Local broadcasting: Maybe we should have seen it coming
![Good-bye \](http://wordpress.rgdirect.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/amorning2.jpg "Good-bye \")
Recently, London lost its morning show: “A Morning” is no more. In its place is the news from the night before, which is perfect for viewing along with yesterday’s coffee and day-old bread if that’s how you like to start your day.
In a 2007, an article by Grant Robertson was in the Globe and Mail, titled “Will CRTC ignore decline of local TV news?”
I guess the answer is “Yes”.
There’s been a lot of buzz in regards to the future of all kinds of local media – newspapers, TV and radio. Advertising is getting cut and their revenue streams are being squeezed.
Is it like the previous shift of radio to TV, or are we dealing with something far more chaotic with the addition of the economic crisis?
We’re definitely in the middle of change, so what do we do about it? People need marketing more than ever in a bad economy, but the rules are changing rapidly. That means they need help, and that means they need us.
When the dust clears, what will be the new media that we’ll need to know how to access to help our clients? What if local papers, TV and radio are all “minor”? Will we need to master social media? Should we keep an eye on local news aggregators? If there aren’t any well-known ones, should we try to develop our own, and if we do – how soon?
Let me know your thoughts.
Tags: A-Morning, death of A-Morning, economic crisis, local news, local papers, marketing, tv
March 6th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
The direct communication nature of the Internet has empowered ‘ordinary’ people as never before. Social media will continue to become hugely important because it makes interactive communication possible. The days of simply ‘pushing’ content at the public are over. Business, politicians, etc may not have to themselves be masters of the new technology, but they’ll certainly have to have person(s) around them who are. News aggregators are a tool and there’s a use for them, but they don’t provide original content. It may not be delivered by traditional media sources in the future, but it will continue to be very necessary. It’s source simply won’t be so concentrated any more. And that’s a good thing.