TV sites not getting enough credit
Cory Bergman April 10th, 2007
A comment left yesterday on Lost Remote has me thinking. “For all the hype newspaper sites get they actually don’t do all that well,” Jim wrote. “Many other TV sites do just as well as the big boys and never get recognized for it.” While newspapers still outpace TV sites on average, Jim is right about the increasing number of TV sites that are beating their newspaper competition. As newspapers face a tremendous challenge on Wall Street, they’re aggressively promoting their web ventures. You read about them all over the place. But on the TV side — especially in local TV — we hear very little about the success stories. So as a reminder, if your site has launched something cool (and it’s paying off in traffic and/or revenue), please drop me a note (cory at lostremote.com) and we’ll post it on Lost Remote. I think it’s important that TV sites are recognized for our successes, or we risk being out-hyped by newspaper sites — which are fighting for the same ad dollars.
Adds Don in comments: “I’ve been frustrated with the ‘newspapers are doing video!’ stories floating around lately. So? Many TV sites launched online video in the late 1990s…. TV stations have been doing breaking news for decades – most newspapers have been doing breaking news for months. We’re an innovative industry. It’s time to start acting like it.”
Adds Jason: “Just my $0.02, but I think the hype lies in that be cause of the limited nature of their medium, most people don’t expect that much from newspapers in terms of multiplatform/multiformat services applicable to a variety of digital devices. So when traditional print companies go all-out, it’s big news. Contrast this with TV sites, who many people automatically will assume will be relevant all over the board. It’s less of a shock when TV sites become all-encompassing.”
Adds Safran: “It’s not just that newspapers are ‘doing’ video. They’re going gangbusters with video classifieds. How did that happen? Why aren’t TV sites THE place for video classifieds? Newspapers are outselling local TV in video classifieds 3:1. I’m all for success stories, too - I’d like to hear about TV sites taking back innovation.”
14 Comments Add your own
1. Don Day | April 10th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I’ve been frustrated with the “the newspapers are doing video!” stories floating around lately. So?
Many TV sites launched online video in the late 1990s. TV sites have been on newspaper turf: PLAIN OLD TEXT for at least that long. TV sites knew what multimedia was way before YouTube came around.
Are there some paper sites doing cool things? Sure, but those innovations are sometimes (often) TV-site copycats. People hyperventilate about how newspapers outdraw TV sites in most markets. True, but newspapers often generate more than 30% of traffic from classifieds. Most TV sites generate a zero — or very little — traffic from that type of content. Plus - when you add up the typical market’s NBC, ABC, CBS & Fox affils - they FAR outdraw the total traffic of a newspaper.
I like to remember this: TV stations have been doing breaking news for decades – most newspapers have been doing breaking news for months.
We’re an innovative industry… it’s time to start acting like it.
2. Anony Mouse | April 10th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
And remember if you strip out the stats for page views that go to Career Builder, classifieds, third party sites, etc., newspapers come down to a more equal footing with TV sites.
3. Jason Salas | April 10th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Just my $0.02, but I think the hype lies in that be cause of the limited nature of their medium, most people don’t expect that much from newspapers in terms of multiplatform/multiformat services applicable to a variety of digital devices. So when traditional print companies go all-out, it’s big news.
Contrast this with TV sites, who many people automatically will assume will be relevant all over the board. It’s less of a shock when TV sites become all-encompassing.
4. Steve Safran | April 10th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
It’s not just that newspapers are “doing” video. They’re going gangbusters with video classifieds. How did that happen? Why aren’t TV sites THE place for video classifieds? Newspapers are outselling local TV in video classifieds 3:1. I’m all for success stories, too - I’d like to hear about TV sites taking back innovation.
5. Jim (not the one credited) | April 10th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Props to the Washington Post for offering a video podcast that can be played on the new Apple TV!
Why many stations still probably don’t even know what a podcast is (likely thinking in terms of audio only), tv sites that repackage the stories from their air on their site are destined for failure. How many news stations have the Anna Nicole Smith baby story on their main page? Likely scores of stations. Don Imus must be thankful the baby verdict is in……the heat is off him for a few days…..
6. Tim | April 10th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
It’s time to stop differentiating; maybe we need a new name for “media organizations that disseminate information”.
Who cares if it’s a television station’s site, a newspaper’s site, a magazine’s site, or a site from an outfit that’s always been based on the Internet? If it’s got what people want, it works, if it doesn’t it’s dust.
7. Rex | April 10th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Last time I checked (which was a few years ago), there were only two markets in the top 100 where a tv website was #1. (Which ones? Madison and Raleigh; channel3000.com and wral.com.)
Anyone got more recent stats? I don’t have access to local Nielsen numbers anymore…
8. invitedmedia | April 10th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
“stripping out” items? that’s akin to the gov’t saying when you strip out “the volatile food and energy component there is no inflation”. no one i knows eats or drives a car. and no one i know looks for a job or buys or sells anything either.
i’m surprised the focus is only newspaper/tv and not radio/newspaper/tv.
there s such potential in radio moving to the web. and yet another competitor.
9. Sorenson Squeezer | April 10th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Two TV sites larger than the newspaper sites in their markets: WGAL.com (Lancaster/Harrisburg), KCCI.com (Des Moines).
10. Don | April 10th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Steve says: “They’re going gangbusters with video classifieds. How did that happen? ”
In my market, we’re the only ones doing video classifieds. Between our classified brand (ZIdaho) and news brand (KTVB.COM) we outdraw the newspaper. I’ll say it again: it’s time to innovate… or get left behind.
11. Safran | April 10th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Don: great work, as always. I hope more will follow your lead.
12. Matt Sokoloff | April 10th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
I have to agree with Tim. I don’t think it matters if its a TV station or newspaper. I’m getting ready to graduate in May. Went to Mizzou for broadcast turned to online and now I’m taking my first job at a newspaper.
If we are talking differences (I know I just said we shouldn’t) I would point out that most of the TV jobs I looked at were posting TV stories to the TV website. The newspapers were the ones wanting original video. Granted that’s has a lot to do with the fact that they don’t have any video to begin with.
13. Steve Safran | April 11th, 2007 at 7:40 am
This is an excellent point. The audience doesn’t care about distinctions between a “TV” website and a “newspaper” website. They care about interesting material. We need to keep that in mind. The web is the web. Period.
14. Cory Bergman | April 11th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Right, great point, But just to reclarify for the rest of us who work in TV — when newspapers have the hype, it’s easier for them to capture online advertisers away from us.
Local TV needs to get better at sending out press releases to local business press and industry magazines, tipping blogs like this one, etc., to get their success stories told.
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