And doing it well. Building a better mousetrap is not the answer. Doing another version of the content the other six stations provide and then waiting for the numbers to improve is not the answer either. I know from attending dozens of focus groups over the years that the viewers are telling us we all look the same, sound the same, ARE the same. I believe there are three things, which can be altered when designing a newscast.
Content is crucial.
Everyone talks about differentiation but few are willing to truly target an audience. Obviously, we need to cover the major stories of the day locally, nationally and all over the world. But beyond that, I believe we need to enterprise stories that are relevant to our audience. Since UPN primetime varies considerably from night to night, we do a different newscast every night. Our discretionary content varies depending on the day.