No Looking Back

The news continues to be bad for traditional media (TM). It started with CBS and continues with news of cutbacks for Media General, Gannett and worst of all Pappas who filed for bankruptcy.

Is it just me or is the struggle accelerating? Are the business metrics eroding faster and faster? I think so. To be sure there is no going back. And in some ways its a perfect storm for traditional media.

The economy has taken a hit in general, recession or not, consumers are feeling the pinch of lower home values and rising gas prices. Advertisers, the life blood of traditional media, typically pull back in a down economy and yet data indicates that they are finding more economical and effective campaigns available online. Mass Marketing just doesn't make as much sense as it used to for a growing number of advertisers. On the other hand, the economics of online platforms have also brought a lot of new advertisers into the mix, this is a good thing. Unless of course you have most of your eggs in a mass marketing basket - as newspapers and broadcasters do.

So broadcasters are still struggling to move forward into this new territory while hanging on to the old model with both hands. They're in a tough place. The cash flow is still there, the debt they have collectively accumulated makes it hard to invest in new initiatives - especially when no one really knows where to make that investment with any confidence. It takes guts to put your money on the table and roll the dice - even when there's solid examples and research to support the bet.

So who can blame TM for appearing to be deer caught in the headlights? To be sure there are a lot of success stories out there, and money is being made in new ways. There just needs to be more forward thinking and a very real aknowledgement that things will never be the same.

Its all very exciting if you can see it.

As I've said before - TM's core competence has been their local focus on news and information - and the unique content they create to serve their market. The web affords unprecedented tools to not only distribute that content - on demand - but perhaps more importantly a way to expand that coverage in new social and interactive ways. The local brand is under assault from outsiders and they are taking the local ad dollars out of state. Its territory that local media should take back at all costs. Who knows your market better? You or some guys from Stanford?

Go get it back and meet your market where they are - online and on the phone.

There's no looking back.

NBC Takes My Advice

From my post below on 4-22-08 "Try Anything and Everything" (and said to anyone that would listen to me for more than 2 years):

"...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)"

So what did WNBC in New York announce yesterday?

A shift to 24/7 creation and distribution of local news content through all sorts of media including the web and out of home platforms. From the NewYork Times:

"NBC’s plan calls for rebuilding Channel 4’s newsroom and melding its content closely with the coming news channel, the existing local Web site, and out-of-home video displayed in locations like gas pumps and back seats of taxicabs. NBC will even take WNBC’s name off its local news Web site, simply calling it NBC New York ."

Brilliant.

Just what I have been espousing for years. NBC Local says they will know if it's working early in 2009 and will expand it to other owned stations in other markets. From where I sit NBC just changed the game and is leading the way by example for other broadcasters. I sincerely hope the strategy works and that being the "Local News Leader" finally means something again.

Stay tuned.

14,400 hours a day????

I just read an article by Greg Sandoval on CNET about Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google and how elusive profits are from YouTube.

Buried in the article parenthetically is this little gem: More than 10 HOURS of video is uploaded to YouTube every MINUTE. That works out to more than 14,400 hours of new video every day! I am still trying to get my head around this statistic. Making money from this plethora of video is apparently Google's number-one goal for this year and they have already started experimenting with different ad delivery solutions - but nothing has clicked yet. Literally or otherwise.

My take-away from this astounding statistic is the overwhelming willingness, even eagerness by the people formerly known as the audience (thanks to Terry Heaton for that phrase) are now participating because they can.

I’ll be the first to acknowledge that most of those 10 hours-per-minute is video you and I will never see – but that’s ultimately not the point. It’s really about the shift in ownership of content from mass media to the people, the leveling of the playing field when it comes to what the public views and appreciates as news and entertainment. It’s an extremely liberating development – but one that undermines the foundations of mass media as we have know it for the better part of 60 years.

This has import for all of us – and changes the way we do the news business irrevocably. And the idealist in me thinks it will all be for the better – it will just be painful living through the transition.

Consumers can be expected to accelerate their participation as the tools to contribute get easier to use, cheaper to acquire and increasingly routine. Technology already exists that allows LIVE feeds from webcams and cellphones and this will only become more pervasive in time. It will change the way news is gathered as radically as the web has changed the way it is distributed.

The great unanswered question is what role traditional media will play in this revolution – and as I’ve written before, there are a lot of attempts to answer that question. I don’t have any clear vision other than firmly believing that quality counts. Real journalism counts. Untethered creation and distribution of news content in the hands of the news consumers is ultimately a good thing.

As one blogger wisely put it more than a year ago – if my daughter skins her knee at school, that’s my top news story of the day. Soon I can fully expect video on-demand of this vitally important breaking news when I want it and where I want it.

