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change

Warning! News Viewers Take Control

by Terry Segal on July 3, 2009

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in Insight

control
photo by altemark

The shrinking audiences and revenue that buffet local news mirror the wrenching changes being felt in other businesses. The underlying reason is important to note for it has fundamentally changed the way consumers interact with your product.

You are no longer in control. Your customers, your viewers, are.

Before the internet, many businesses operated in and benefited from an era of economic scarcity. This arrangement meant that consumers had limited options for satisfying their needs. They were often restricted to local merchants and product inventories that carried only the most popular choices.

Someone with distinct or unusual demands had a difficult time finding products, if they could be found at all. Business innovation and risk taking was stunted because the prevailing conditions generated satisfactory profits.

Business – especially television – used to control the playing field. Not anymore.

People have now gained control over their viewing behavior. Look at how your business has changed. It’s morphed from viewers having a choice of three to four channels to hundreds. The act of watching video has moved from one device (TV) to many (desktop, notebook, smartphone, iPod, slingbox, etc.)

People now have a choice of when to watch, thanks to TiVo, VOD, Hulu, TV.com, etc. Your website grants them access to news 24/7.

Heavens…news now gets distributed without you as the middleman. The role that Twitter played in the Iranian election protests is a harbinger of things to come. The issue isn’t how big a role that Twitter actually played as it was its unquestioned ability to spread information. That has significant implications for you regarding live, breaking coverage.

The age of economic scarcity has ended. Viewers now have the upper hand in determining how they feed their information appetite.

Access to news has exploded beyond its availability on your channel at 5p, 6p, 10p, or 11p. Mobile alerts, email notification, and web updates keep viewers continuously informed. Your station represents only one ship in a sea of options.

How is your news effort adapting to this new situation? Does your station…

  • have multiple options to alert viewers to breaking news?
  • provide more than warmed over video on its website?
  • recognize that a viewer’s relationship with news has become more participatory?
  • understand that viewers expect more and are less forgiving when you fall short?
  • recognize that your on-air newscast is just one platform in a world where multiple options have become the norm?
  • understand how powerful the concepts of immediacy and convenience have become to news consumers?

Your world has changed. And it’s not going back to the way it was.

Adapt your news strategy and tactics to this change. Ignore it at your own peril.

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Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

by Terry Segal on June 18, 2009

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in Mental Game

Comfort zone
photo by woodleywonderworks

All the change and turmoil around us can make some people feel uncomfortable and powerless. Others relish the upheaval and make it work to their advantage. You either welcome change or run from it.

Which type of person are you?

Change challenges you to get out of your comfort zone. Local television news was a lot more comfortable before cable and the internet came along.

That’s why people dislike change and its expectation that you respond. Change has no respect or tolerance for your comfort zones. Expect them to be reshaped, recreated, or destroyed. You can take part in the exercise willingly or balk at getting thrown into the maelstrom.

Doesn’t matter.

Change, whether it be societal, financial, and / or personal usually gets its way.

People who embrace change recognize the opportunities it provides. The potential gains are often distant at first. You must slog through disappointments or setbacks along the way. The rewards come after you pay your dues – after your commitment and persistence plow through the obstacles.

Every great invention, movement, and discovery occurred because someone got out of their comfort zone. Martin Luther King, Christopher Columbus, Albert Einstein, Galileo, and countless others changed the world by stepping outside their comfort zones.

Step outside yours.

That’s where professional and personal growth happens.

For reporters, take your best five packages and analyze how to do them better. It’s easy to redo the ones that didn’t work. Challenge yourself to improve the ones that got you the accolades. It can be done. Every report following will be that much better.

For news directors, be a true change agent. You’re not expected to blow things up for the sake of it. But, keep your finger on the pulse of a newsroom to prevent complacency from setting in. Examine work flows that have existed over time because they’re expedient. Reward innovative thinking. Understand that the internet compels you to constantly upgrade your news effort.

For station management, recognize and accept that the onslaught of other information and entertainment options requires bold new thinking on the part of everyone at the station. There’s little to gain in defending the status quo.

This myriad of options requires that you convince the audience of your merits as opposed to the days when limited choices put you in a stronger position. Viewers now hold the upper hand, energized by the changing media landscape.

Twitter, Facebook, Hulu, YouTube, and others have redefined how news and information is shared. You must adapt your business model to this landscape rather than expecting those outlets to conform to yours.

It will only happen outside your comfort zone.

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