For TV News, Sacred Cows Are A Fatal Impediment To Change

Sean McLaughlin

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the importance of transitioning the local news anchor role to a more field-oriented, working-journalist model. I also suggested moving away from the “hire them from anywhere” approach and focusing more on home-grown talent, people deeply rooted in the communities on which they report the news.

Let me say that the amount of negative reaction over the suggestion of changing the current approach is indicative of the problem we face in this industry: Too many people are convinced what we are doing is right, and all local stations need to take the exact same approach. There is only one way to do local news, and anything that deviates from this archaic formula cannot and will not work. Forgive me for thinking that is ludicrous, particularly at a time when audiences are not exactly flocking to today’s rendition of the 6 p.m. news.

When I’ve talked to newspaper leaders over the years, they described the same kind of debates and cultural challenges in the early 2010s. The old guard won out, as they waited too long to make tough changes that could have extended their viability. Similar cultural issues prevented change in radio newsrooms before it was too late. We need to learn from the mistakes of those who were disrupted before us. Denial is the first step in the path to extinction.

Taking big swings right now is a must. As a growing number of live linear newscasts generate a decimal point before any numbers, there is nothing to suggest that the current state is sacred, or even sustainable, for much longer. This is especially true when upwards of a half dozen stations in many markets do the exact same thing every day, only Sally and Bob anchor at one station, while Helen and John are at the helm of another. If you are a station or newsroom leader and find yourself in the never-ending discussions of “well, we have to keep that” or “there’s no way we could even consider that” or “that failed when one station tried it in the ’90s,” let me suggest you need to challenge yourself to think bigger and push harder. Fixing local news won’t be easy or for the faint of heart.

Let me be clear: There are plenty of high performing or major market stations nowhere near the “let’s blow it up” point. But there are also many that are there. If you’ve been a distant, last-place station in the ratings since the Reagan years, it might be time to conclude that taking the same approach as everyone else hasn’t worked to this point, and it isn’t going to magically become successful in year 30 or 40, either.

As I recall saying to a combative general manager once upon the discussion of changing approach, “Why are you fighting so hard to protect an approach where you’re losing so badly?” Winning stations need to change too, but we’ll save that for another time.

Where do you even start when it comes to making significant change? Let me suggest two places: Identify the one thing you’re best known for and empower the disruptive thinkers in your building (these often aren’t department heads).

Every station has some area of meaningful differentiation in the eyes of the community. Forget the tagline; your brand is how your community thinks and feels about you. Finding that one area of traction and differentiation, then expanding on it and dialing it up significantly, can get things moving. If these conversations start centering on breaking news, weather coverage or an anchor, start over. That is almost never the answer inside low-performing news organizations.

On the change and leadership sides, voices of innovation and disruption exist in every budling. You need to find them. Two personality types tend to dominate conversations about significant product change: The negative, no way, 50-reasons-it-will-fail person and the visionary type who can see beyond the obvious short-term obstacles. There are far more of the first group, and they are very vocal.

Station leadership, assuming they are on board with change, need to identify and give voice to these change agents inside the building. Create a culture where real ideas of innovation are discussed, and the naysayers aren’t always silencing them. If conversations about disrupting the approach to local news aren’t uncomfortable, awkward and tense at times, then the right ideas and culture aren’t in place.

Leaders have a mandate in 2024 to tap into the creativity and passion to identify the places to start the challenging process of disrupting ourselves and innovating how we produce and distribute local news. A lack of this change originating from the ground up is what leads to companies legislating it from the top. Which would you rather do?

Up front, discuss the sacred cows. Every company and every station has them. Here are a few: anchors, sports and weather are a start. And how about this one: Does every product for every station need to be executed live? There are many national news programs that are of the highest quality and are not done live (60 Minutes comes to mind). But for some reason, that’s a sacred cow in discussion of local news.

The sacred cows make changing local news very difficult. Almost immediately, the reasons why change can’t or shouldn’t be done take precedence instead of considering a radical possibility: What if these changes make the products better, differentiate the station and offer a quality alternative to younger local news consumers?

Don’t let sacred cows stifle your efforts to build a news operation that is modernized and more connected than many of the ones operating today.

Once ideas are flowing, action plans, deadlines and accountability are everything. How many times have you found yourself in a meeting where great ideas come up and then nothing ever comes of them? Leadership must step up and turn ideas in action. Plan A might not be perfect, but that’s where modifications and revisions keep innovation moving forward.

Creative and innovative people need to see the fruits of their work. There’s one caution here: Avoid the easy and popular temptation to go back to what you were doing before. Changes won’t be perfect the first go around. Changes and revisions also need to be forward looking, which will continue to make people uncomfortable. These discussions need to be the center of every significant meeting daily inside the station from editorial to station leadership. Anything less will be too little.

Some people may read this and see some elements as radical or extreme. Let me push back. I love local news and value its role in society. We are needed more than ever to perpetuate a healthy and functional democracy. But I see our voice and impact shrinking. I see more challenges recruiting people to the craft of storytelling. I hear more people telling me they rarely or never watch local news. I see our brands becoming less connected and our content less relevant.

I see the data about cord cutting accelerating and more MVPDs finding ways around paying broadcasters for their products. The ad market continues to shift to streaming and other growing platforms. All signs point to a current state that cannot sustain us into the future. This is the time to be realistic about that future, inclusive of new perspectives in discussions about evolving the business model and courageous in developing plans that change the foundation of local news to put it on better financial footing with products that captivate people and change communities for the better.

Veteran local TV news executive Sean McLaughlin most recently was SVP, local news, for the E.W. Scripps Co.