Survey: Viewers Want Investigative News

With a myriad of outlets providing daily news 24/7, TV stations need to beef up investigative content in their newscasts to nab viewers, a new survey says.

The AR&D/Investigative Reporters and Editors survey, presented at IRE’s annual conference in San Antonio, Texas, over the past weekend, shows that 62% of consumers consider investigative content reason enough to follow particular news outlets, including TV stations.

In addition, 54% of respondents say they have a specific interest in investigative reports, making that category the second largest draw after weather. About one-third of those respondents say their interest in investigative journalism is increasing. (In addition,54% of consumers, the same number interested in investigative news, are equally interested in the economy.)

The survey, which polled 1,000 consumers, showed people are generally more blasé when it comes to choosing a source for their “news of the day,” primarily because it is widely available in real time and does not vary much from one outlet to another, says AR&D President-CEO Jerry Gumbert. So there is little reason for consumers to tune into local newscasts that spend the bulk of the time recapping daily events, he says.

“The bottom line … is if we don’t create a new and valuable proposition in our newscasts, in our newspapers and in our online platforms, then we are not going to grow at the level we need to be successful,” Gumbert says. “Consumers don’t have to watch us to be informed.”

The way Gumbert sees it, the survey shows local broadcasters need to change their newscasts so they more closely resemble news magazine shows than a collection of reports.

He believes investigative reports should fill 60%-70% of the time stations allot for news.

The remaining time needs to change, too, by emphasizing deeper looks at events and issues, so viewers have reason to watch, he says.

That, however, may all be easier said than done.

A related survey of media executives finds that 76% of them say they “strongly believe” that investigative journalism is an important part of their organizations’ future, and 68% feel it should have a bigger role.

But 47% of those executives say they don’t have the support they need to accomplish that.

Financial and staffing limitations, as well as legal and advertising concerns, are among the impediments they face, making the prospect of an overhaul daunting for many broadcasters, Gumbert says.

Gumbert says that’s where much of the challenge is. “TV stations are going to have to recalibrate the resources that they have,” he says.

This wouldn’t be the first time the TV news business redesigned itself.

In each of the last four decades, local TV newscasts taken new tacks — celebrity talent in the 1970s, live news in the ’80s, weather in the ’90s and breaking news since 2000.

Next should be the “investigative and original reporting era,” Gumbert says.