Ratings Game
Score 1: The Philadelphia Eagles may have beaten the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night, Oct. 2, but a town meeting on Charlotte’s ABC affiliate, WSOC-TV, beat them both. Who says television ratings suffer when a station airs public journalism programs in prime time? Mike Kronley bet otherwise. The WSOC news director scheduled the third Carolina […]
Ratings: A Runaway Winner
By Tom Bier News Director, WISC-TV (CBS) Madison, Wis. The topic – land use – may have sounded a bit flat. But, “We the People, The Search for Common Ground,” a civic journalism initiative by “We the People, Wisconsin” media partners was a runaway winner in its July time slot for both WISC-TV and […]
When Citizens Asked the Questions, Viewers Tuned In
A healthy share of viewers tuned in to televised political forums last fall where real people asked real questions about real problems. Here are three examples of how substituting citizen panels for reporters at these candidate forums brought big ratings boosts for the television sponsors. In Boston . . . Disappointed with viewership of five […]
Impact Civic Journalism
Wisconsin: Beating the World Series . . . Good civic journalism can compete with major-league sports, sit-coms and movies. The first program in the “We the People/Wisconsin’s” sesquicentennial series, “Family,” aired from 7 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21 — the same time as Game 3 of the World Series. “Family” aired live on […]
KRON Gambles on Race Series in Sweeps
By Pat Ford Had KRON-TV gone crazy? Not only was the San Francisco station launching a lengthy, weighty series about the serious subject of race relations in the Bay Area, it was doing it during sweeps month. The time of year has become notorious for sending local TV newsrooms reaching for the sensational. But KRON news director […]
Austin Draws Broadcast Journalists
Dan Rosenheim Marla Crockett Fifty broadcast journalists from New Hampshire to California and a dozen Texas markets met in Austin June 5-7 for the first all-electronic workshop on civic journalism. The weekend presentation of the Pew Center and the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation featured news directors and producers showcasing good examples of civic […]
Lessons Learned: Sailing Uncharted Free-Time Waters
By Andy Moore Senior Producer Wisconsin Public Television Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold was running a little behind the day he stopped into our station to record some free time. He rushed in, armed with a computer disk containing six, one-minute commentaries we had invited him to write. It was part of an experiment last […]
Civic Journalism: Building Ratings, Revenue
By Ray Depa General Manager KGUN9, Tucson 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 […]
TV Stations Try New Political Coverage
By Walter Dean Associate Director Pew Center Television stations across the country are experimenting with new ways to cover politics with help from Best Practices 2000’s workshops and online resource guide. The yearlong BP2K project has been directed by Wisconsin Public Television in partnership with the Pew Center and RTNDF. At four national workshops, participants […]
Making the Most of Morning News Meetings
By Dave Kurpius Assistant Professor Louisiana State University What’s the most critical news department ritual for a television station? It’s the morning editorial meeting, the place to assess and discuss coverage as well as to assign it. In my years of studying top television news operations, I’ve sat in enough morning meetings to know when […]