A recent Gallop poll says confidence in television news is at an all-time low. You can see the article here:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/155585/Americans-Confidence-Television-News-Drops-New-Low.aspx
So what role do you think promo plays in all of this?
Have the scare tactics and general BS that shows up in topicals hurt news?
Are we doing a good enough job of marketing the values of our product to viewers?
Is news mostly to blame? A combo?
How does the Daily Show, Weekend Update, etc play into it?
Let's hear your thoughts.
10 comments:
Oh YES the first one!
I have long held the opinion that local news is becoming less and less relevant by the day. I can get my news from just about anywhere. Technology has made it too easy for us to move information and stay in touch without sitting infront of the TV at 6p. We HAVE to rethink now we provide news. Provide information to you local audience that they can't get anywhere else. Thats a tuff one right? Well try pumping up your local investigations and weather for starters. Find those things that I can't get anywhere else. Do "real" news and don't just follow what comes over the scanner. Find the stories that make me want to watch.
The way news presents itself is old fashion. Think of all the cliché line we feed viewers everyday. That why shows like family guy or anchor man make fun of us. Its an easy laugh. We are so out of touch its laughable. It's all to easy to talk and I am as guilty as the next guy but we have to change. Local news WAKE UP before we are all out of a job. Maybe that is why there are so many job openings right now in TV marketing.
I think marketing is heading in the right direction with social media and other new digital platforms. But I believe it's the News department that's holding everything back. We can market everything we want about the newscast and about how relevant it is to our viewers. But it's the news departments job to deliver on the promise we're making in their promos. And are they doing that? In most cases, no.
In the end, it's a little bit of both, marketing and the news department, that are to blame. We all need to get together and both deliver on the promises their making.
The things you mentioned are part of an even larger problem: The product (as a sustainable business).
Almost every media group in the country has bet the farm on a product with zero shelf life, expensive operating costs, diminishing returns because of an aging audience that attracts fewer advertisers every year, and a relevance problem with what should be the next generation of viewers. That product, of course, is local television news.
The single biggest obstacle is that most groups don't have the money to both maintain viewers AND grow new revenue streams. So most of them fight to keep the viewers they have and pick off what they can from the competition. It's far cheaper, an easier fight and it's less risky. That works in the short term, but the long-term trend is still bleak. And that ignores potential problems like the networks going cable; thus, turning every station into an indie channel. Without product on the shelf, that means most stations will become 24/7 news channels. Do you really think your market could sustain 3 - 5 local news channels? And with most station staffs cut to the minimum, filling 24 hours with local or syndicated content is not affordable.
I see many pointing to the web and social media as the future, and it is, to an extent. But let's be honest... You can have the #1 website in your market or state and the most likes / followers in social media, but the majority of your station is CURRENTLY sustained by those dinosaurs called ratings. Fair or unfair, dated or still relevant, that's just reality. Ask your sales staff just how much money the website brings in versus the on-air advertising. So again what happens, most stations end up bypassing web innovation in order to focus on the bottom line. Now, most mid and large market stations are facing indie competition from the hyper-local blogosphere because of our reluctance to hit the ground running on the web over the past 10 years.
At first glance, it may seem easy to blame the newsrooms but they live and die by short term ratings. So, the majority of decision-making, as well as majority of operating costs and capital investment goes to them. This leaves few dollars for long-term product investment, if any. And after the recession of the past four years, few companies have the money to invest in the long term and take risks.
I think we're at a state (Maybe even passed it) where marketing / creative departments need to become R&D departments for local news. Spots can help maintain but they can't change the local news landscape.
The product is in need of a desperate overall (while still maintaining to keep the lights on) and the challenge is tremendous. Content is everywhere and nearly a commodity. Packaging and marketing isn't enough. Distribution is so decentralized it's hard to know if changes or additions really make a difference.
Now is the time to develop the second life for local media or perhaps rethink our careers. Are we the rower's guilds after the steam engine was developed or are we Apple circa 1997 when it seemed all hope was lost (only for a thing called an iPod to revive a company and an industry)?
It doesn't have to be dire, but it's certainly not going to be an easy decade for promo/creative departments. We could be easily outsourced, hubbed, merged into news, or eradicated like entertainment programming and public service departments were a decade or two ago. Or we could be the instruments of change...
Whew... Now I need a drink. I welcome debate as I have been thinking like this for a while now and would love to be wrong. :-)
I can say in my small market the issues we face come from a few directions.
1. generational. We've seemed to reach saturation with our target demographic and the changes we'd need to make to increase younger viewership would decrease our core audience.
We're trying to launch a new newscast with a younger focus, but I have small hopes that a local newscast can compete against primetime programming for 20-30 year olds.
2. online competition. We face challenges from a couple online outfits, but where our news staff are held to professional journalistic levels the online news sheets can publish rumors and gossip without fact-checking or sourcing.
This is the tricky one. Any promotion efforts risk giving credibility to these websites as competitors.
3. News staff. This one is only my personal opinion, but it seems like the reporters and anchors and etc. we hire today are young kids wanting an easy job being a pretty face on TV. In the past 10 years it seems like we've had only one new hire that wanted to be a journalist as opposed to a television presenter.
