What’s Next?

Let me give you, possibly, the shortest history of the broadcast news business.  It started with a small newsroom, usually a couple of folks and some film.  You remember Jim Davis, locally.  He was both anchor and news director.  Once somebody realized that there were LOTS of people watching, news broadcasts which had to that point been created as a community service, were now a way to make money too.  As the money came in - so did the larger newsrooms and the seemingly endless budget to cover every single event that had even the smallest local connection (A Super Bowl with a local player on the roster, the Braves, etc.).  Then the bottom dropped out.  Now all of us (including our print brethren) have smaller staffs, fewer resources and budgets that cover salaries and basic expenditures.

Many people in the news business “blame” the Internet.  Everything is “free” now.  And why shouldn’t it be?  Who needs to spend a couple of hundred bucks on an encyclopedia set when you can visit Wikipedia.com?  And for the naysayers, a recent study found that Wikipedia (which is completely updated by its users) was slightly more accurate information-wise than the dusty books on your shelves.  Visit anything from Yahoo! to WJBF.com to ABC News.com and you’ll get plenty of news about everything happening now.  It’s all free.  Just like local TV news, which has been and continues to be free for you.

So if you can your information for free, you certainly wouldn’t “pay” for it?  Right?  Show of hands: how many of you have cancelled your newspaper subscription?  It was one of the hardest things for me to do.  But I did it.  And I’m not missing a beat.  So if an over-40 year old has chosen to no longer “pay for news,“ what about the younger folks advertisers target?  You know where they are going for information.  Hint: it begins with “www.“

There you have it.  Advertisers are being coaxed into spending some of their money online.  It’s a tough pill to swallow for traditional media.  Throw in a crummy economy and an entire industry is forced to re-evaluate how it does what it does.  Re-evaluate it quickly - and on-the-fly.

But through all of this, something amazing has happened.  More and more people are watching television, reading newspapers and of course, going online.  What with the recent death of singer Michael Jackson (among other celebrity deaths), the controversy surrounding South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and the recent string of murders up the road in Gaffney - people can’t get enough information.

So what can we learn?
1) The desire for information remains as strong as it’s ever been.  The eyes are out there - we just need to make sure we provide information to you in every way possible.
2) The risk for “information overload” is greater than it’s ever been.  When Elvis Presley died, you had the nightly news and the next day’s newspaper.  When Michael Jackson passed away, you had TMZ.com (and a zillion other websites), scores of posts to Twitter and Facebook, 24-hour cable news going wall-to-wall and networks doing likewise to compete.  It’s no wonder that people grow tired of news coverage quicker.  Viewer feedback will help us better manage what you want to see.
3) You want information now - not later.  So we should use the web to get you that information as soon as we get it.  We should use social networking to engage you in conversation.  We should broadcast to expand the coverage.
4) You want it for free.  It’s too late to start charging you for our service.  A blogger recently wrote that all TV and newspaper websites should shut down - if for nothing else to show you that “non-professional” news sites provide a lesser service.  I think the blogger is wrong - you’re smart enough to know what’s legitimate and what’s not.  And considering that our broadcast news is free to you, the online version should be as well.

So we know what you want.  Fair, accurate journalism when you want it and how you want it.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to keep in constant contact with us to let us know what you like and don’t like.  This is an ever-changing model nowadays.  And of course, we expect you’ll tell us how to best serve your needs.

Lastly, I’m sorry I’ve been away from my blog.  Whether I have one reader or one thousand - I need to update it more frequently.  I’ll do just that going forward.  Suffice to say a smaller staff has added some duties to to my daily platter.  It just took me a while to re-organize my day.  ;-)