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The Future of Television Stations?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by LanceyHoward, Oct 9, 2020.

  1. maumann

    maumann Well-Known Member

    Here's a real world situation from my career.

    Challenger blows up on a cold morning in January 1986. One of the engineers at Morton Thiokol in Utah later reveals NASA knew the O-rings might not function correctly at temperatures below 50 degrees -- and had failed on a previous mission -- and had been warned that morning not to launch. Big news! Great investigative reporting (otherwise known as the whistleblower informed a reporter)!

    We covered the story every day for months. But how much effect did the media really have? Yeah, NASA might have been able to sweep the whole thing under the rug without media spotlight, but that's highly debatable, given:

    -- Seven astronauts were still dead
    -- Congress funds NASA's budget
    -- NASA has to investigate cause of disaster in order to get funding
    -- Tens of thousands of people along the Space Coast still lost their jobs

    Despite our standing as members of the media, we couldn't change any of those outcomes, no matter how many words we wrote or spoke.

    And even then, we lost another seven astronauts on Columbia, because space is inherently dangerous.
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2020
    Donny in his element and wicked like this.
  2. Scout

    Scout Well-Known Member

    You did your job as a journalist.

    Just because other people didn’t do theirs doesn’t mean you don’t do yours.
     
  3. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    This has been a strong discussion of what TV and newspapers are, and what they could/should be.

    In theory, Scout is right that the print media keeps local governing boards, police departments and school districts honest through its coverage of them.

    The reality is cuts to newsroom staffing makes that scenario a pipe dream these days -- if it ever existed.

    The Arizona Republic is a great example of what I'm saying. I've been visiting Phoenix and reading it (as a true newspaper nerd would) for about 30 years, and it's a shell of what it used to be. It's filled with Gannett/USA Today garbage, and lack of advertising has shriveled the size of the paper except on Wednesday and Sunday.

    It's no wonder PC and his TV station never need to look at it anymore.
     
  4. Donny in his element

    Donny in his element Well-Known Member

    News-Press & Gazette has done this in St. Joseph, Mo., where the daily and the NBC and CBS affiliates are all owned by NPG and share a newsroom and website.

    But that’s also the #202 TV market (out of 210!).
     
  5. Donny in his element

    Donny in his element Well-Known Member

    Look how far a once-great City has fallen! Now it’s filled with gun-hating liberal pussies. MSFGA.
     
    maumann likes this.
  6. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    At the TV station I worked at, the Denver Post print edition was delivered to the newsroom daily and in the weekday morning meetings it was referenced of possible stories to go find. Then again, it was not exactly a newsroom that completely embraced social media, only that "it had to be done." Reporters did not exactly get shoes on the streets looking for stories, instead relying on press releases and viewer emails to chase stories. And it was a newsroom, and station, run by a couple of small-town thinking managers who were in way over their heads -- and acted like it.
     
  7. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    No one at your station never, ever peeks at a competitor's website to see if you are missing something? And at least once in a while sees something your station wants to cover?
     
  8. Hermes

    Hermes Well-Known Member

    The problem our newspaper had with our local tv partnership? They wanted our headlines a day ahead.

    “Could you send over your stuff for Thursday?”

    “It’s Tuesday.”

    “Yeah, but what’s on Thursday’s front page?”

    “It hasn’t happened yet.”

    So they’d feature completely generic headlines and the fluffiest of fluffy feature stories.

    “Tomorrow, something vaguely important happened and a poodle that can dance the cha-cha at a nursing home...”
     
  9. wicked

    wicked Well-Known Member

    TV is much better at manufacturing news (which means it’s not news, but I digress) than print.

    Radio borrows more from print than TV does. How many times have you heard the news anchor/talk show host read from one of your stories? They might make a minimal effort to rephrase it. Might.
     
    I Should Coco likes this.
  10. Scout

    Scout Well-Known Member

    What I’m suggesting is a TV station just buy the local paper. Keep the name, 3-4 news reporters
    (School, police, city hall), two sports (high school college) and one entertainment. Keep an editor. So that’s 7-8 employees. At the most, that’s a $700,000 salary hit. Either make the stories they write a subscription or ad the shit out of them.

    City hall reporter gives something to the TV side. They each write their own story, but the old print reporter gets the quotes and TV gets the sound bites.

    TV story always runs first.
     
    Neutral Corner likes this.
  11. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Nope. Certainly not at their websites. There are people in the newsroom who sign up to get push alerts from the other stations on their phones, but I don't know if the paper even does those.

    If I want to see 12 hour old news obscured by three layers of ads, I'll go to the newspaper's website.
     
  12. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Agree with all of this with one caveat -- it wasn't the Republic that was an eternal thorn in Arpaio's side. It was our reporter. The Republic certainly covered it, but they weren't leading on much of it.
     
    Neutral Corner and maumann like this.
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