| Topic Name: |
Regaining viewers, YOUNGER ONES. |
| Message Name: |
Too much |
| Date Posted: |
05/17/2005 |
| In Reply To: |
in power is reading your post.
i fear though it is a lost cause, and not because previous generations were better (i.e. "ah the good old days") and not because we don't do anything right (think 9/11), nor because i am angry at journalism in general (i love my job)... i fear this is a lost cause because we have gone so far down the path you described that no one in a position of power knows the way back.
our station is number one and dedicated to "breaking news" and no one seems to know what that is anymore, yet they feel justified in showing a smoldering fire that only affected one family because we keep winning the overnights, thus encouraging them to keep doing the same things. we're winning right?
so they must know what they are doing right? we do live for live sake, and it's not news if it's not in the paper.
no one seems to have the courage to walk away from a story that's not news in an effort to do something smarter... to give more time to a reporter that actually has something worthy of emphasis... do it in a 1:30 pkg or get chewed out for blowing out their entire hour-long masterpiece...
i think you have hit on something here, but i actually think while losing young viewers we are also losing the affluent. the people who watch us religiously are people that don't have cable or sattelite, or frankly, other options. a generalization to be sure and i don't mean to slam people or their financial status in life, but it's been my experience that that is where we have gone. if we don't get the money back watching us, the golden goose will be cooked.
smarter stories. smarter managment. thinking of ways to keep the viewers we have and bring back those we have lost. we really need to make local news appointment viewing again.
i was going to offer some serious ideas but i have to go now, our assignment manager just saw a story in the paper with really big headlines... he seems excited even though the words are a little tough for him to understand... but he wants a live shot at five.... |
| Message: |
time to fill is the big problem. I've heard people say "we produce 5 or 6 hours of news a day!" It actually works out to about 12 minutes that gets repeated, repackaged, and regurgitated a half dozen times over the next 18-24 hours. It's filler.
We've got 90 minutes to work with between 5-630pm. Fill it. Fill the 530 with the same stuff that as in the 5. Do it again at 6 and 11. Make sure the tape is rewound. The morning show will need it. They go 5-7am. 2 hours to fill. Managers justify the running the same stuff over and over by saying "we get tune-in"...What they don't talk about is tune-out. Look just fill it, because you're going to have to do it again tomorrow.
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