Last week, Gray Television's Bob Prather said publicly what a lot of broadcasters at NBC affliates are thinking: NBC's experiment with Jay Leno at 10 o'clock is a bust and is costing them viewers not only in the late news, but in the next day's morning news. Stations in metered markets are already feeling the pain. Those in diary markets are not looking forward to unwrapping the November diaries.

With the growth of Local People Meters and the reduction in many budgets, the old "sky is falling" approach to special reports in station newscasts during the sweeps is fading and changing. Sure, some stations are still grinding out such pieces during sweeps, but many top-25 stations are spreading their best stuff throughout the year. And the sweeps stories being produced seem to be more substantive-honest-to-goodness investigative journalism or simply good enterprise stories with high local interest — a far cry from the "Nielsen-induced busy work" of the past.

The group owner in the Northwest is positioning itself for the future by establishing a series of neighborhood blogs to grow the stations' brands and extend the reach of their journalism. For advertisers, it can target geographically, attracting sponsors, many of which never advertised on TV. Reporters all have iPhones to shoot and send back pictures as their stories develop.

WSLS, Media General's NBC affiliate in Roanoke, Va. (DMA 67), and WRDW, Gray Television's CBS affiliate in Augusta, Ga. (DMA 114), are both integrating online social networking into newscasts in hopes of better engaging viewers and getting a better handle on what's going on in their communities. I give these two stations points for innovation, but others are skeptical about the push to mix social networking tools into the newscast.

NBC O&Os and affiliates are worried that they willl lose audience if the new Leno show bombs this week. But instead of worrying about lead-ins, they and every other station ought to be figuring out that they can do to improve their newscasts and make viewers want to stay up late. If stations can't advance the stories, they should at least freshen them up or seek a local angle.