commentary

With slim benches and interest down, cable news networks seem to be struggling to replace their big on-air personalities.

ATVA’s Mike Chappell: “Television has changed a lot over the past 30 years. Our nation’s TV laws have not. Oct. 5 marked the 30th anniversary of the 1992 Cable Act, and American consumers continue to pay the price for these outdated regulations still on the books.”

The long-serving CBS executive says that while many in the business played a role 30 years ago in creating retransmission consent — long an invaluable revenue stream for TV stations — the contributions of those two CBS executives are often overlooked.

Joe Ferullo: “It’s been a horrifying natural disaster — a storm that only comes along once every 500 years — but Hurricane Ian has also triggered something else: a reminder of what our politics and media used to be before the era of endless polarization. Appreciate this while you can. Chances are it won’t last.”

Adults 55-plus still favor linear television, but streaming is creeping into their viewing habits with AVOD services holding a particular appeal.

The Big Tech behemoths are squeezing local media for content, controlling the algorithms that reach broad digital audiences, limiting or denying monetization and withholding data, which in turn control who can see the stories we are working so hard to tell. The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which enjoys rare bipartisan support in Washington, is how local media need to fight back.

Wayne Friedman: “Could there be another even bigger media merger than the recently completed WarnerMedia and Discovery? How about this wrinkle: Another media company now eyeing the new Warner Bros. Discovery? Some analysts are mulling whether Comcast Corp. might just consider buying that company.”

With so many hours of morning and afternoon TV news, the market is getting close to saturation. Local winners and losers are sure to follow, and soon.

On the evening of Sunday, Sept. 23, 1962, millions of American families finished their dinners, turned on their televisions and were introduced to The Jetsons, a cartoon sitcom produced by the legendary team of Hanna-Barbera. Set in 2062, The Jetsons captured the technological optimism of the time and projected it into a space-age, gadget-fueled vision of the future, inviting its viewers to imagine the dazzling possibilities that the current wave of technological achievement could one day realize. As a template for a technology-driven American future, it was no less than iconic. It was also prophetic.

Two legislative bills that stand to protect newspapers from Big Tech’s power to dominate advertising currently hang in the balance. Here’s a closer look at why they were written, where they stand today, why they’re imperative to the future of the already-shaken newspaper industry — and why the midterm elections may hold the key to newsrooms’ ultimate survival.

Looking ahead to a downturn in 2023, TV stations have more to fret about than a standard-variety recession. Most ad categories are cutting spending; competition from all sides, including streaming, is fiercer than ever; and TV’s lack of reliable measurement is tying a hand behind its back.

TV, in the words of Bob Iger, is really “marching to a great precipice” this time.

James Erwin: “With their razor-thin Senate majority at risk, Democrats want to notch a few last-minute accomplishments before the November midterms. They could mount a last-minute push to confirm the long-stalled nomination of Gigi Sohn to the FCC and try to claim that the current 2-2 partisan split produces gridlock and prevents the agency from doing its job. Such a claim would be utterly disingenuous; the FCC has operated with fewer than five commissioners for more than 25 percent of its existence. Nevertheless, it has had no trouble fulfilling its mission, and any fair examination of the FCC’s record since President Biden’s inauguration would demonstrate that the agency is perfectly capable of doing its job with four commissioners.”

Recent coverage by WTVA Tupelo, Miss., of a man threatening to crash a plane into a local Walmart demonstrated once again why solid news coverage by local stations that display professionalism and calm is so crucial. The decision to not speculate or sensationalize, but stick to the facts, demonstrated why people still trust local television more than any other media.

Broadcast and print news organizations have for the past years found themselves in an employers’ market, able to pay talented young journalists in both small and larger markets low salaries for long hours. But reporters are quickly learning they can make more money and experience less stress in related fields, and many are leaving journalism, or moving to new types of news platforms. How can news-gathering organizations hang on to talent, which these employers need to remain competitive?

Former NAB CEO and U.S. senator Gordon Smith: “The more than 12,000 local radio and television stations in the United States play an essential role in their communities, providing trusted, unbiased local news and other critical information. But billion-dollar tech companies are threatening the future of local journalism that is the very bedrock of our democracy. Without congressional action, your trusted local news may someday be nothing more than misinformation and clickbait.”

Trust is the crucial currency that keeps audiences returning to local TV news, but most newsrooms can do more to build it. Here are some practical steps that will pay off in dividends for newsrooms.

For most of his life, Donald Trump has wielded an immense superpower: the ability to bend and twist reality to meet his needs of the moment. But now it seems he’s losing that magic touch, especially with a group of allies that has been with him since the very beginning — the media.

