TV News as we know it will have to die to bring back authenticity in reporting.

"We report, you Decide".....OK, that's crap. "Coverage you can count on"...that's crap. "Live, Local, Late Breaking"...that's crap too. And the biggest offender, "Working for you"...that's really crap.

News is a business, and in a business, decisions are made with a very close eye on profit margins. these profit margins are determined by expenses v/s revenue....no duh!....From advertisers that execute a spending strategy based on a TV shops ratings, which is then determined by the viewer.

So what you would think is that the viewer has ALL the power...and we do....we just choose to do nothing with it. Here's proof. How many local TV viewers will turn OFF the TV, or change the channel... when a car chase evolving a stolen car with a child in it is on....then how many of those same people will openly say "I like watching car chases"....almost none. You see the TV outlets AND the viewers conspire to lower the "threshold of excellence" in TV News reporting and presentation...trust me, if you have ever watched morning news in Tampa...it is disturbing.

TV News has become bloated with it's own sense of self-worth and it hides behind "wheels a.k.a. news cycles" and Dual Doppler Mega 14000, and text alerts, and traffic cams, etc, etc, etc.

Why?

Well, for starters, if you think a report from a TV news outlet was well told, and seemed to make sense and appeal.....take this in mind.....TV news is written for about the 7th grade level of comprehension..that's no joke.

..and this, there IS NO WAY to give you the viewer the complete picture on anything in 1:35 secs...about the average time a story is allowed to run in local news. It's that way for a reason....."pacing".....pacing is important because us, the viewers, get bored, why?... because the stories are not well produced, why?....because each reporter is having to turn more than one story a day to make sure the website, the text messages, the 4:40, 5, 5:30, 6, 10 & 11 newscast have content.

Classic, Quantity v/s Quality battle. Except the real loser is the viewing public at large....and our viewing habits feed that machine, trust me.....we are well studied.

In my view, "Appointment Television is Dead"....it just has not realized it yet. A few years back I wrote on this very subject, and the GM at the time and some others thought it was "scary" and hogwash.....well, TIVO changed all that, the DVR's became common place....then the thing I was waiting for...

..."log in to the Verizon FIOS website and send commands to your DVR to record your favorite shows".......saweet! I can even control it from my iPhone!!!!

What's next? Fairly soon, some very smart people will get together and fihure out how to publish news segment information (news, sports,weather) as a rundown online in a secure environment of all the media outlets in a particular market.

Then you will be able to go in to a secure web page, choose your sports from NBC, your weather from ABC and your news from CBS and your editorials from FOX...then you will send simple commands to your DVR to record these segments and create "your custom news package"...for a fee of course. Local and National news outlets will resist this and be very afraid....and here is why...and finally the point of this post.

In this environment, Journalist standards, quality of story telling, fact checking, relevancy, and authenticity in reporting will drive the product....because there will be no choice. People choose the NY Times over the Wall Street Journal due to their direct experience, a lot more people read multiple news papers....why?....because it's the only way to get a more accurate, better informed cross section of news, sports, weather, editorial. Simply put, when you are paying for it, and you have a choice, your "ties that bind" you to a product are either excellence, or entertainment value. The tolerances for mediocrity becomes very narrow.

Local News will become what it already is....."Info-tainment"

You will start to see the "re-launch" of the true investigative journalist....not reporter or presenter.....but journalists. You will notice that there will be NO 5pm standard newscast,.....you can watch it at 5pm in your home,.....but that became your choice, not the schedule of the news agency that you were a slave to. Revenue for these outlets will be measured in terms of "story memberships" and the feedback on whats good, popular and relevant that day will be instant, no real need for the Neisen Ratings...they are a scam anyway.

You can even use your SlingBox to stream your home news to your phone.

Maybe then the Brand Positioning statement of "We report, you Decide" will truly be that...maybe then, the Edward R Murrow award will be given to someone who truly deserves it.

I'm excited for these new days ahead.

B.