The 2000 Carol Marin experiment pretty much killed serious local newscasts. I think Tom's right, both from the dead horse and reduced budget spiral perspectives. The problem, fundamentally, is that there is absolutely *no* hard news available in the majority of media markets (the newspapers are cut to the marrow).
My suggestion (not that anyone would listen): aim for a single 35-minute newscast at 10 ET. If it's on a network, push the network broadcast back to 10:35. This would reduce the budget (news is just housewife filler at noon and 4-8 PM), increase the likelihood of getting a (slightly) younger audience, and would allow for shifting resources away from pointless live pieces to to less pointless pieces that allow for depth. Not that anyone wants that. I'll just shut up and stop dreaming now. On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 1:51 PM, Tom Wolper <twol...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 1:51 PM, <chia...@nc.rr.com> wrote: > >> I came across this article over at TVSpy, and it struck a nerve with me, >> not as an amateur journalist on a third-rate website, but as an observer of >> things I can't help observing. >> >> Last week, I was on a cruise for my birthday aboard the Carnival Fantasy, >> which gets its local TV feeds from Miami (sidebar: met a nice cruise >> director by the name of Lindsey. In the off-chance anyone runs into her, >> tell her Dino says hi). >> >> Back to Miami. I remember seeing an episode of CSI Miami's early seasons >> (a name-changed reporter that covered a murder that he himself >> perpetrated)... and again in a later season (pretty blonde reporter >> claiming she was a "serious journalist", followed by Emily "Calleigh" >> Procter giving her what-for about working in a newspaper instead). Turns >> out truth nowadays is even worse than fiction judging from the week of news >> out of Miami I had to watch. >> >> But perhaps I ranted too much. Read on and judge for yourself. >> >> >> http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/2014/01/31/Local-TV-news-RIP/stories/201401310003 >> > > Living in Pittsburgh, I caught up with this op-ed in the print version > last week. At this point, I think the writer is beating a dead horse. > Rather than just bemoaning the product and saying that they should better I > wonder if it is possible for them to do a better job any more. Let's assume > that people who need hard news for their jobs (financial sector, policy > makers) or just follow hard news will get information through the day on > the internet. People who just want to be in the know will have cable news > on in the background or will sit and watch for a half hour or an hour. And > studies have shown that people who watch local news are most interested in > weather and sports. The reason they put them in the second half of the > newscast is to encourage people to sit through as many commercials as > possible. > > Local TV news has been going through the same budget cutting as > newspapers. And as the median age of the local TV news viewer goes up ad > revenue goes down. So given the depleted budgets and resources what would a > better newscast look like and who would watch it? > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
