Local TV News' Chilly Forecast
Category: Blog - January 16, 2009
Local TV news programming is seeing its viewership slip away faster than a Ford Focus on a black-iced interstate highway in Minnesota.
Sure, eyeballs are being peeled away to the Internet and other broadcast offerings, but I have another theory: tell us something we don't know. This week Minnesota is seeing record-breaking sub-zero temperatures. This is obviously something to comment on around the office coffee maker, but seriously, this is as predictable as getting bit by a mosquito on a humid summer evening in the North Star state.
Cover up to avoid frostbite? Oh, really? So some guy froze his hand shoveling his sidewalk. This would be news if for some ironic twist of fate he'd been wearing the latest gear from REI and only stepped out for a minute. Nope. This guy was shoveling all morning - without gloves! Dramatic stuff.
Give me something I can use. Challenge me. And don't sound the alarm whenever we get one or two inches of the white stuff November through February (or March, April, maybe May). It happens.
Maybe if we saw headlines that were more compelling to us we'd see less of these headlines. No wonder so many remotes quickly find Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" during the 10 p.m. news slot. Sure, there's a lot of fluffy stuff flying around on that show too - but at least it's more original and insightful than being reminded that it gets cold here in the winter.
Jason Schumann
Account Director
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