I think a lot of this "TV News confidence at all time low" is brought about by the constant drum-beat about the evils of "mainstream media" by cable news folks on both sides of the spectrum... always talking about how everybody except them is not telling the truth. Listen to any of the talk radio or cable news outfits and they will say everybody else is lying to you or hiding the facts... while catering exclusively to the people in the audience that reflect their particular point of view.
The other problem is that some of the changes we have to make to stay relevant seem so radical to our current loyalists that we run the risk of alienating them. If it doesn't look like the newscast they watch every night, they turn away. I think the answer is to develop new products in new platforms and grow a separate audience for them while continuing to maintain what we have for as long as it's viable.
You can talk all you want about social media, etc. but it still doesn't bring in any real money and doesn't appear to ever have the potential to replace the dollars we need to run a news organization of any substance.
It's all these problems and more. Much like the newspaper industry, TV news is still relying on an old guard business model that is slowly fading away.
People are cynical now. They don't trust journalists like they used to, and they certainly have plenty of choices and sources when it comes to information.
When it's all said and done, everything will converge and live online, but along the way there will be many upheavals and business models will change. I have a feeling it will look much different 10 years from now, and many of the capital investments TV news has made to stay relevant will be all for naught.
There is no doubt local TV news is on the decline. My parents, who are in their mid 50s, do not watch local news and they haven't for 10-15 years.
Most of my peers outside of work do not have cable unless it is bundled with the internet. Even if they have it, it is never on. I do not have cable and I work in television.
And the people who have been in the business for more than 10-15 years, are completely oblivious to the decline. The few who even acknowledge it exists, don't seem concerned.
Viewers are tired of living in fear (crime stories), tired of having an agenda (marketing/ads or political) shoved down their throats, and tired of the talking heads. People are tired of local news.
I see and make promos that my co-workers think are cool and edgy, but they are lame and quickly produced. The local TV industry chooses quantity over quality to a fault. I don't want my promos popping up when you Google my name. I am embarrassed to tell people under 30 where I work. TV used to be cool, but not anymore.
Stations cannot keep young talent because the pay is pathetic. The gas station across the street pays their managers more than we pay our photographers. And they try to convince you that you are lucky to get what you have - NO my father made twice what I make when he was my age and this was in the early 80s. Don't sell me that load of BS.
I'm sure a lot of people are just like me. They took a job at a TV station just to get their foot in the door. But now it is stuck, and they only work we can find is at other failing stations. We hope for a job at a REAL production company or a marketing position at a REAL company that pays their employees REAL salaries.
The ship is sinking folks. Keep your demo reel backed-up. Have a great weekend.
V
Let me jump in here and slightly change the subject. How many of you promo producers are doing commercial work these days and how do you think that will affect your marketability down the road?
I was a topical/image producer for about 8 years then gradually starting doing commercial work (sales presentations, sponsorships and local spots). For the past few years about 80% of my time is now devoted to the commercial side. I've developed great relationships with local clients, agencies and outside pr firms.
I realize that my old promo job is a dinosaur position and will never come back in it's old form. But, the skills and connections I'm making today should translate to just about any future medium, right? TV, as we've known it for decades, may be dying but video is thriving and growing.
thoughts?
Let me jump in here and slightly change the subject. How many of you promo producers are doing commercial work these days and how do you think that will affect your marketability down the road?
I was a topical/image producer for about 8 years then gradually starting doing commercial work (sales presentations, sponsorships and local spots). For the past few years about 80% of my time is now devoted to the commercial side. I've developed great relationships with local clients, agencies and outside pr firms.
I realize that my old promo job is a dinosaur position and will never come back in it's old form. But, the skills and connections I'm making today should translate to just about any future medium, right? TV, as we've known it for decades, may be dying but video is thriving and growing.
thoughts?
@ 8:52
I'll agree that the commercial department is more relevant than the promo department. I'll also agree that the skills and knowledge I've learned in television will help me in the future. Making good video content is extremely valuable to many companies.
I've had relative success in video production so far. I have short film work that was well recognized, commercials that I still enjoy years later, music videos that look just as good as anything else out there. But the stations don't get it anymore.
The commercial departments are pretty much run by sales. They bully until they get want they want. They use money to intimidate.
Every station I've been at sells the time on the station - not the production. It's xx amount of dollars for xx amount of spots. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a sales guy pop in around 4PM on a Thursday, and literally say "I just sold 50k to a car dealer, we need three spots and it starts Monday. I'll be out of the office tomorrow."
I love selling my outside projects. I roll like a badass when I freelance. If I make a commercial at a station I generate the station practically nothing. We don't charge. If I do a commercial, music video, web video or whatever on my own time, you better believe I generate money for myself. And people will gladly pay it because I work with the best of the best. I don't need a sales staff rolling around in their cool cars selling my work. MY work sells itself. The sales staff aren't as important as they think. They are a pack of dogs and must be dealt with like one.
The people who run the place are well meaning people, but the just don't get it.
Local TV ads are a joke - quantity over quality. The air-time is no longer valuable. Sorry for the typos.
V
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