"The Report Of My Death Was An Exaggeration"

I'll start with apologies for going nearly a week without a new blog post. I'd gotten into a little rhythm of posting every other day and I had planned to post something Wednesday evening about the Richardson murder case in Jacksonville.

But then I found out around 7p on Wednesday that I'd been called out of the bullpen to anchor our morning and noon newscasts on Thursday and Friday. That's an undertaking and privilege I thoroughly enjoy ... but also something that requires me to wake up around 2a on days I'm on the desk. That's a substantial change from my normal schedule, so needless to say my blogging rhythm (and every other part of my daily schedule) got thrown for a loop. Thankfully, everything is pretty much back to normal now.

I'm sure the title of this blog caught your attention and keen literature fans may recognize that as a Mark Twain quote. I believe he penned it back in 1897 when there were rumors he'd died. You might surmise from the fact he wrote that sentence that he wasn't actually dead.

I thought it'd be a fitting title because I want to address my thoughts on the future of local TV news. If you believe everything you read online or in trade magazines, local TV news will be the next dinosaur to go extinct (well, just after newspapers). True, times are extraordinarily tough. Companies that own TV stations (including Media General, which owns my station) have cut thousands of jobs and tightened operating budgets to where some stations barely have the resources to put newscasts on the air.

Like any number of industries, those of us in local TV news are having to do significantly more with significantly less.

It's easy to write off the craft, as the quality of TV journalism has been diluted by more news outlets and weakened because most reporters and producers are having to cover more stories in less detail just to be able to fill a show. Some TV stations have cut weekend, morning or noon newscasts. Worse still, some TV stations have folded entirely.

But I think those who have condemned local TV news to a slow (or maybe quick) and agonizing death will eventually come to realize that the demise of the industry has been greatly exaggerated.

Soon enough, the economy will bounce back, advertisers will return and newsroom budgets will make a modest recovery. Don't get me wrong, the industry (and the budgets) will never be the same. I won't go into detail about how it will change (more one-man-bands, for instance), but people will always have an appetite for knowing about what's going on in their community and the world around them.

The need for local news will always be there -- that's for sure. The objective now should be spending less time and money on consultants pondering how to jazz up nightly newscasts and making more of an intense effort at understanding how consumers want to consume the news.

There's no need to abandon the typical newscast format -- though it does need an overhaul. I believe local TV news execs need to place vigorous and unwavering focus on meeting consumers "where they are" ... i.e. making it possible for people to watch fresh, current local news coverage (both live streams and pre-produced) on their cell phones and iPods or on the bus, in the car or on the train.

We live in an on-demand world and what's happening NOW is what's most relevant. Local TV news stations must figure out how to communicate what's happening NOW to people using every available platform. And we must be sure the quality of our reporting improves so that the value of our product and service is unmistakable.

Do I know how to make that happen and -- most importantly -- make it profitable? Not at all. But someone will figure it out sooner rather than later.

And then, thankfully, all of us in local TV news will be able to look back on a time when the reports of the death of our craft were nothing but exaggerations.