News directors are the backbone of local broadcasting, wrangling an endless onslaught of crises while managing the most complex department of a TV station. Let’s ensure they have everything they need to shoulder their burdens.

Serial media entrepreneur Jeff Smulyan’s forthcoming memoir, Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down: The Ups, Downs and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur, is a frank account of the moves that went “spectacularly right” and “painfully” wrong in his years navigating the TV and radio businesses.

Before signing off, Margaret Sullivan offers advice to her fellow journalists on how to cover a perilous election.

Much to streamers’ chagrin, OTT has entered a new, consumer-driven phase that will determine the platform’s real winners and losers. Advertising will play a big role in that fate, and local partnerships may make all the difference.

While the war in Ukraine disrupted a number of cyber threat groups and the world was fooled into thinking cyberattacks were declining, cybercriminals have reorganized, are on the rise and show no sign of slowing again. Here’s some very tactical, practical advice and information media executives should consider as they’re forced to ramp up protections against cyber threats.

In recently quarterly earnings, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery revealed markedly different paths for executing on their commercial-free and ad-supported streaming tiers ahead. One of them signals trouble.

On Aug. 12, the day after an armed man tried to breach the FBI field office in Cincinnati, a joint intelligence bulletin warning of violence was issued by the FBI and DHS. While there was no mention, in this bulletin, of concern for journalists, there is still a significant risk for members of the media. Here’s why.

After a decade writing columns puncturing — and praising — the press, the ex–New York Times public editor and departing Post columnist will be teaching at Duke and pursuing book projects, including a fictional series about a laid-off local journalist solving crimes.

Time was, journalists assumed that news consumers demanded “more information, faster and better.” Now, instantaneous communication via passive media — video and television — supplies what indolent consumers demand.

The metaverse is quickly beginning to take shape, and media will play a significant role in using it to engage customers and create new business models. This “Second Life 2.0” offers abundant opportunities for broadcasters to carve out a slice of the metaverse revenue pie. MFM’s Annual Conference featured a plethora of sessions on the metaverse; here’s a cross-section of the array of information shared by scores of experts at the May 2022 event.

Reflections from the Emmy-winning television producer and a co-founder of the advocacy organization People for the American Way.

Investigating a threat to democracy was always going to be important. But this time, it also managed to be buzzworthy.

Joe Ferullo: “Nobody likes journalists. Hardly anyone one trusts them. Their work feels like an unending cascade of plagues, war, floods, and fire. And it’s gotten so bad that more and more people are now avidly avoiding the news completely. But journalism and journalists aren’t the main bad guys. The real problem is not news itself, but the way our society consumes it — and the danger it represents is not just for the news business itself, but for our entire society as it becomes less informed about the critical issues of the day.”

Now commanding 28% of all video viewing time, over-the-top services have exploded in popularity. Borrell Associates found that they Increased from just 13.7% of all locally spent advertising in 2021, with more than a third of local media managers calling OTT their hottest-selling digital product. Find out why OTT is commanding such rapidly growing attention — and an equally growing piece of local advertising spend — and why OTT players like YouTube and TikTok are likely to take an increasing piece of the ad pie.

Regional sports networks are venturing into launching their first OTT channels to tap into the cord-cutting market. It’s an important move, but one that needs to be followed up with wider streaming distribution agreements to reach as broad an audience as possible.

Amanda Ripley: “I have a secret. I kept it hidden for longer than I care to admit. It felt unprofessional, vaguely shameful. It wasn’t who I wanted to be. But here it is: I’ve been actively avoiding the news for years. Then one day a journalist friend confided that she was avoiding the news, too. Then I heard it from another journalist. And another. And that gets to the heart of the problem here: If so many of us feel poisoned by our products, might there be something wrong with them?”

Last month, the Biden administration passed a regrettable milestone: 500 days without seating a fully functional FCC. The president’s nominee to fill the fifth and final FCC commissioner’s spot, longtime public-interest advocate and former FCC adviser Gigi Sohn, has been in limbo awaiting Senate confirmation — leaving the agency without the vote it needs to break partisan deadlocks. The power to return the FCC to full strength rests with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, but so far he’s refused to use it.

Back in the 1960s, WLBT in Jackson, Miss., had its license revoked after it actively promoted segregation, encouraged viewers to defy the government, break the law and mistreat their fellow human beings. Today, WLBT is an example of how to do race relations right, reflecting the needs, interests and employee makeup of a largely African American community. Its current owner, Gray Television, has just created the Gray Media Training Center to develop fully trained, highly qualified minority graduates for Gray’s stations in 113 markets.