TV Stations Tap Viewers for Story Ideas

Fresh out of story ideas? Slow news week? That’s how it was at WIXT-TV in Syracuse, NY, when then-assistant news director Jim Tortora made a suggestion. Let’s set up a phone line and ask viewers to call us. People snickered but they tried it.

The result: “Your Stories,” a popular franchise on all of the station’s newscasts, featuring stories developed in response to viewers’ calls and e-mails.

The pieces presented under the “Your Stories” banner cover a wide range of topics and are presented in a variety of styles. But all of them have one thing in common: They are of immediate local interest.

Ron Lombard, director of news development for The Ackerly New York Station Group, which owns WIXT, said the local focus is one reason the project has been a success. While he hasn’t seen any measurable ratings growth, the station hasn’t suffered the erosion in viewership that has plagued other stations.

“We’re trying to build consistency and frequency of viewership,” Lombard said. “The more you can tell stories that are relevant to [viewers], the more you can hook them.”

WIXT-TV has a dedicated telephone line for “Your Stories” suggestions that does not send callers to voice mail. Staffers have shifts when they are responsible for answering the line and getting basic information. The station also holds call-in nights at least once a month and solicits viewer ideas on its Web site.

The result: At last check, they had a “dynamic database” of 1,400 story ideas. To manage all that information, the station’s former planning editor has been named “Your Stories” coordinator, responsible for researching stories and determining whether and how to cover them.

“We guarantee that we’ll listen, not that we’ll do all the stories,” Lombard said. But he said at least half of WIXT’s enterprise stories now develop from viewers’ calls.

Other stations are making similar efforts to be more responsive to their viewers. WPBF-TV in West Palm Beach, FL, calls its franchise “Talk to 25.” WJET-TV in Erie, PA, has its own “Your Stories” line and Web link.

KMOL-TV in San Antonio, TX, promotes “You Choose the News,” a project that urges viewers to vote on stories they would like to see covered. The station offers a menu of three or four topics that viewers can vote for by phone or e-mail. The winning story appears on the 10 p.m. newscast the following night.

The response to the feature, which began in February, has been gratifying. The first night, the station received more than 500 calls and e-mails through its Web site. Since then, the station has added a “phone bank” every other week staffed by station reporters, who have found themselves inundated with story ideas from viewers.

The local newspaper called the segment “a ratings ploy,” noting that KMOL-TV is No. 3 at 10 p.m. and “in dire need of a boost.” But news director Mark Pipitone insisted that “You Choose” is not a gimmick and it doesn’t mean that the station has given up editorial control of its newscasts.

“We’ve got to do something to bridge the gap with the viewers,” said Pipitone. Because of “You Choose,” he said, “viewers feel they can relate to us now, better than before.”

The project has challenged the conventional newsroom wisdom about what viewers really want. “We think viewers say one thing and do another,” said Pipitone, noting that surveys often show viewers asking for substance while ratings show they are watching fluff.

KMOL’s viewers tend to choose the more substantive offerings. When offered a choice between stories about the Spurs basketball team, an upcoming stock show and rodeo, or a school district bond proposal, viewers chose the bond issue.

The choices to be offered each week are selected by the executive producer from ideas submitted by people all over the station, as well as story suggestions from viewers. The losing topics often become material for other newscasts, although they may rate just a voice-over rather than a full package.

WCNC-TV in Charlotte, NC, picked up the “You Choose” idea in April after reading about it on the NewsLab Web site at www.newslab.org. “We thought it would encourage interaction with the audience and enterprise from our staff,” said news director Keith Connors.

WCNC does a “You Choose” story every day at 5 p.m.

“It has forced us to choose more issue coverage over daily event coverage and that has added balance to the daily news budget,” Connors said. Does it make a difference to viewers? It seems to. According to Connors, the numbers are growing for the 5 p.m. newscast, despite the fact that ratings for the show before it are dropping.

Imitation, it has been said, is the sincerest form of television, and there certainly has been plenty of it over the years. Sweeps pieces that spread like a virus from market to market are all too familiar. But what’s being copied here is strategy, not content. The stations reaching out to their viewers are finding stories that matter to the communities they serve.

As Lombard put it: “It’s a total home run.”