Viewers keep complaining that late newscasts are filled with too much repetition.   In fact, repetition is their #1 complaint about all television newscasts.   It is especially important in your late newscasts – a place where viewers want to be updated on all the important news of the day in a manner that does not waste their time.

This repitition issue was driven home to me when I recently tackled the task of watching every newscast, on every station in five medium to large markets.  By the late newscast I could almost tell you verbatim what the anchor was going to say during the lead-in to the story, if not in the body of the story itself.   It seems that cutting and pasting is a new skill for television producers to ply every day.

But repitition from one television newscast to the next is not really the biggest problem these days.  Only about half of all viewers watch both an early evening, and late newscast the same day.   The repitition issue is huge  because most viewers hear about local and national stories on their car radios, from co-workers, by checking the Internet, on their mobile device, by text alerts on their cell phones – the list goes on and on.

So, when they settle down in front of the tube to watch your late newscast  they expect – indeed demand – that you update those stories and give them new information that they did not see on the Internet during lunch.   But you don’t.  They are disappointed every night because there is no real effort to add new information – or to simply write the lead with a “looking ahead” bent to it.  And you wonder why TV news viewership is eroding.

Please don’t give me excuses like – “we have reduced staffing,” or “there is really nothing new on that story.”   Your once loyal viewers don’t want to hear it – they simply want you ro give them the most updated newscast in the market.   Updating is the most important task for your late news producers.

How do you do it?   Assign your anchors to make follow-up calls on important stories of the day.  It is time they stepped up to the plate.  Ask yourself – “what is the most important new thing viewers want to know about this story” – and then answer it in your copy.  

The same is true of the beginning of the newscast.  How do you grab the viewers who are reaching for the “off” button that you have new, fresh and updated information that is worth an investment of their time?   Read your copy – if it does not meet this simple test – re-write it and give it some impact.

It is critical that you ban REPITITION from your newscasts – especially the late newscasts.

Jim

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 12:12 pm 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.