For years, I have been pointing out to TV news staffs that they are different than their customers.  News people religiously follow the events happening locally and in the world.  Your customers don't.

Now, some would argue that in this plugged-in world we live in today that more of your customers have to know what's going on.  I mean between the constant drone of the cable news channels, expanded local news times, the Internet, cell phone text updates, radio, newspapers, word of mouth at work etc. - how can anyone not be informed - even if they don't actively pursue news updates?

But chew on this - we recently asked viewers in a Midwest market this question in a telephone study: When you watch a late newscast have you usually gotten local news and information from another source earlier that day OR when you watch is it usually the first source you go to get local news and information?

32% of all viewers said the late newscast was their First Source for local news and information for the entire day!  37% said they already had some knowledge of the local news of the day from another source.  The other third of the viewers didn't watch a late newscast.

So - those stats prove once again that you are not like your viewers.  It also points out the need to serve late news viewers on two levels as you write your stories - you must include enough information for the third of your audience that has no knowledge of the story, and also include updated information for the the third of your audience that already has some knowledge of the local news of the day.

Hey, nobody said it would be easy!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 7:04 am and is filed under Willi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.