Covering gun violence and national politics: Talking topic and tone with Channel 9 Denver’s Marshall Zelinger
There has been a lot of discussion in the journalism community over how we can use engaging graphics and techniques to grow our audience. One thing we can’t leave out, however, is the issue of subject. It’s not...
Membership at a local TV station? Here’s how San Antonio’s KSAT is plotting a potential revenue stream
When it comes to membership models for local media, public media has long set the standard; it’s been doing the pledge-drive-and-tote-bag thing for decades. It’s a hot topic for local newspapers, the largest...
How to experiment with local TV news: It’s really about choosing your own adventure
Choose Your Own Adventure books were a big hit. But what about choose your news? This isn’t quite personalizing algorithms on a news site’s homepage or platforms surfacing different items in your feed. One local TV...
What does a solutions-focused newscast on public TV look like? PBS39 has been at it for nearly a year
This was a serious case of lemons and (potentially) lemonade. After landing $82 million through the extremely fortuitous spectrum auction, Yoni Greenbaum had quite a recipe as chief content officer. PBS39, serving the...
TV is still the most common way for Americans to get local news, but fewer people are watching
Local TV is trusted and is still the preferred method of getting news (thanks mostly to people 50 and up). But viewership for local TV news continues to decline, according to research released by Pew this week. Pew also...
Investigative Network aims to bring more documentary video to local TV (but it’ll need funding first)
The video was explosive. It showed Sandra Bland — the black woman who died by suicide in a Texas jail cell after being pulled over by a state trooper who was later fired — interacting with the trooper. But unlike...
How local TV news stations are playing a major (and enthusiastic) role in spreading the Momo hoax
The growing stream of reporting on and data about fake news, misinformation, partisan content, and news literacy is hard to keep up with. This weekly roundup offers the highlights of what you might have missed. Here are...
How Mississippi Today and WLBT balance data and broadcast needs while co-investigating stories
A grant from the Knight Foundation to experiment with cross-medium collaboration was the spark, piquing the interests of newsroom leaders in Mississippi. The project brings together the young nonprofit news site...
How Your Voice Ohio worked with Youngstown’s WFMJ to highlight solutions in the opioid crisis
Editor’s note: This is one in a series of case studies on collaborations that involve local TV news, still the top source and most trusted type of news for Americans. Only about 7 percent of collaborations in the...
How News 12 is working with ProPublica’s Documenting Hate database to track local hate crimes
ProPublica’s Electionland and Documenting Hate are two clear examples of very specific partnerships that brought in a swath of teammates — including, surprise surprise, local TV journalists. Electionland was its...
How can local TV news fix its young person problem? Maybe it needs to look more like Vox
Would more young people watch local TV news if it looked more like a Vox video and less like, uh, local TV news? It’s worth a try, according to a report released by Shorenstein and Northeastern this week. The authors...
To improve local TV news, ABC’s stations are betting on a Localish brand and community-level hires
Again and again, most Americans say they overwhelmingly trust their local TV news. Their strong local audience connections often translate into big followings on the web and on Facebook. And while TV is facing its own...
How one Pennsylvania station hopes to reinvent local TV news by embedding reporters in communities
Last month, a television station in Pennsylvania launched “Reporter Corps” – an ambitious initiative aimed at reinventing local TV news. PBS39/WLVT, which is based in Bethlehem, Pa., plans to hire a dozen...
Vox’s new Netflix series is really good, but it doesn’t get us any closer to figuring out what news on streaming platforms looks like
Vox’s new series for Netflix debuted this morning, with the simple and deeply on-brand title Explained. (At least they didn’t get comma-happy and go with “, Explained.”) I watched the first episode and bits of...
Flush with spectrum-sale dollars, a Pennsylvania PBS station is doubling down on a different kind of local news
Hailed as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity for local TV stations, the FCC’s spectrum auction last year drove billions of dollars to hundreds of broadcasters across the country. The windfall of cash came from wireless carriers seeking infrastructure for more powerful networks, and now the proceeds are landing in the stations’ bank accounts. So what are the local TV stations doing with a little extra coin? While some are using...
Podcast: Northeastern alumni weigh in on the challenges facing local TV news
There’s no denying that local television news is at a crossroads. Traditional broadcasts face increasing competition from the internet, forcing stations to either adapt or face the possibility of losing their relevance altogether. In search for answers, Northeastern graduate students Shraddha Kakade and Veer Mudambi interviewed three Northeastern alumni who are now working in local television news. All three have been in the business...
Local TV news stations experiment with podcasting
A mystery that’s shaken a small southern Michigan town for more than eight years and has several times found its way into the national news spotlight is being told again under a more innovative and investigative lens. In February, Detroit’s NBC affiliate WDIV (Channel 4), launched Shattered: Black Friday, a Serial-esque podcast that follows the story of the disappearance of Tanner, Alexander, and Andrew Skelton, three brothers from...