Over 40% of television station general managers “don’t know” if their property is turning a profit on the web!   That’s the most incredible finding of a just-released RTNDA/Hofstra University study.   At AR&D we have been pushing our clients hard to offer news on multiple platforms - and to make the entire news department responsible for that content.   My client stations are moving smartly forward with multi-platform news.   But apparently nearly half of the TV stations in the country have missed the multi-media train as it roars down the tracks leaving them far behind.

When the study asked about news staff contribution to multi-platform news - only 38% of the news directors said “most of the staff contributes.”  A whopping 48% said they “have a long way to go.”    In fact, nearly 4-out-of-10 news directors said that they were “comfortable that their station was really on top of the new technology.”

When it comes to the exploding world of social media - only 41% of the stations say they integrate social media on their website.  But another 36% have their collective heads in the sand - saying they do not have a station Facebook page or Twitter.

This lack of vision and leadership at half of the television stations in the country offers your station a great opportunity to quickly, and effectively sprint ahead of the competition.  If you are at a loss on how to do it - take a look at our book - “Live, Local, Broken News,” - or give me a call - we’d be happy to help.

Jim

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 6:51 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.