The good thing about radio is that we can react immediately. We can get information out quicker than ANY media format, even internet.

Just one more item about radio, we ARE faster because all we have to do is crack the mic and talk. Even internet bloggers have to type, load and so on. That’s not the topic of this article though.

Newspaper is a completely outdated form of media, kept alive only by coupons and people who like to catch up on news on the crapper. Sure some are talking their content online, but they are still using old publishing techniques and practices online.

TV spends more on news gathering than anyone, but is still holding on to some very outdated concepts. One of the worst is the old 5 or 6 o’clock “bait and switch.” What they do is they run promos all day telling you about a story, then they give you a little of the story at five, and tell you to tune in at six for more, then a six they give you a little more and tell you tune in for the complete story at ten. Well, that doesn’t work anymore. If they tell me I have to wait, I just bolt over to the internet to get the story. I haven’t seen a ten o’clock newscast in years. There’s just no reason to watch it anymore. This scares the crap out of TV stations because they make tons of money at ten and to a lesser degree at six.

And how do you fix this?  It’s pretty simple, just do the opposite of what newspaper did. When readership started shrinking, the newspaper staffs and size of the actual paper shrunk along with them. They, in essence, downsized with their readers. They are basically cost cutting themselves out of business.  TV on the other hand needs to join the rest of us in working harder to give you more. Giving us three different versions of the same story at five, six and ten isn’t going to work anymore. If TV wants to keep up, they need to beat the bushes and bring us more. Since I’ve started blogging I’ve beat the TV. on a a number of stories-THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN.  I’m one guy in a easy chair blogging, the TV stations have  a couple of anchors, a few reporters and usually more than a few interns. In addition they have any number of news services available to them.  Even CNN is guilty of lazy news gathering, running the same stories over and over.

Long story short (too late right?) TV needs to realize that  fresh content is the new key to keeping viewers around.

Your thoughts? Do you watch TV news anymore? Where do you go when you want to know what is going on?

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