Staying pertinent in trying times . . .
Eric Deggans |
Sept. 29, 2009 8:01 a.m.
At the end of March, sportscaster Dave Reynolds thought he’d done a good job.
Working at NBC affiliate WFLA-Ch. 8 in Tampa, Fla., he’d helped the station cover a breathtaking amount of sports news – from the Tampa Bay Rays’ failed World Series appearance to the latest Super Bowl held in Tampa – all with just one other on-air sports anchor in a newsroom racked by cutbacks and layoffs.
What he couldn’t predict, in a town with major hockey, football, and baseball franchises, was that WFLA would cut back again in sports – including him among 53 people laid off by the station’s parent company, Media General, in Florida that month.
These days, Reynolds is philosophical about it all – noting that he was a victim of a trend that had been building in local broadcast stations for years.
Even now, as he pursues part-time work at area stations and a local 24-hour sports cable news channel, Reynolds sees other local TV sports departments forcing anchors to shoot their own video, declining to replace popular primary sports anchors let out of big contracts, and getting less time in newscasts.
The result: a worsening product, which has an even tougher time attracting viewers.
“They’re trying to have it both ways — asking people to do more with less, but always cutting back,” Reynolds said. “If you’re going to stay in local sports reporting, cable TV is the answer.”
That’s not news to anyone who is paying attention. Way back in 2006, a survey by researchers at Penn State of 216 sports personnel at major market TV stations revealed that 76 percent of these staffers saw their roles diminishing, with 55 percent predicting that someday sports might not be included in local TV newscasts.
There’s also an array of local sports sites established by the Godzilla of sports broadcasting, ESPN – ESPNDallas.com started Monday, joining ESPNChicago.com and ESPNBoston.com, with plans for New York and Los Angeles soon. They may compete against newspapers, but these sites also help soak up the localism that may have made local TV sportscasts more relevant.
Sports has long been a dicey subject for some local TV stations. I recall the news director at one popular Tampa station telling me research showed the audience was basically divided into three portions: people who were sports fanatics, people who were occasionally interested in sports and people who could care less.
So news managers don’t want to completely cut sports reports – especially in sports-heavy towns – because that might alienate too many people. But basic sports reporting doesn’t necessarily draw big audience numbers.
Which means that it’s time for local broadcast TV sports reporting to change.
This may be the equivalent of recommending renovations on a house in the path of a California wildfire. But here are my ideas on a few ways to invigorate, rather than depreciate, local sports TV segments:
* Break news. The toughest suggestion for local TV sports staffs, which often only number a handful of people, is also the most important. In today’s information ecology, the most valuable news sources are the ones that tell you the most impressive news first. So it’s time to put aside chasing the stories everyone is working on to find the stories no one has – with local, local, local angles, of course — and promote them well inside the newscast.
* Get a decent Web site. Too many broadcasters have been too slow to develop reliable sites with enough content depth to keep fans checking in. This, again, is tough for stations lacking in staff, but there are enough Web entrepreneurs and gifted Internet gunslingers out there to help; embeddable video is a must, along with regularly refreshed content, a specific URL for sports reporting and a sports home page that doesn’t take 20 minutes to load.
* Use social media. This shouldn’t be something sports anchors do with their personal Twitter and Facebook pages to help out. The sports web page should have branded Facebook and Twitter accounts for the local station’s sports coverage integrated into the outlet’s Web pages. Getting local sports fans to congregate and comment helps keep an audience engaged and may also help garner enough tips to help with my first recommendation.
* Stop the cheerleading. This is tough in an age where every outlet’s owner has business alliances with sports teams or their owners. But sports fans like to think they’re getting real truths from sportscasters, which means delivering more than superficial critiques of local teams – especially when the outlet’s owner has a business alliance with a team or team owner.
* Aggregate local sports bloggers. If there’s a bunch of local heroes chronicling the ups and downs of the city’s sports teams, get them involved by linking their sites and maybe even bringing them on your sports shows. With luck, they provide new content while gaining the attention of the area’s hardiest sports fans.
* Broaden the definition of sports. I first saw this idea in a great column by Kevin Benz, news director at the 24-hour cable newschannel News 8 Austin in Texas; sports coverage doesn’t always have to center on professional sports teams. When faced with an audience that runs marathons, has kids in school and recreational sports leagues and intersects with sports in many other ways, it seems logical to extend coverage to some of those areas to snare new viewers. The challenge is to craft stories that don’t turn off traditional sports fans while reaching for new eyeballs.
* Cover local sports stories like national ones. Some of the local newspaper sports stories that stick out most in my memory are pieces about high school football recruiting scandals and a high school coach who used an unfortunate, racial epithet on a player during a practice. Finding those stories on a local level takes staff time and connections. But they help provide unique content while telling viewers something about their community ESPN cannot.
With advertising revenues tanking and viewership declining, local stations may find this list of recommendations hopelessly impractical.
