The Big challenge of Breaking News

We are drowning in Information, while starving for wisdom.

The BIG IDEA: Developing better "Synthesizers" will be the key differentiator towards creating a valued News Brand.

Imagine the tough job of constantly bombarding 1.2 billion people with Breaking News 24X7, 365 days a year, trying to project a sense of urgency ( mostly unwanted ), focused onto project that insightful wisdom is being shared every second. Welcome to India's Breaking news ( TV News ) Industry. The constant chatter of Anchors on TV, from Debates that mostly leads to shouting, from discussions which eventually leads to image tarnishing, creating so much noise and clutter that the term "to consume News to remain updated" has lost it significance. Under these changing scenario of no loyalty, almost zero appointment viewing and amidst the pressure to bring more News ( even at the cost of creating it ) what are the various challenges the TV News Channel Industry is facing and what will be the ONE Big challenge that will make a significant impact towards creating an ecosystem where in consumer will be benefited creating a valued News Brand. The article tries to decipher where the industry stands in the stage of evolution and will it survive the challenges or will be replaced by another David before it becomes a Goliath.

When E.O.Wilson, the great entomologist and biologist, said these lines in his celebrated article " Consilience: The Utility of Knowledge: in 1998" he predicted that the world will be run by "Synthesizers" those people who are able to put together the right information at the right time, developing the ability to think critically about it, thus being able to make important choices-wisely. And this is exactly what is visible in current News TV Domain in India.

The people who are making measurable progress in TV News Industry are "Synthesizers"- people who are able to find the right information from plethora of information, dig it out before the Prime Time, and then critically think about its implications and make choices. Interestingly in a step further, the very act of making "Choice" between what should not be done becomes more critical than what should be, is differentiating the better among the rest.

For a moment consider the facts the industry we are talking about. There are in total 846 TV Channels in India, out of which reportedly 540+ are News Channels. That's 63% of the total universe. These 540+ channels can be divided in to two specific clusters-

1. Cluster One: Channels with the intent to earn revenue through the Business of News and Survive ( no News channel is thriving as of now ).
2. Cluster Two: Channels with the intent to yearn for more power to fulfill other business agenda: principally through the power of media. ( last priority is to earn revenue through business of News )

The cluster one has around 40-50 odd channels ( including the long tail ) while the rest 500 around fall in cluster two- which we will park for the sake of this article.The challenges faced by the Cluster One is multifold and multidimensional. Foremost is the Hindi News Genre has shown constant shrinkage from 8% just 5 years back to 5.5% today- and English News in India is too small (just 0.65%) to even consider. Second because of this uncontrolled mushrooming of News channels, and spoiled by choices, the consumer doesn't pay enough for subscription for news channels leading to focus on advertising revenue.Thus the thirst of getting ads in the limited advertisement air-time ( government is pushing for 10 min+2 of ad time per 1 hour) leading to fight of Editorial content vs advertising. Amidst such chaos, of getting the 3 R's right (Reach, Revenue and Ratings),the industry in itself seems to have lost direction. But there is one big big challenge many are least bothered to even pay heed on, let alone address is - the black hole of Synthesizers- the dearth of Talent.

The people who synthesize news - the reporters, the analyst, the anchors are coming in quantity but lack quality. The only desire the young brigade has is to be on TV, face the light, become "Famous". They are working hard to be on TV, very hard on how they look, what they eat, what they wear, whom they network with but alarmingly very less on the content itself. Even those who are on-air lack the basic aspect of understanding the News per say. Barring the few experts ( people of the likes of Ravish Kumar, Pranab Roy etc) most rely on creating sensationalism without content. If one tries to find out the top 5 new talents which have come up in last 5 years in the industry, not a single name will mark its presence. And why not, because the act of writing, the very act of taking the pen and putting the thoughts in the blank paper is loosing significance and is no longer cool.

Sir Mark Tully, Former Bureau Chief BBC, in his recent views on Indian Television said

Media is elite and disconnected in India. Whats wrong with media is the whole concept of Breaking News Mania. News means stories which needs to be built and investigated. The concept of Breaking News gives false sense of excitement. If you watch Breaking News on Indian Television, you will frequently see that the reporter or anchor has not properly thought at all what (s)he wants to say.

Try sitting with a bunch of the new age journalists ( I did in my office canteen ) and observe the quality of their discussion. What is the latest tweet by BJP party, do you know Ranbir Kapoor ( an actor from Bollywood) is in twitter will eventually pave way to the number of likes/retweet on a new photo they uploaded on their network. The very act of reading a book and getting lost in its interpretation, discussing and debating on the same with fellow colleagues and peers is no longer in the radar. I asked few more colleagues of mine working in other big channels, to be a part of this young age discussion and the results are horrifyingly the same. Who to follow and who follows me, uploading own pic with a politician ( these new age journos do understand to project serious image thus shying away from releasing photograph with Dino Moria) becomes the daily not to miss task. The majority find no joy in going out of the AC offices let alone chasing and investigating the story.

Of the few who are serious and are making an honest effort towards right direction, are constantly put down and they feel lost due to lack of right guidance. This is mainly because, the industry is filled with people sitting at the top who are not ready ( have no option ) to move thus chocking the very system which brought them here. The so called seasoned Journos have no age of retirement, with almost negligible cross industry movement options, ( unlike a Marketing personal who can move from Marketing TV channels to an E-commerce site ) they love to hold onto their seats till the day management decides to change everyone of them. Also, these old age journos have huge resistance towards new technology advancement. ( what use is twitter/fb/blogs). Along with this they find utmost pleasure in becoming the biggest block towards any junior moving ahead of the race. The challenging problem a worthy new journalist faces is " THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE" leads to " NOW, YOU WILL TEACH ME KID" very easily takes the form of " WHO THE HELL ARE YOU" and " WAIT I WILL TELL YOU" are common words of wisdom.

The Solution: If the Industry has to grow big and do its bit towards developing an aware nation, the masters at the very top has to come down to pick the gems up. With time we will see that the Prime medium will change ( TV will be replaced by Mobile/ tablets ), the focus will get narrowed ( from an hour long News bulletin update to a 2 minute power packed twitter feed ), from Noise to Clarity ( a paragraph to 2 bullet points), but one demand which will continue to face is need for "Synthesizers". The Synthesizers will always be in demand and its the onus of the veterans to groom and grind along with ensuring that the most talented find it worth to join the industry. Unless the industry figures out ways to develop better "Synthesizers" who are Future ready - the value of a News Brand will remain restricted. The best bet of future will rely on riding on the cumulative Brand value of the Synthesizers rather than spending money to advertise the already known Brand.

The writer is currently the Brand Manager for ABP News ( formerly STAR News). A gold medalist from Mudra Institute of Communications( MICA), and an Engineer from National Institute of Technology( NIT), he has 7+ years of experience marketing TV News channels. The views expressed are personal. You can follow him in twitter @theFifthAngle