J201Local TV newsWhat’s on the local news tonight?•“if it bleeds, it leads”•the political “horse race”•30-second summary of national and international news1970s: The consultants come to town•1971 McHugh & Hoffman Inc.•apply social science to help local stations win market share through their news broadcast•news helps build “a warm, trusting and dependent relationship between the audience and the station”•“the feeling [...] overflows into almost all the other areas of its programming” including entertainment•“halo effect” for advertising on news broadcasts•news as a profit center rather than a loss leaderExample: The “Eyewitness News” format•News is rebranded with logos, music, graphics•“writing the story so that the details were what the man-in-the-street could recognize”•“happy talk” among anchors•allow the sports or weather to lead •lots more use of portable video stand-upsBranding the news talent•brand the anchors and reporters themselves•attractive people have an advantage•use “supers” to increase name reconition•cultivate talentn from smaller markets to larger•FAM score and Q rating•does being a decent journalist even count?yet all is not well in local news today ...revenues have been flat, and are tied to market sizeprofitability has declined slightlymost ad revenue is localpolitical advertisements are a crucial revenue source2006 was$2 billionsmaller markets have smaller newsroom staffsand salary costs have increasedwhat are local stations doing on the web?yet local news still gets a high “believabilty” ratingvideo news releases (VNRs)•news packages assembled by PR firms (or state)•freely available to local news stations•enticements to local news directors•illegal to air VNRs without disclosure?•no central tracking of VNR use2006 VNR study by Center for Media and Democracy•monitored 10 months of local newscasts•found 77 stations which aired VNRs•never identified source of VNRs (eg. GM, Intel, Pfizer)•never balanced VNR claims with independent reporting•80% of these stations owned by conglomerates•collectively these stations reach over half of US audience•just the “tip of the iceberg”?Markets airing VNRs in study(red = more VNRs)Some VNR
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