Executive Media
Public Affairs Public Relations
Check our blogs!
What's newDavid Dawson
Guy Johnson
101 West Ohio Street
Suite 720
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
phone : (317) 231-7000
fax : (317) 231-7005
News without the tease, please
Tue, Sep 1 2009 01:48 PM
| newspapers, television, economy
| Permalink
We all know that the newspaper business is going through a metamorphosis from which it will someday emerge in a form we can't predict. For many of us, the pressure for change grew imperceptibly, like the building force that finally breaks a dam.
We should know that the same thing is happening to television news.
In the Indianapolis market, four stations (WTHR, WISH-TV, WRTV and Fox59) produce five or more hours of local news every weekday and a few hours each weekend day. Some present their news shows on other channels as well. While there's a great amount of duplication of effort (everybody has the same scores to report), local news has the twin advantages of being the prime spot for local advertisers and being potentially the least expensive form of local television production.
If you watch the four local news channels, you'll see some response to the present drop in ad revenue: less feature-type reporting, slimmer staffing of major events, and fewer show-length specials. Look more closely and you'll see reuse of weekend stories on Monday and reuse of Friday stories all weekend. Sunday night football highlights are now Monday night football highlights.
Does this belt-tightening mean station news management understands that what killed newspapers as we knew them will change the way they do business, too? There's no evidence of that. Instead, they just seem to be reacting to the advertising problem as a temporary, economy-related phenomenon.
Case in point: the tease. For decades, television stations have used the last minutes of their evening news shows to promote the late-night news. "The world ends today," the parodies say, "Film at eleven." Even today, you'll hear the 11 p.m. anchors tease viewers by saying something like, "Federal officials say you should stop giving your kids a well-known medicine. Details at 11."
They might as well add, "and don't you dare sneak off to that laptop and look it up. You'll ruin the surprise." The surprise will be on them, because anyone who cares these days already knows what local official was arrested or what celebrity showed up at the State Fair. What they don't know from the Internet is information that good reporting provides. Unfortunately, good reporting is expensive.
Whether television news will save itself or fall prey to the same cheap, flashy tactics that buried newspapers is yet to be seen. I'm not betting that the TV folks are smarter than the print folks.
We should know that the same thing is happening to television news.
In the Indianapolis market, four stations (WTHR, WISH-TV, WRTV and Fox59) produce five or more hours of local news every weekday and a few hours each weekend day. Some present their news shows on other channels as well. While there's a great amount of duplication of effort (everybody has the same scores to report), local news has the twin advantages of being the prime spot for local advertisers and being potentially the least expensive form of local television production.
If you watch the four local news channels, you'll see some response to the present drop in ad revenue: less feature-type reporting, slimmer staffing of major events, and fewer show-length specials. Look more closely and you'll see reuse of weekend stories on Monday and reuse of Friday stories all weekend. Sunday night football highlights are now Monday night football highlights.
Does this belt-tightening mean station news management understands that what killed newspapers as we knew them will change the way they do business, too? There's no evidence of that. Instead, they just seem to be reacting to the advertising problem as a temporary, economy-related phenomenon.
Case in point: the tease. For decades, television stations have used the last minutes of their evening news shows to promote the late-night news. "The world ends today," the parodies say, "Film at eleven." Even today, you'll hear the 11 p.m. anchors tease viewers by saying something like, "Federal officials say you should stop giving your kids a well-known medicine. Details at 11."
They might as well add, "and don't you dare sneak off to that laptop and look it up. You'll ruin the surprise." The surprise will be on them, because anyone who cares these days already knows what local official was arrested or what celebrity showed up at the State Fair. What they don't know from the Internet is information that good reporting provides. Unfortunately, good reporting is expensive.
Whether television news will save itself or fall prey to the same cheap, flashy tactics that buried newspapers is yet to be seen. I'm not betting that the TV folks are smarter than the print folks.
Comments
HDTV will revive MLB
Wed, Jun 10 2009 08:22 PM
| television, baseball
| Permalink
As a baseball fan, I contracted MLB attention deficit 25 years ago, when we moved to Indianapolis. I grew up a Washington Senators fan. After they moved away (twice), I moved to New York, where I learned the joy of following a winner in the Yankees.
When we came to Indy, I thought I would latch on to a regional team. One problem was that I'd always been an American Leaguer and the ChiSox made building loyalty tough. I thought the Cubs were for dilettantes. The Reds have been through a rough patch or two.
While I make a good many Indianapolis Indians games, the team's frequent changes in affiliation has made allegiance to the parent club impossible. That's especially true now that I'd have to struggle through the Pirates' box score every day.
Without a real stake in the pennant races, my TV game viewing dwindled to not much more than the playoffs. Those games were always tainted by broadcast network hype: tearjerker stories, blizzards of display technology and endless series of stats intended to be poignant but in general were pointless.
So I just didn't watch much baseball outside Victory Field.
Until HDTV.
With high definition, the rerun season leaves me free to see the constantly comforting beauty that is baseball. The grass looks like grass, not a carpet; the standard pitcher-to-batter frame allows much more detail than football can show and as much as golf – how the pitcher ball grips the ball, how the catcher flashes signals and changes position; how the batters' eyes follow the trajectory. Plays, especially in the infield, are clear and dramatic.
It's not too much distortion to say that the appeal of baseball on TV has been transformed by HD. And at this point, I don't care too much what teams are playing. I want to see the park and the players and fans, live and in person.
When we came to Indy, I thought I would latch on to a regional team. One problem was that I'd always been an American Leaguer and the ChiSox made building loyalty tough. I thought the Cubs were for dilettantes. The Reds have been through a rough patch or two.
While I make a good many Indianapolis Indians games, the team's frequent changes in affiliation has made allegiance to the parent club impossible. That's especially true now that I'd have to struggle through the Pirates' box score every day.
Without a real stake in the pennant races, my TV game viewing dwindled to not much more than the playoffs. Those games were always tainted by broadcast network hype: tearjerker stories, blizzards of display technology and endless series of stats intended to be poignant but in general were pointless.
So I just didn't watch much baseball outside Victory Field.
Until HDTV.
With high definition, the rerun season leaves me free to see the constantly comforting beauty that is baseball. The grass looks like grass, not a carpet; the standard pitcher-to-batter frame allows much more detail than football can show and as much as golf – how the pitcher ball grips the ball, how the catcher flashes signals and changes position; how the batters' eyes follow the trajectory. Plays, especially in the infield, are clear and dramatic.
It's not too much distortion to say that the appeal of baseball on TV has been transformed by HD. And at this point, I don't care too much what teams are playing. I want to see the park and the players and fans, live and in person.