"Long a safe haven due to a reliable stream of retransmission fees and advertising dollars, local TV news stations are now facing a stark message as their industry faces the same financial pressures as the rest of media: adapt or die.
That’s the message in a new report from Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project, which last month released a “survival guide” that urges local stations to prioritize digital-first programming to reach younger audiences that don’t tune into the traditional broadcast. Specifically, the authors urge stations to hire specialists to spearhead newsrooms’ digital strategy and coach their peers on how to bring their reporting to audiences online.
The guide doesn’t forge a silver bullet that will solve the local news crisis, especially in how to replace the decades-long reliance on advertising dollars that is slowly drying up as viewers flock elsewhere for news. But it argues that hiring a digital content producer — a role that the Reinventing Local TV News Project has piloted in three newsrooms, including WCVB-TV (Channel 5) — is a necessary step to avoid being tuned out by younger generations."
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| Franklin TV's visibility issue not unlike that facing local TV news stations |
