This is just a poll — another snapshot of today’s conventional wisdom — but it rings true to me. It reaffirms a point I have made before and believe media-watchers everywhere should keep in mind as they watch big city newspapers founder. Namely, that in very short order, local TV news is going to be worse off than newspapers are right now. And that is bad. Remember these numbers from last month?
Why? Without regurgitating a lot of familiar opinions, TV news slashed value out of its product years ago by reducing staff and has been making its high-profit margins off an extremely dated, formulaic editorial strategy, (mayhem, tragedy, cop and ambulance chasing, a dash of celebrity and superficial “personality”), very little of which means anything to news consumers looking for vital information.
If it weren’t for local TV’s parasitic attachment to newspaper reporting — (the papers report, TV news follows with cameras) — they’d be even less relevant, little more than slick-looking weather graphics and occasionally substantive, well-photographed feature pieces.
The way the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press are going, there’s no reason to believe they will invest and re-invent themselves as the local on-line news product that marries breadth, depth, substantive personality and video. Each may have to go through another change of ownership, or two, with further “right-sizing”, to quote Par Ridder, until their market value has been driven down within the range of responsible local investors. What remains of either, other than their name, is fodder for rank speculation. But I’m thinking, skin and bones.
The point I take from this survey is that the moribund qualities of TV news have become painfully evident. Meanwhile, public demand for a one-stop shopping center for local news, an entity more satisfying and engaging than either newspapers or TV are today, is presenting someone with an opportunity.
How ripe an opportunity profit-wise is a question for another poll.
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