This post was originally published on this site
It was a scene that I had watched play out a dozen times last year marked by panicked expressions, frustration and even a couple of tears. All of it was in response to a simple question: What is your local newsroom prepared to stop doing?
I was surprised how invariably this was the point where progress in meetings about evolving the local news brand and product ground to a halt. There is a strange hoarding mentality in many TV stations; they can only add to the list of things they do, while nothing ever drops off. This has become a burden that is increasingly difficult to bear.
We are well past the collision point at the intersection of quality, volume and resources. Something has to give, as many local stations have bitten off far more than they are able to chew. They produce way too many newscasts, have too many commitments, deploy content on too many platforms and have too few people to do it all consistently. Factor in the shrinking years of experience in most newsrooms and you have a recipe for mediocrity, which is ground zero of local news’ and promotions’ challenge today.
In this particular conversation I was having with a TV station about how to reinvent their news brand and better align their products to a company-wide content strategy, we identified a solid 10-12 action items, many new things to do on a permanent basis.