It was good to hear from cyber friend and blog inspiration Joe Larkins. (You can read his comments on the previous post "Watch Us or Die"). Joe brought up many great points about local TV news. The most important being is what is its future.
Personally, I think it is bright. Not all news producing stations will survive because not all stations get it and not all markets can support more than two newscasts. However the stations that do survive will thrive.
So, what will it take to survive. In no particular order here is my list.
1) Embrace the web -- including social media. Holding a story, updated information or video for the newscasts is a recipe for extinction. We live in an instant information society. If the story is good enough for the newscast, it's good enough to go on the web, now.
2) Serve the community. Not just the newscast but the entire station. The days of withdrawal from supporting community events because of budget concerns or a lack of return on investment have to end. We have an activist FCC. We have to make sure our community knows we are part of the community. This doesn't mean sponsor everything. This means keep your station involved particularly in the things that support your brand.
3) Weather, weather, weather -- people choose their newscast based on whose weather cast they like and trust.
4) Forget about meters and forget about sweeps. Meters are to TV what quarterly earnings are to Wall Street. There is too much focus on doing something to move the overnight number. Produce a good product day in and day out and the viewers will follow. Similarly, stop trying to goose the numbers during sweeps with "naked nun get food poisoning from the mayor's picnic". It really doesn't matter to the average viewer.
5) Embrace the web and social media . . . oh, I already said that. Well, do it. Everyone in the news room must understand the delivery platform is not just the TV set. It is the computer. It is the phone. It is the iPad. It is whatever comes next.
Yes our business has changed. We can gripe about the change or be genuinely excited to be riding the way of Broadcast News 2.0.
The GM
Thursday, March 18, 2010
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