Read More

Do you read what others are saying about traditional media? From the sublime to the ridiculous, there are dozens of unique and valuable voices available online to inform, infuriate and inspire.

If you have now committed to try anything and everything to improve your local voice - on-air and online- to expand your brand, your reach and revenue, and wonder where to start, start reading. I have links on this page to just some of the resources you should make it your job to read at least every few days. And there are many more if you just follow the trail each voice provides. These are individual blogs and topic-oriented desitinations that feature numerous voices and expertise. And it's all free.

PaidContent.org and TechCrunch both leave me reeling at the sheer volume of creative entrepeneurs that are creating new applications and tools and destinations online. The number of ventures in alpha, beta or debut is mind boggling - and it points to a reality that should make traditional media very nervous. It makes me nervous. There are people you've never heard of out there doing things that appeal to the audience you're losing. Lots of them. I don't even understand half of it - which just makes me dig deeper. Social media, web 2.0, search, WiMax, widgets, ajax, mashups, semantic web, Twitter...all terms that impact our future in one way or another.

Traditional media should be leading this change, not idly watching it, or worse, not even being aware of it. The big networks have the cash to acquire these start-up companies as they succeed or at least offer a new revenue potential - but local broadcasters seem caught in the headlights. Not to mention how many local broadcasters have outsourced their web presence to third-parties.

It's about web developers, code writers, creative digital media pros, people who don't carry the burden of history on their backs - these are the people we all need to embrace. And ultimately the cultural change they bring is as important as anything tangible they create.

Change, innovate, experiment and forget what you think you know. The enemy of learning is knowing...

At the very least, make an effort to see what's going on all around you - and plug in to the contrarians and visionaries that will shake you out of your complacency and challenge all your assumptions. You may disagree, you may even be offended, but you will be enlightened and part of the future instead of part the past. In the end, no one really has a complete grasp on where this is all headed and how to make money doing it - there are hundreds of companies trying to figure it out and rolling the dice. Broadcasters need to be in the thick of it and are mostly following instead of leading.

Easy to say - harder to do, I know. But at least start by doing some reading.
It couldn't hurt.

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.

180 Degrees

In 1999 NewsProNet spent a fair amount of time and money developing a value-added service called "Know More." The concept was simple - the execution, not so much - subscribers to our video services were just starting to conceptialize the value of their web sites back then and "Know More" was a clever convergence tool. The idea was that at the end of a NewsProNet story the Anchor tag would suggest: "If you'd like to Know More about this story go to our website..."

We built a system that localized the content and served it seamlessly to the station website - locally branded, local ad positions and a custom back-end that allowed the station to activate and localize the content with talent photos, email and custom lead. It was strictly text and still photos - but it was content that went beyond what was in the video story and fostered a very real convergence strategy.

Unfortunately we were about 5 years ahead of our time - while the idea was met with genuine enthusiasm by our clients, and many utilized it, "Know More" eventually wilted from neglect in the newsroom and the lack of any focus by local sales departments. Let's face it, there are still debates raging in TV land about whether the web is a good thing for broadcasters.

In the 8 years since we debuted "Know More" things have changed a bit. It hit me like a bolt last week after I read about Tom Brokaw speaking at MIT and asking the audience a few questions.
He asked how many students read a newspaper regularly - two hands went up. He asked how many watch local TV news - no hands. He asked how many got their news online - every hand went up. Now 18-22 year-olds are not traditional local news viewers anyway - but it still points out that when these students settle down they will be habituated to getting their news online, when and where they want. Not good for local TV.

What occurred to me is that the convergence strategy has shifted 180 degrees - that now the trick is to get website viewers to tune into your local news broadcast. That the "Know More" model could work again in reverse. It assumes that local news consumers choose a local TV website as their source for news - which some do, but most people use Google, Yahoo! CNN, MSNBC and even DIGG to get their news - maybe stations should invest in locally targeted promotion on these sites?

"Tune in tonight at 6pm on NewsChannel 10 to Know More!"

It could work...

RTNDA@NAB

The RTNDA@NAB is next week - the annual convention where radio and television news professionals gather to learn, share stories, commiserate and encourage one another.

While I'm hoping that attendance is high - it would seem from various conversations that I have had around the country that it may not be the case. Another sad commentary on the state of local broadcast news. The RTNDA took a hit in 2001 and now is taking another as budgets in newsrooms continue to be squeezed. It's truly a shame.

Keitha Corbit and I will be there waving the NewsProNet Video flag - we are also co-hosting a party with our good friends at APEX Media and Insite Research on Monday night. Contact me if you are attending the show and would like an invitation. We hope to see you there.