Raising the Barr

Local reporters, anchors and news helicopters played an invaluable role in telling the story of Tuesday morning’s shocking disaster in Baltimore, proving once more their value as a signal amid the noise.

This year’s election offers television stations an opportunity to rebuild trust with viewers by super-serving them with substantive coverage of the candidates and a forum for debates.

Emily Barr: Access to local media on streaming platforms is getting more difficult and localism is getting squeezed out of media’s new world order. The FCC and Congress need to act before the damage becomes irreversible.

TV journalists shouldn’t be forced to choose between their passion for storytelling and their need to support themselves and their families. The industry’s leaders need to step up to the challenge of improving their pay.

The newly formed Coalition for Local News wants to convince the FCC that broadcasters must negotiate directly with vMVPDs to ensure their long-term fiscal viability. They’re smartly drawing a direct line between local TV news and democracy’s health to make their case.

E.W. Scripps President-CEO Adam Symson has laid out a bold way forward for local TV news to reengage with substance, backing it with investments and more reporters. Will the market let him stay on that path?

After a long career in television, I’m hoping to do my bit to secure the future of trusted information and civility in media by launching a not-for-profit newspaper company in Maine.

The communal experience of watching the Final Four tournament reminds us of what can bind us, happily, as a culture. Local TV stations can tap into that vein everyday by mining and celebrating what is unique to their communities.

The shooting death of News 13 Orlando reporter Dylan Lyons (left) and wounding of photojournalist Jesse Walden last week is but the latest urgent signal that we are deep in the throes of a public health crisis. Local TV has an obligation to seize the moment and address the problem head on.

A recent conference from the National Press Foundation, Radio Television Digital News Directors Association and Arnold Ventures offered journalistic paths out of conventional — and damaging — TV news crime coverage conventions. All newsrooms would do well to check in with the ideas raised there.

Western New York’s deadly holiday storm gave us yet another example of how local news shares life-saving information better than any other platform, weaving a continuous thread of information and critical perspective.

TVNewsCheck columnists and veteran TV executives Hank Price and Emily Barr began their friendship more than 40 years ago as an industry mentor and mentee. In this joint column they reflect on that relationship, how it shaped their respective careers and how young professionals today can form their own fruitful mentoring relationships.

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.

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.

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.