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A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of being a member of a judging panel for the Alliance for Women in Media’s (AWM) 2023 Gracie Awards. Among the entries we reviewed were news reports from student journalists. Interestingly, while the topics may have been different, the segments looked and felt a lot like those from my local television stations. It seems that emulating what’s always been done is what’s being taught in today’s journalism programs. Or perhaps, the entrants simply submitted what they thought the judges, and by extension their potential new bosses, wanted to see.
Either way, that might not be good news. In fact, former Fox President and COO Peter Chernin recently predicted that legacy television will continue to decline for the next three years. You can see why he says that. Traditional television broadcasting faces continuing challenges. Linear audiences for news and all other content are both getting older and declining in size. At the same time, younger consumers are streaming entertainment and increasingly turning to social media and other digital offerings for news. The majority of these younger consumers are even paying (someone else) for news content.
This presents an opportunity for television groups that are willing to embrace it. Research from the Media Insight Project indicates that a majority of American Gen Z and millennials either pay for or donate to some type of news. Interestingly, the percentages are higher for those identifying as