Leaders Needed To Re-Engineer Local TV

One of the attributes that propelled TV news past newspapers is immediacy. TV stations can report the news as it happens, while newspapers must wait for presses and trucks to roll.

But as both media have moved onto the Web, newspapers have usurped TV stations' traditional role. Their sites tend to be more timely and up to date.

And, according to new book, Live. Local. Broken News: The Re-Engineering of Local TV, it's why more people now name newspaper sites as their No. 1 source of local online news. "On the Web, newspapers are beating television at its own game," the book says.

Live. Local., authored by the troop of news consultants at Dallas-based AR&D, is a call to action for broadcasters and a 263-page strategy for how they can claim their spot as the top local news source on the Web and extend their dominance to mobile.

The book also offers tips on how stations can reinvigorate their on-air weather and sports offerings in the face of increasing new media competition.

In this interview with TVNewsCheck Editor Harry A. Jessell, AR&D President Jerry Gumbert discusses reengineering local TV news so that it becomes more than just a producer of half-hour newscasts three or four times a day, so that it becomes an around-the-clock source of news for the Web and whatever mobile opportunities arise, so that it again becomes first with the news.

An edited transcript:

What's the No. 1 lesson or takeaway from this book?

That the industry needs leadership. It needs a much higher caliber of thinkers, of visionaries, who aren't shackled with the old process and the old business model and can see a much brighter future for broadcasters. In a lot of ways, this industry has become complacent because of 55-plus years of unbelievable success.

Do you think there are some stations or station groups out there that do get it?

You'll find very few broadcast groups that have done a significant amount of work on the creation and distribution of content that is more than just an evolutionary or transitional move. However, when you look at what Gannett is doing, what Scripps is doing and what Media General is doing, I think that they really get it. They understand it, but it's real early in the game.

What's holding the majority of broadcasters back?

Right now they still see themselves as broadcasters. What they must do to change their stars is make the transition not just mentally, but physically, to local media companies. And they have to think about themselves serving very specific consumer groups based on what they want to watch, where they want to see it, when they want to see it and how they want to see it.

That's going to dictate not just innovation of the products and services themselves, but an entire new operational model that is multiple-platform oriented and that isn't stuck on what we call a finished product news model -- that is, on a broadcast program that is scheduled and that dictates someone watch from home in a passive way.

The book advises stations to get into the continuous news business instead of focusing on creating three or four newcasts each day. If you do that, if you shift the focus away from those newscasts, aren't you inviting terrible consequences in terms of ratings and revenue? After all, that's where the money is.

Absolutely, it's where the money is. It's where almost all of the money is right now and we don't believe that you shift your focus off the newscast or the finished news product. We believe that you've got to go from a single-path strategy to what we call a simulpath strategy.

Let's continue the scheduled appointment newscasts that are passively viewed in the home as we historically have done. Do they have to be better? Yes. Do they have to be more interesting? Yes. But at the same time, let's march forward on a parallel path on the Web. We call it a continuous news path and it serves a distinctively new consumer group in a unique way.

This group comprises those who are at work between 8 and 5 o'clock and who have an insatiable appetite to be continually informed on what's happening in their local communities. We believe you can monetize this 8-to-5 group, given that in some markets during daytime the Web traffic of local news and information sites is higher than television viewing.

When you look at Web-based businesses, the low hanging fruit clearly is continuous news. A lot of people will tell you that they're doing continuous news, but most are not doing it at the level that satisfies the news and information appetite of the online consumer. For instance, each day, the average television station posts yesterday's news and then four or five items between 8 and 5 o'clock. Well, our vision of a continuous stream of news is a commitment to posting between 60 and 90 stories online every day between 8 and 5.