Try Anything and Everything

We had a good trip to RTNDA/NAB this year - our party at the Wynn Monday night was a sucess by all measures and we had a chance to meet and greet friends, clients, colleagues and competitors in a spirit that we're all in this industry together and face a lot of the same challenges.

Our thanks to Scott Tallal at Insite Research and Steve Ference from APEX Media for their continued friendship and for co-hosting the party.

Yes, there seemed to be fewer News Directors in attendance overall. And yes it's unfortunate that in the face of all the changes its even harder for broadcasters to budget for an event that could foster the exchange of creative solutions. But with that said it was noticeable how many managers expressed a willingness, even and eagerness, to try new things. We are clearly already at a place where we have everything to gain and nothing to lose by innovating.

One thing on which almost everyone agreed was that change will be the only constant. I heard a number of creative approaches to changing the way a newscast flows in tone and content and ways to foster two-way convergence between the broadcast and the website.

So there's optimism out there and despite recent news and continued cutbacks there are endless ways to turn the challenges into opportunities. Not the least of which is maximizing the 24/7 value of your station website as a local news source. I continue to believe that stations that focus on being the local news leader online will not only see their broadcast ratings stabilize and maybe even increase - but will also secure their place in the local news landscape over the long haul. And unlike the finite broadcast day - the web is an infinite landscape that can serve smaller and smaller niche news consumers. (Read: hyper-local)

It won't necessarily be cheap or profitable to accomplish at first and involves technology and staff that stations may not have right now - but everything is riding on taking the risk and doing something, anything to engage the audience in new ways. It will lead to new interactions with your local community and collaborative relationships with them - and also attract new advertisers. The alternative isn't pretty.

Of course we feel very strongly that we play a role in this process as producers of news content that appeals to key audiences. And the economies of scale we deliver are unbeatable. The happy clients and hopeful prospects we saw at RTNDA reinforce the value of what we do every day and energizes us to stay focused on delivering the best services we can. My thanks to everyone that took the time to say hello and for your continued support. We fully expect that next year we'll have even more clients to thank - we'll try anything and everything to make that a reality.