Civic Journalism: Building Ratings, Revenue

The decline in TV news viewing in Tucson is typical of the nation. The number of households watching early evening news on the three commercial stations dropped 21% in the last year alone. Late-news viewership is down 24% over the same 12 months.

This is bad news for “full-service” television stations that have relied on local newscasts for anywhere between a third to a half of gross advertising revenues. Clearly, something is terribly wrong with our relationship with viewers.

Forrest Carr News Director KGUN9

What do you do with any relationship worth saving when it falls into disrepair? You open a dialogue.

Three years ago, KGUN9 News was going nowhere, teetering between a poor second to third in the ratings. Forrest Carr, hired as news director in September, 1997, brought a new philosophy of news coverage to KGUN9, a form of civic journalism we call “9 On Your Side.”

The results have been encouraging. Consider that KGUN9:

• Narrowed dramatically its ratings gap with the long-time market news leader.

• Now ranks Number One for a 6 p.m. newscast added only a year ago.

• Registered huge gains in station preference in five of six major content elements in recent audience research.

• Was declared “the highest quality late local newscast in Tucson,” in 1999 by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The only change we have made during the past three years is “9 On Your Side,” which involves several elements designed to connect viewers with our newsroom and television station. The goal is to re-open the dialogue with viewers and, just as important, be responsive. The anchors and the set are the same.

What are some of the things we did?

We created a full-time viewer ombudsman, launched a viewer feedback segment and solicited public input for a statement of principles. Anchors and station management meet twice a month with community organizations. The people tell us of their concerns and what they are doing in their neighborhoods to solve problems. We get great story ideas, uplifting stories that often serve as an inspiration to others.

Viewers have told us they are concerned about crime but equally concerned about the relentless onslaught of negative news stories and the nightly “parade” of body bags they see on local TV news. They told us that they wanted privacy rights respected. The people wanted to hear about solutions, not just problems. They demanded more investigations and wanted us to ask tougher questions to public officials. We carefully weighed this input, combined it with our own notions of journalistic duty, and wrote the KGUN9 Viewer’s Bill of Rights.

That Bill of Rights is a promise to make the news consumer part of the process. We are saying: here is what KGUN9 stands for, tell us how we are doing, we will talk things out and we have a viewer representative to work things out. Viewers are quick to point out the times we fail, and we own up to it.

Good Stories

Once a week, our viewer rep, news director, and co-anchors collaborate on a script dealing with viewer feedback. More importantly, our viewers shower us with story ideas. We do many of them, and, because the ideas came from viewers, the stories are often exclusives.

This coverage is changing our newsroom culture. We have re-discovered beats. We are back at city hall and the courthouse, asking tough questions.

For example, when the Tucson City Council voted to shut down half of a desert community’s water wells because of pending EPA regulations on radon, we dug deeper. This was a huge story, covered by our competitors in the traditional “he says/she says” fashion that left viewers to sort out conflicting statements and figure out the facts for themselves. Our Bill of Rights promises solution-oriented journalism and tough questions. Our reporters drew up a list of questions and we read them to our viewers. We proceeded to get the answers. As our reporters dug, they discovered that the radon threat was not that severe nor was the EPA asking for any wells to be shut down. As the result of our stories, the city council reversed its decision.

Tucson is a highly competitive television market, but there is also room for collaboration, especially on a critical community issue. Following the Easter weekend drive-by shooting deaths of three young people, we joined with other Tucson broadcasters and the two daily newspapers to produce and televise a town hall meeting on youth violence and family issues. The Father’s Day meeting was attended by nearly 400 people and carried live by eight stations.

Prior to the meeting, KGUN9 also aired a special series on family issues, that focused on single mothers, latchkey kids, gangs and strong families. We have followed up the town meeting with stories about what communities are doing to provide activities for young people, where parents can go to learn parenting skills, what are some of the accomplishments of exemplary teens.

There are many signs that our approach is working. While everything we have done has not increased viewership, it has significantly improved our position in the Tucson market. Our ratings have remained steady since May, 1997 (the book before our changes), while our competitors are hemorrhaging. Measured by viewing households, one station is down 33% at 5 p.m. and 28% at 10 p.m. Another is down 23% at 5 p.m. and 26% at 10 p.m. We are up 14% at 5 p.m. and flat at 10 p.m. Our 6 p.m., which debuted in September, 1999 became Number One in July.

As a result, our revenue growth is significantly higher than our market’s growth rate. So, for us, civic journalism is not only a responsible and responsive way to serve our community, it has turned out to be good business, too.