There’s been a lot … written … about plans to debut an anchorless newscast at KIAH-TV in Houston — Tribune’s first foray into an experimental local news style at a low-rated station with nothing to lose.
While I applaud aggressive experimentation in a business that has barely changed in 40 years, the format works too hard to be like the web. “It’s sort of like consuming news and information on the web, except without the interactiveness that is sort of, well, central to consuming news and information on the web,” explains Adrianne Jeffries at ReadWriteWeb.
In many ways, this fascination with a webby format isn’t limited to KIAH. Many local newscasts across the country are trying to be more like the web — fast-paced, short-form and vaguely interactive. But TV news should focus on television’s strengths instead of trying to offset its weaknesses. Nothing compares with TV for impactful, emotional, lean-back storytelling. But how much of that have you seen lately?
Not much, for a variety of reasons, many of which I mapped out a couple years ago in this post. And sadly, nearly all these reasons remain true today.
Related: Nine of ten visitors to local TV station sites are already fans of the station, but only half of any given station’s “fans” visit their website, according to new AR&D research.