But it seems a shame to cede sophisticated sports coverage to national and regional sports networks – especially when record ratings for NFL broadcasts indicate sports TV may be one of the last mass television viewing experiences left.
Working at NBC affiliate WFLA-Ch. 8 in Tampa, Fla., he’d helped the station cover a breathtaking amount of sports news – from the Tampa Bay Rays’ failed World Series appearance to the latest Super Bowl held in Tampa – all with just one other on-air sports anchor in a newsroom racked by cutbacks and layoffs.
What he couldn’t predict, in a town with major hockey, football, and baseball franchises, was that WFLA would cut back again in sports – including him among 53 people laid off by the station’s parent company, Media General, in Florida that month.
These days, Reynolds is philosophical about it all – noting that he was a victim of a trend that had been building in local broadcast stations for years.
Even now, as he pursues part-time work at area stations and a local 24-hour sports cable news channel, Reynolds sees other local TV sports departments forcing anchors to shoot their own video, declining to replace popular primary sports anchors let out of big contracts, and getting less time in newscasts.
The result: a worsening product, which has an even tougher time attracting viewers.
“They’re trying to have it both ways — asking people to do more with less, but always cutting back,” Reynolds said. “If you’re going to stay in local sports reporting, cable TV is the answer.”
That’s not news to anyone who is paying attention. Way back in 2006, a survey by researchers at Penn State of 216 sports personnel at major market TV stations revealed that 76 percent of these staffers saw their roles diminishing, with 55 percent predicting that someday sports might not be included in local TV newscasts.
There’s also an array of local sports sites established by the Godzilla of sports broadcasting, ESPN – ESPNDallas.com started Monday, joining ESPNChicago.com and ESPNBoston.com, with plans for New York and Los Angeles soon. They may compete against newspapers, but these sites also help soak up the localism that may have made local TV sportscasts more relevant.
Sports has long been a dicey subject for some local TV stations. I recall the news director at one popular Tampa station telling me research showed the audience was basically divided into three portions: people who were sports fanatics, people who were occasionally interested in sports and people who could care less.
So news managers don’t want to completely cut sports reports – especially in sports-heavy towns – because that might alienate too many people. But basic sports reporting doesn’t necessarily draw big audience numbers.
Which means that it’s time for local broadcast TV sports reporting to change.
This may be the equivalent of recommending renovations on a house in the path of a California wildfire. But here are my ideas on a few ways to invigorate, rather than depreciate, local sports TV segments:
* Break news. The toughest suggestion for local TV sports staffs, which often only number a handful of people, is also the most important. In today’s information ecology, the most valuable news sources are the ones that tell you the most impressive news first. So it’s time to put aside chasing the stories everyone is working on to find the stories no one has – with local, local, local angles, of course — and promote them well inside the newscast.
* Get a decent Web site. Too many broadcasters have been too slow to develop reliable sites with enough content depth to keep fans checking in. This, again, is tough for stations lacking in staff, but there are enough Web entrepreneurs and gifted Internet gunslingers out there to help; embeddable video is a must, along with regularly refreshed content, a specific URL for sports reporting and a sports home page that doesn’t take 20 minutes to load.
* Use social media. This shouldn’t be something sports anchors do with their personal Twitter and Facebook pages to help out. The sports web page should have branded Facebook and Twitter accounts for the local station’s sports coverage integrated into the outlet’s Web pages. Getting local sports fans to congregate and comment helps keep an audience engaged and may also help garner enough tips to help with my first recommendation.
* Stop the cheerleading. This is tough in an age where every outlet’s owner has business alliances with sports teams or their owners. But sports fans like to think they’re getting real truths from sportscasters, which means delivering more than superficial critiques of local teams – especially when the outlet’s owner has a business alliance with a team or team owner.
* Aggregate local sports bloggers. If there’s a bunch of local heroes chronicling the ups and downs of the city’s sports teams, get them involved by linking their sites and maybe even bringing them on your sports shows. With luck, they provide new content while gaining the attention of the area’s hardiest sports fans.
* Broaden the definition of sports. I first saw this idea in a great column by Kevin Benz, news director at the 24-hour cable newschannel News 8 Austin in Texas; sports coverage doesn’t always have to center on professional sports teams. When faced with an audience that runs marathons, has kids in school and recreational sports leagues and intersects with sports in many other ways, it seems logical to extend coverage to some of those areas to snare new viewers. The challenge is to craft stories that don’t turn off traditional sports fans while reaching for new eyeballs.
* Cover local sports stories like national ones. Some of the local newspaper sports stories that stick out most in my memory are pieces about high school football recruiting scandals and a high school coach who used an unfortunate, racial epithet on a player during a practice. Finding those stories on a local level takes staff time and connections. But they help provide unique content while telling viewers something about their community ESPN cannot.
With advertising revenues tanking and viewership declining, local stations may find this list of recommendations hopelessly impractical.
But it seems a shame to cede sophisticated sports coverage to national and regional sports networks – especially when record ratings for NFL broadcasts indicate sports TV may be one of the last mass television viewing experiences left.
