Why The Title Of News Director Should Change

Why The Title Of News Director Should Be Eliminated
((From April)
Three weeks and counting… until the start of the next sweeps period. TV news directors are busy making certain their plans are in place to keep the prime time audience and grow all news time periods.
“What do we need to do to grow our share and demos?”
“How do we make certain we win the big story tonight?”
“Is our plan to win weather ready for hurricane season?”
“Just how much will the prime time lead-in deliver?”
All are fair questions for coverage today. But while news directors are ‘minding the store’ today, technology is ripping off the TV news headquarters. The trouble is that newsroom and station managers have not realized how to stop the theft. Everyone is so focused on how to win tonight’s newscast that they’ve forgotten the bigger picture problems. That bigger picture is not next month or even next year. The bigger picture was last month and last year when increasing number of news consumers realized that there’s no longer a need to make an appointment to watch the 6 or 11 p.m. newscasts. News for consumers today is when, where and how they want to receive it. With that in mind, consider these questions (and my answers).

Is TV news dead?
No. Much like radio evolved after television launched, relevant TV news will always exist. It will simply be a much smaller piece of the media buffet than it has ever been. TV news as we knew it three, five, even 10 years ago has changed. Viewers no longer feel obligated to tune into their favorite channel for the news. It’s easy to say the internet has changed the TV news business. But that statement and concept are very shortsighted. In reality, technology and the consumer demand for instant information have changed the TV news business. The reach extends far beyond the “web”.

What should I know about my viewers today?
The term “viewer” is a relic. The definition paints a picture of someone who actively watches television. The number of people doing that today is far less than a decade ago. Today, news directors and station managers are better served to define their customers as ‘consumers’ of information. Local stations produce valuable local content. The challenge for TV news managers is to solve the problem of greater distribution of that local news content beyond the boundaries of a newscast, web site or mobile device. Distribution of the relevant local content is the future. Viewership is the past. To survive, we must achieve success in both and accept that the decreases in the latter are forever changing the local TV news business.

What do you mean by “distribution”?
I recently had a general manager of a large market station simply reject even a conversation about the future of local news content as “products”. Consider this: TV newsrooms produce hundreds of elements each day compiled for on-air newscasts and web sites. If you pull together hundreds of elements for a single product like newscasts, why not consider each of those elements as a valuable piece of information or a product that a consumer or advertiser might want independently of each other? Traditionally, our news staff efforts are combined for a TV newscast or web site that generates revenue from advertisers. This new ‘product’ approach in local TV news will still offer that larger product. But, it also offers every single element as a potential additional revenue stream. Today’s “news directors” really should be “content directors”. News directors must deliver much more than quality journalism. They must deliver a strong, aggressive and strategic approach to distributing a local station’s content to consumers on all traditional and contemporary platforms.

When did all of this really start?
For five decades TV news has delivered its menu of content as a three course meal at specific times of the day. Viewers either liked the news, weather and sports menu or they often sat passively waiting for the next program. The remote control started a change. But 9/11 signified the biggest change ever in our TV news direction. When the attacks against Americans happened, the world wanted to know every detail as quickly as possible. While it was only a matter of minutes, it seemed an eternity for TV news to refocus coverage with live city cameras of smoke coming from one of the towers. Seconds mattered more than ever in TV news. The demand for information exceeded the speed at which even TV could deliver. More importantly, viewers wanted more than TV news could deliver at any given moment in a simple audio and video stream. In a mad search for more information, “viewers” turned to the web. The attacks changed Americans. It also changed the media forever. Consumer demand information when, how and with as much depth as their want.