The one piece of data that jumped out to me in the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s annual media report (that Steve posted below) is this one: local TV newscast ratings are in steady decline across all timeslots. Early evening newscasts dropped 1.7%, late news is down 6.4% and morning news has declined 5.5% during 2009.
Now, many in the local news business always have a reason for a particular year’s decline, citing some temporary or cyclical reason (Leno!). But with the exception of morning news — which has been flat until this year — newscast ratings have consistently dropped year after year after year. The chart above, pulled from last year’s PEJ report, shows steady declines from 2005 to 2008 among early evening newscasts.
This is not a cyclical decline, but a permanent one, and it may come as a surprise for many who work in local TV newsrooms. Sure, there’s still a very large audience who watches, but these declines are significant, and can’t be ignored.
As I’ve written before on Lost Remote, I believe the downward trend is not just a function of fragmentation and a shift to the web, but also because local TV news has become a commodity. It looks the same, sounds the same, is produced the same… sooner or later, as with any product in just about any business, a lack of innovation and differentiation will result in a decline in consumption. Now, more than ever, is the time to invest in innovation and re-engineer how content is created and distributed on a local level.
And it’s also time for people who work in the trenches in local TV news — where I worked for 15+ years — to push for change. Produce news that your friends and family want to watch, tailored to different screens and different lifestyles, not what your bosses, competitors or consultants say you should make.
