Let’s Make 2010 The ‘Attitude Check’ Year

So it’s goodbye to 2009. Don’t let the decade hit you in the butt.   

OK, that felt good. And it was easy to say. But what’s ahead for the industry and broadcast news in 2010? That’s not so easy. Maybe the long answer is the stuff of a dust-collecting academic thesis somewhere. But we can’t wait. We have to do something now — something new and fresh in 2010 to fix our newsrooms.

Here’s my advice:

• End the name calling and cheap shots.
• Start believing in our newsrooms and local TV news.
• Be a leader.  You need to take some on-air risks now.
• And stop making new media a tacked-on afterthought and fully integrate it into our local operations and newscasts.

One thing that jumps out as you look around for answers is we have to stop the put-downs, pettiness and general malaise that have infected our newsrooms.

Like a lot of others in the business, I sneak a peek at the message boards and gossip sites for my daily fix. And I always come away shaking my head at the pervasive lousy attitude of some staffers. Managers are all “suits.”  “My news director is incompetent.” This producer is “a dope.” That anchor doesn’t have a clue. “TV news is dead; it’s time leave the business.” Ugh! The venom just drips off the screen.

My friend and former boss at Hearst, Fred Young, agrees. “If I could identify one thing that should return to our business in 2010, it is respect.

“We’ve experienced diminishing respect for our peers, our profession and our value to our consumers,” says Fred. “If I could set the agenda, I would advocate a respectful and professional competitive environment — not one that is centered on sarcasm, cynicism and personal attack.”

It’s clearly time for an attitude check in 2010.

There’s no denying it. People are working double shifts with no raises, little reward and, sadly, too often staffers don’t even get a simple “thank you.” But newsrooms are no different than the rest of the world in today’s precarious economy. We’re all trying to get through it.  Be grateful you’ve got a job. Millions out there don’t. You have to hang in there. It will get better.

And it’s time for the new generation of newsroom leaders to step up. If you haven’t noticed, the business is undergoing a radical transformation. You can’t just squawk about the change; you need to show the way.

“A new generation of industry leadership will be forged in the next decade,” Magid’s Steve Ridge tells me. “Those with an aptitude and vision for a true multi-platform business will bubble up naturally as we complete a massive industry shakeout.”

Jerry Gumbert, CEO of AR&D, makes the same point as he looked ahead to 2010. “This is an industry under siege and it needs leaders. Stations must proceed with a complete reorganization of [their] assets from top to bottom and beginning to end.

“The overwhelming majority of stations still operate the same way they did 30 years ago, but with less people, despite unbelievable changes in consumer behavior and interaction with media.”

Consultants like Gumbert and Ridge don’t think TV newsroom get it. According to Gumbert, “most news managers still live with an imitation mentality.”

Don’t believe them?

Turn on tonight’s 6 or 11 o’clock newscast and see if you can find anything new. I’m not talking about gimmicks, new sets or a piece of slick animation, but some new way of presenting information or storytelling — something beyond the rat-a-tat, 1:10 package or some lame voice-overs.

Chances are you’ll be disappointed. Generally, local newsrooms are stuck in that “imitation” mode.

How are you weaving in social media, Twitter and Facebook? How are you drawing in the next generation of viewers? How are you advancing the stories posted hours earlier on the Web?    

This might sound like perverse thinking, but the real danger for 2010 isn’t that the economy will get worse, but that it will get better.

It will be easy to be lulled into a sense of complacency, especially in a newsroom where you’re just trying to stay one step ahead in feeding the daily beast. Any relief in the grind can feel good, but if you don’t innovate you’ll eventually be left behind.

One guy who has an interesting fix on this issue is Bob Papper, the chairman of the Hofstra journalism department whose does research for RTDNA. He has picked up on the lack of experimentation and leadership in the broadcast ranks.

“We simply need to be smarter and better at delivering it,” he says. “That means trying new things, something we’ve seen all too little of. It means recognizing that no one ever downsized themselves on the way to becoming an industry leader. It means not underestimating the audience.

“Sure, [viewers] are more interested in Tiger Woods, Charlie Sheen and Balloon Boy than they’d like to admit, but they also care about meaningful issues and real people and stories, and they know the difference between news and recycled filler.”

Finally, instead of fearing the new media, broadcasters simply have to become a part of it. 

Mike Conway, an assistant professor at Indiana University’s School of Journalism and an expert in broadcast history, says there is much to be learned in that history.

“When television first started to become popular in the late 1940s and 1950s, many newspaper and radio journalists did their best to ignore, fight or belittle the new journalistic format.

“By 1963, television had replaced newspapers as the most importance source for news in this country and still has that position today. So instead of worrying about the Web and the funding model, television journalists should embrace the change because their skills are easily transferable to different formats.”

Moving into future doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice the best of broadcast news. The future is all about the R-word.

“We can’t forget, it is all about staying relevant with our community, says Troy McGuire, VP of news and Fisher Interactive. “It’s the same mission local TV had when it launched decades ago and that won’t change.

“No matter what happens with technology, there will always be a market for good journalism and good storytelling on the local level.  How we reach our viewers is changing, but in reality those are opportunities.”

So seize the opportunities in 2010 and retrofit our attitude about broadcasting and the future. It’s time to bring back Aretha Franklin and some self-R-E-S-P-E-C-T to broadcasting.