What's killing the news?

Free to air TV news is in a world of pain as rising costs and declining revenue bring on yet another round of job shedding, hastening the spiralling descent to oblivion. ?

Despite several attempts to reinvent itself with fancy studio sets and virtual reality (VR) effects, the changes have amounted to little more than window dressing. The bigger the network, the fancier the attempts. The grandest example yet is CBS News and the spectacular launch of its 24 hour news streaming service, dripping with wiz bang VR.?

Attempts by the Aussie networks have been a little more modest, but the one thing they all have in common is an obsession with the presentation look and feel, as if this is the key to their salvation and reversal of fortunes.?

But what’s really killing the news? Is it just “the look”? Of course not.?

What’s really killing the industry is the entrenched groupthink that blinds management (and some of the very long term incumbents) and has prevented the deep root and branch analysis that should have completely changed the industry paradigms by now.?

TV news is still churning out crosses and packages that are all about reporter involvement and minimal involvement from the people who are the news.?

The information revolution that followed the first iPhone in 2007 has taught the audience to be suspicious of what they’re told and given them a desire to make up their own mind. So, when TV news lectures them with opinions and patronises them with pathetic puns and habitual closing lines, what does the audience do? They switch off, and they have been in their droves for at least the last 15 years.?

The one Australian network that had a mandate and a budget to innovate, the ABC, has squandered that mandate by simply following the trends set by its commercial rivals. So feeble is Auntie’s resourcing of its TV news today, it’s become a national embarrassment and is now routinely ridiculed by its own program, Media Watch.?

The commercial bulletins meanwhile, keep trotting out the same tired old promos and glib claims about their pretend news supremacy, without even thinking if their content is on the right track. It doesn’t even enter discussion that there might be a fundamental problem with the content. Ask them and you get a blank look.?

There are two key issues; the stories that are covered, and the way they are told.?

The obsession with CCTV and car chases as a source of news is driven primarily by laziness. This constant stream of rubbish is cheap and easy to cover while on the other hand, delving into impactful issues takes time and talent.?

Then there are the fundamental failings of storytelling. The standard 80 second package consists of around 40 seconds of reporter voiceover, a 10 second piece to camera and a meagre 30 seconds of grabs from the people featured. The last 5 to 10 seconds of each package is normally squandered on some feeble attempt at a clever pun. Believe it or not, the groupthink of the TV newsroom still celebrates this stuff.?

The structure of the TV news package is essentially the same model from 50 years ago, a time when TV news really was telling people the events of the day.?

The fact that this is still the model in 2024 is just absurd. Why not slash the reporter involvement and hear a little more from the people who are the news. And please spare us the insulting crap at the end of each story.?

The two fundamentals of growing an audience are; deliver engaging content, and don’t offend or annoy. It may seem obvious to those outside the TV news bubble, but apparently these fundamentals are yet to dawn on news managers.?

If they could just get the story structure right, the networks would suddenly discover they have content which is ideal to repurpose on digital platforms and get greater downstream value. And here’s a thought, if a well constructed package is ready to go an hour before the scheduled news bulletin, why not publish it on the digital platform first? ??

And then there is the pretence by all TV bulletins that they are actually breaking news to us. Much of this so called breaking-news has been swirling around on our devices for much of the day. This just adds to the annoying element.?

No analysis of the woes of TV news would be complete without assessing their advertising messaging which they apparently think will attract audience. Old clichéd lines such as, “no one knows news better”, “the who’s who of news”, “telling you the news you need to know”, and other similar recycled old promo lines just add to the fodder for ridicule.?

Meantime news management and advertisers are convinced that it’s the FTA TV delivery model that is killing the news and they don’t stop for a moment to consider that maybe, just maybe, it’s the content.?

Is there time to save TV news? Possibly, but there’s no doubt it’s thirty seconds to midnight.?

As someone who has worked in news and on the periphery of news for 41 years, I find it terribly sad that those with control of the news production desks across all networks and markets are apparently bereft of ideas to save the business. The networks must engage fresh attitudes and ideas and listen to the people they have driven away from their product.?

The most successful consumer-focused industries listen to those who don’t like their product. Why doesn’t the news?

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