“The business of news is changing in ways that reduce traditional newsroom career opportunities, while opening more options for journalists who are willing and able to do more than simply report for someone else’s venue. I suspect we’ll start seeing some major news brands morph into alliances between scaled-back in-house newsrooms and independent, online-focused news and content operations – including more hyper-local and niche news.”
[E-Media Tidbits/Poynteronline]
Mark Ramsey says (Hear 2.0) his research repeatedly shows that once you get beyond traffic and local sports headlines and weather, "local news" per se is one of the things (radio) listeners – even information listeners – want least.
And that’s fundamentally because information fans tend to be interested in one of two things: What fascinates or entertains them and what impacts them personally. And neither of these things are explicitly "local."
Is this true? Hmm. I’ve lived in Jefferson City for more than 20 years and I don’t know the name of the mayor and have very little interest in what’s going on "locally." Until, of course, something doesn’t work.
I listen to our state news reports on our local affiliate but can’t remember the last time I listened to the "local" newscast. But I’ve always suspected –and hoped– I was the exception.
Former Missourinet (one of the news networks operated by the company I work for) anchor/reporter Laura McNamara left us recently to pursue other interests. That’s often a cliche but not in this instance. Laura is young and wants to travel and do about a hundred things and decided to take some time to figure it all out.
In the meantime, she has hooked up with Chuck and Cindy at AgWired. Chuck’s business has grown to the point he can’t keep up and he’s been on the prowl for people who know what to do with a camera and microphone.
I think we’ll see a lot of MSM reporters migrating into New Media gigs like this.
Amy Gahran (The Right Conversation) offers some useful tips for reporters who are asked or required to blog. The first one is the best one: Don’t use your blog to post stories. Instead, use it to post complementary content around your stories.
Other nuggets from Ms. Gahran:
From Cory Bergman’s (Lost Remote) Guide for TV Newsrooms. He offers 11 tips that apply equally well to radio newsrooms. My favorite was the one on writing headlines:
“The trick is writing headlines that not only compel people to click, but also show up in search results. It should be simple, straightforward and active. It should emphasize a twist or compelling fact in a story, such as “buried alive” or “gasping for air.” It should contain search keywords. And it should attribute when necessary.”