Local television news is in trouble.

Local television news is in trouble. Like newspapers, they are in danger of losing out on the very markets they are striving to serve. They are driven by a standardized formula, which is fine if the formula you are using is working, and I admit that so far it is working, at least enough that most viewers are unwilling to change. In fact the formula is so popular in the industry that it is hard to tell one channel from the next other than having a different face reading the sound bites too you.

But it is that sameness that is going to be the downfall. The stories are the same. They are reported in the same style. They are usually reported in the same sequence. The national and world stories come from the same feeds. The stories are seldom in depth studies and accuracy is seldom a concern. If you really have an interest in a story, you are forced to pursue other means to get any meaningful detail. So when you factor in the teasers, the advertising breaks and the excess banter, you are luck to get 34 minutes of real content per hour and only half of that will be of value.

I hate the teasers. They are the worst form of journalism to inflect on the viewing public. Teasers before the show and teasers at every break. There are some that give you more information in the teaser than they do in the actual story. There are some that sound very promising but then deliver so little that you feel ripped off. There are teasers that make you stay tuned but two minutes later you can’t even remember what it was you were waiting for. I hate teasers.

If you have ever had to stay home sick and ended up watching the morning news for more than the typical 30 minute stint you will notice that the same stories will appear over and over. You will also find traffic reports that are of no value to anyone but those that like to rubber neck at accidents. If you have a commute that is long enough to need a traffic report then using the one on the TV before you leave probably won’t do you any good any way. I never understood why the traffic reports started well before the morning rush hour did. They now show pictures from roadside cameras that let you know just how ridicules it is to be reporting on traffic that early in the morning.

Then there are the six versions of weather reports per hour, not counting the teasers. The weather reports have got to be the biggest joke out there and yet it seems to be the only thing I want to watch on the news anymore. First let it be known that weather reports are only good for about three days at best. Anything beyond that is just fluff. If I’m lucky, they show a satellite loop that will give me a good enough picture of the weather pattern that I can make my own fairly reliable predictions. I like to watch for the 7 day outlook and then notice the changes to the seventh day as it gets closer throughout the week. It can fluctuate quite a bit. If you want a really good laugh, there are some out there that are giving a 14 day outlook.

The weather reports also tend to match the desired weather, in other words if you need water they will be overly optimistic with their rain or snow forecast, and if you have a holiday coming up they will try to predict good weather for the weekend.

I have to give credit to those that present the news. They are able to make everything seem wonderful or awful as the teletype dictates. They can act surprised at the right time even though they did the same story just an hour ago. They can feign interest in even the most fabricated of stories. And they have figured out how to turn it on and off, day after day after day. That is talent.

So where is the danger to local news? It is the fact that it is no longer local news or news that is well tailored to the local populace. It is becoming more and more homogenized. And that means that it is less and less specialized. With the population growing and the definition of what local is expanding it is not that amazing that there is so much of the local populace that gets left out. It is this alienation that has led many to go elsewhere for their news and information.

This is happening in print, radio, and television. As the media moves farther and farther from the public it serves, the will have less and less relevance to that audience and will in turn they will have a smaller audience. This should open up opportunities for small players to step in and return a sense of community to the community. I still run into this on occasion and on a small scale. Small local print is very refreshing even if it is irrelevant to your world. It is hard to start up a small outfit and to compete with the big boys for advertising revenue and for those that make the attempt I wish them all the best.

When the big boys do it right, they are hard to beat, but when they just churn out the same old thing then there is room for others to make a valid alternative. As each of us is somewhat unique and as there are more and more sources to feed us our daily need for information, there will continue to be a market for individual specialized media. The hard part is turning off the noise and finding the right media for each person. As you define your world the media will follow, and then you will know that one size does not fit all.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.