I have to respectfully disagree with Drew R about losing the battle. The reason TV news will lose the war will be because they are not “smartening” up news, nor are they willing to invest the time and money into building up the station to be contemporary. I mean, I should say a smarter media company.

In a world of change who will be willing to risk a little for the long term gain?

How would this teaser work in your market? “Who’s the new conductor for the Symphony? We’ll have full Action News team coverage from Philharmonic Hall at 10.”

And Cory, rather than softly saying your TV friends will disown you by speaking certain truths, maybe they should instead listen to them. Being reactionary doesn’t always have to be defensive; perhaps if the broadcast side was courageous enough to accept constructive criticism, learn from it, then take drastic steps to make newscasts tolerable, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

But someone needs to do it first, so all the other stations can try to better it.

And I totally agree about how many TV news sites are overwhelmed with too much crap. Just show me the video. And please make it easy to find.

Sure.

Why stations continue to use such stilted language is beyond me. When will some station be brave enough to be the first to use English instead of “Broadcaster” to tell the news? And when will a station use the internet to help reflect the needs/desires/interests of their community, rather than simply keeping an eye on what the other stations are doing?

People don’t hate news. They hate noise.

Sophisticated news consumers now know they can get their news wherever and however they can find it, from just about whomever.

The customization and personalization of online news content is here. I’ll go to one site to get a national perspective, another to get a local one, and then to a local blog for news of my borough or neighborhood. I can even sort my news by ideology if I wanted to.

Some television stations have the technology, flexibility and cojones to put new stories on BEFORE broadcast, or as soon as they are edited and put into the station’s main video server.
Some stations do streaming video best — they’re the ones who get my vote. The CBS-owned stations such as WCBStv.com are winners in that respect.

Unfortunately many local tv news websites pander to the web audience, but bury their sites in so much crapola that by the time I find the video I want, it’s like gritting my teeth through one, tease-filled newscast.

You know, popups, multiple clicks to find video, no new video until hours after a newscast or none on weekends, that sort of thing. Kind of like WNBC.com, for instance.

The more video on a television news site, the better.
Kudos to those who can not only put up the video, but offer context and analysis on the same site.