 107 and nowhere near the news channel neighborhood (where CNN, HLN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News and Wx Channel) and BBC World News is channel 171. I believe Al Jazeera could have requested moving to a news neighborhood as they were independent network with only one channel distributed after an FCC ruling involving Bloomberg*. Plus in order to receive AJAM you need a digital level tier (not sure what level as I get all channels).

*Bloomberg TV went to the FCC to complain about Comcast not placing their channel in a news neighborhood which required to place unaffiliated news networks within the same neighborhood. If there's multiple neighborhoods such as SD/HD they can be place in only one to meet the requirement. Subsequently Bloomberg was placed in the HD tier. As a side note as this probably doesn't apply to BBC World News as they're were distributed by Discovery for years and now AMC.

Edit : Looking at my guide it looks like AJAM was in a secondary "news neighborhood" with Wx Channel Local (just runs radar imagery and text forecasts), Bloomberg, CSPAN 2 & 3, Fox Business and finally AJAM.

Some interesting background about the closure:

From tonight's newsletter: @AlJazeera insider wonders what might've been https://t.co/UjXUkHvS7z pic.twitter.com/9IJrk50l82

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 14, 2016

HLN is in that but not AJAM or Bloomberg???